Day 21 Mataranka, NT

After a leisurely morning of yoga for me and a swim for Philip we made our way to Mataranka Springs.  It is around 10km from where we are staying but this spring is still forms part of the Elsey National Park and also flows into the Rover River.

Mataranka Springs are open to the public but also form part of the Mataranka Homestead Tourist Resort.  We had to walk past the complex to get to the springs and it is a lovely set-up with open air restaurant/bar and they also have nightly entertainment.  It is a lot more "touristy" than where we are staying but if you are looking for more to do this is the place.

The walk to the springs is a short walk across well defined walkways floating above what we presume would be flood plains in the wet.  Once again we are awed by the massive fan palms that soar high above us.  We arrive at the springs and the hoards of people!  Admittedly it is Anzac Day and a public holiday so there was always going to be more people here.  This waterhole is man-made with lots of cement seating running around the perimeter of the lagoon.  The first thing Philip noticed that there was not a spring "smell" like there is at Bitter Springs.  Bitter Springs are much more natural with algae along the edges of the waterhole.  

(This is where the spring bubbles up to the surface).

We made our way into the water.  There are three points to enter and we went to the furtherest.  As we swam to the closest ledge I noticed a gentleman with a GoPro.  I'm interested in buying one so I struck up a conversation with him and his wife.  They were a lovely couple (farmers from Blackbutt) and we shared a lot of information about our upcoming journeys.  They are also heading to Darwin but they are heading to Kakadu first whereas we are going to Lichfield.  Hopefully we will catch up with them again.  We ran into another family that were parked beside us at Daly Waters so it is not uncommon to see the same people over and over.

We stayed a couple of hours before returning to our campsite for a late lunch of "Chop, Chop" Salad and chocolate brownie.  We watched a little Netflix this afternoon before a last swim at Bitter Springs.  I think I prefer Bitter Springs over Mataranka Springs.  It is so much more interesting.  We once again took our snorkel and mask and looked for turtles.  Philip saw one but I completely missed it.

Just a little bit of information about Mataranka.  When I moved to Julia Creek one of the first books I read was "We of the Never Never", an autobiography by Jeanie Gunn.  It was about her life on Elsey Station at Mataranka in the early 1900's. She was one of the first white women to live here and was referred to as the "Little Missus".  I loved that book so much.  It feels a little surreal that I am now at Elsey National Park just a few kilometres from where the Elsey Homestead used to be.  I wonder what Jeanie Gunn would think of Elsey more than a century later.....