Well, well after a good fee weeks in the NT outback we arrived at Mataranka! Home of the never never land. After reading wikicamps comments, Little Roper Stockcamp was our camp of choice in Mataranka! We stayed a total of 3 nights and loved it! Des was the nicest host and there was a great atmosphere at the stock camp! Animals galore to interact with, hot showers, communal fire pit and every morning for a silver coin donation Des put on a pot of billy tea and made fresh Johnny cakes! Yummo.
We checked out Bitter springs first, for a dip! It was pure paradise. The stunning clear water and fauna and flora around the springs were breathtaking. We then headed to the Mataranka hot springs and was rather disappointed...
Firstly as you walk to the springs it stank of bat poo - from the bats in the surrounding trees. The springs itself felt very commercialised and did not feel natural, it felt more like a pool. Concreted walls around the whole spring and for us, it was smaller than what we had imagined. We both walked away rather disappointed of Mataranka springs overall. Hands down prefer Bitter springs any day. We actually spent the whole following day, back at bitter as it was nice and the weather was hot!
On one of our nights in Mataranka, we managed to go and see the famous whip cracker - Nathan Griggs perform his show! Definitely worth the effort to see. Great down to earth bloke and a real talent on the whip. We checked out a few more sites around Mataranka before calling in grabbing a famous Mataranka meat pie before hitting the road! Best meat pie we have had on the road so far! We had decided it was already too hot to head to Darwin and we wouldn't have enough time to explore the top end before the next wet season kicked off, so we made the decision to head south! Next stop being the WW2 Gorrie Airstrip! Kurt had a go on the runway with the Nav but couldn't take off.
Had a look around and set up camp for the night on the airstrip! How many people can say they have camped on an airstrip? It was great star gazing that night, up into the Milky Way. Next day we packed up and continued the trek south. We spent the morning checking out another WW2 hospital campsite before calling into the Pink Panther / Larrimah Pub for lunch!
What a great surprise this pub turned out to be! Lots of fun and quirky things around the place and we found out they even have a small zoo! Like what!? They had birds, wallabies & a totally blind croc to name a few. The food from 'wing-nut', the barmen was also delicious! After our meal, we popped across the road to the local museum for a look around before heading back on the road.
Next stop Daly Waters! Again, this pub had been on our radar for a very long time and we couldn't wait to check it out! It’s covered in traveller’s mementos and a really cool pub! The staff were all super friendly and we camped next door which was great! We treated ourselves to the famous beef and barra for dinner while watching the live entertainment and having a yarn with new friends. The following day, we decided to leave one of our road trip hats there as our contribution. We wrote on it, signed it and hung it up - pride of place out the back in the alfresco area. (See pictures) Keep an eye out for it, if you’re ever passing on through!
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