Mataranka
7th - 9th April, 2010

Day 112 - 114

So now we are on our way up to Darwin. We woke to sounds of silence and the sweet smell of tropical sweat in Elsey National Park. The stars lit up the sky each night and the weather is starting to really heat up now we are past the Tropic of Capricorn. Mataranka is also known as "The Never Never" after the famous book "We of the Never Never" by Jeannie Gunn. We visited the graves of the book characters, quite eerie, lucky it was daytime. The homestead they built for the movie still stands. Mataranka has two thermal springs that we really enjoyed swimming in. One of them was in the national park and the palm trees were full of flying foxes. There was about 250,000 of them, so noisy and smelly!! We also checked out some barramundi feeding, where Blake was brave enough to feed one. Lots of water around, with all the creeks and rivers full and flowing and a beautiful mossy green colour.

Barramundi Feeding


Replica of Elsey Homestead



Mataranka Springs