We Of The Never Never

Saturday 1st August 2009
We spent another day at Mataranka so we could explore the other thermal pool.
Ron and went for an early morning walk to Bitter Springs where steam was rising from the warm water into the chilly morning air. At this time of the morning we were on our own and these tropical pools looked magnificent with the sun rising slowly through the forest of large palm trees. By the time we came back to the caravan we had earned our breakfast.
Our first trip for the day was to "Mataranka Homestead", not the real one but the one that was constructed for the movie "We Of The Never Never". The story is about Jeanie Gunn who was the first white woman to settle in this aera in 1902. Her novel, which is an autobiography of her experience at Elsey Station, was translated into German in 1927 and was turned into a movie in the 80's. It was quite interesting to go to the site of the real homestead (Elsey Homestead), not far away from the movie set, and read a bit about history of this isolated place of culture and civilization our here in the "Never Never". The movie is screened daily at noon in the Bar which is loacted where the old Elsey Homestead once stood.
The Mataranka Thermal Pools are only a few hundered meters from the Elsey Homestead site and the swimmng part is niceley constructed with easy access. Water temperature was 34°C and we spent a couple of hours in the pool and around the little waterfall just below the pool. The pool is a meeting place where campers and caravaners exchange their travel experiences and socialize for many hours whilst enjoying the warm water. The only reason why we left the warm water was that the worms were starting to bite and we brought no food. We had lunch back at the caravan before heading back out to another part of Elsey National Park. This time it was the Roper River where we checked out another camp ground which was nearly empty - it appears people don't like camp grounds without power.
A short distance further away was a little area called Mulurark where we found a nice beach on the Roper River where we spent a bit of time casting our lures in search for the famous Barramundi but with the temperatures being so cold (29°C max, 10°C min) the Barra were in hiding somewhere deep down and not even our lures could coax them out of their hiding spots.
After a some time at the Roper we went back into Mataranka to get fuel from one of the three outlets. Diesel prices vary greatly between them, ranging from $1.43 to $1.58 all within a hundred yards of each other.
Back at the caravan I packed away our fishing rods as we are now heading into the red centre where water is hard to come by and fishing is something people only talk about.
Tomorrow we will head further South and probably spend the night at Banka Banka station but I think we'll be out of phone range so I can't update our travel blog.