Hot Springs

Wednesday 15th July 2009
Douglas Daily Tourist Park is nice place with basic facilities about 100km from Adelaide River. They even have fuel bowsers at the park but at $1.90/lt I'll wait until we get to Adelaide River. Next to us was a Family with 3 kids on holidays from Darwin, it didn't take long before our kids made friends with them and had a good time playing together.
Our days activity was to check out the local are and in particular the Douglas Hot Spring which are only a short drive from the park. The scenery at the springs is quite spectacular with the river flowing through sandy ground and palm trees along side. The river emerges from the ground in hot springs, the water flowing along just after the springs is actually too hot to touch, 60°C they reckon. There are a series of springs popping up with a distance between them. As the water flows along it cools down and then another spring mixes in with it. The areas where cold and hot water flow together are ideal to relax in the water (picture 1) as one can find a nice spot with just the right temperature around 30°C.
It's just like having a cold and hot water tap and adjusting the temperature. Once I had explored a bit of the river I settled into such a near perfect place and started to chat with the other people around me. After 4-5 hrs in the warm water the worms started to bite and I had to drag the kids away from the warm water and sand to go back to the caravan for a late lunch. The afternoon was spent with a bit of fishing in the Douglas River right next to the camp area. By the time the sun went down we had hooked a couple of Sooty Grunters (locally called Black Bream) and two turtles but nothing worth keeping.
Back at the camp our neighbours had already lit our communal campfire and the kids were playing with their new friends. We cooked our tea (Mackerel) on the fire and had Bread and Butter Pudding (cooked in Ron's camp oven) for desert. We didn't got to bed until pretty late as we sat around the fire and talked to our neighbours (who originate from Melbourne) about life in Darwin.