Dementia Demons Go Exploring: When Bad Luck Turns Good...

Our original trip planned about twelve months ago was that we wanted to see Australia's Red Centre. The plan was say g'day to our kids in Newcastle travel down to Port Pirie to see our grandson then up the middle exploring the Flinders Ranges, Uluru, Kings Canyon, Alice Springs and both East & West MacDonald ranges then turn right at three ways and make our way home through central Queensland.

Now this blog is about the extra 1000kms we have travelled mostly due to bad luck but what great luck in that we have seen so much more of our wonderful country... After our lunch at Daly Waters
iconic pub instead of turning right, our next stop is Mataranka as I nagged Steve that I really, really wanted to go there!

We decided to stay a few nights which turned into four at a very rustic, family owned bush camp "Little Roper Stock Camp" What a little gem. We loved it... with buffalo, brahma bulls, a horse , chickens and dogs all living there along with the owner, Des who was just the most hospitable, generous, rough diamond you could ever meet, a real bushie.

As soon as we set up, we drove down to the thermal pools which were only 2.5 kms away

The water is spring fed and bubbles up at 32 degrees absolutely fantastic for relaxing.

Back to Little Roper for a Campfire feast prepared by Des. These camp ovens held buffalo, lamb, beef and vegetables but firstly we had the best pumpkin soup with sour cream & chives and it was followed by apple crumble, custard & ice cream. All yummo. I've left out we could also have spotted dick but that was yuk!!

What a great night, meeting lots of people and Des singing a few songs and telling lots of Territory yarns.

Had to take a few pictures of Des the bloody legend! He cut the roof off his Prado and below just check out his microphone stand!

Next day off to Bitter Springs which are even better than Manaranka in that it's a stream that you jump into and float for twenty minutes down a crystal clear, warm spring surrounded by water lillys, palms and tropical woodlands. This is just the best.

Here comes the monster from The Black Lagoon

When we got back to camp from Bitter Springs about a dozen young aborigines with their minders had walked 40kms YES I said WALKED 40kms for a night or 2 and Des gave them a feed.

These young lads had no fear of the buffalos or the Brahmas just check out these pictures...

Just look how young this little guy is and he walked the 40kms to Little Roper.

Now this is where bad luck starts to play a part. Steve realises he has finished his heart medication but has left his script at home. He made an appointment to see the Dr at Mataranka to be told they couldn't do it, he'd have to go to Katherine. Now that's another 110 kms away and we need to turn right here to go to the Gulf country for crabbing & fishing! Oh well we decide to do a day trip up there and then come back and stay 2 more nights in Mataranka but at a different camp.

Now this is the good news... after seeing the Dr we went on a Katherine Gorge cruise. This was absolutely brilliant although where we had to board the boat the trees were just full of flying foxes and the place stank to high heaven!

We saw freshwater crocs sun baking...

Only problem was it was very hot and no swimming allowed. I wonder why???

The gorge really is spectacular. There are actually 13 interconnected gorges and we saw 2.

We checked out the museum (all starting to look a bit the same), picked up some supplies and headed back to Mataranka. This time we stayed a Mataranka Homestead which is where the movie "We of The Never Never" was filmed, so we could charge up our batteries and get also check out the live entertainment they have on each night.

First up was a duo not bad but then the star attraction was Nathan Griggs a professional whipcracker who holds the Guinness book of records for most whip cracks in a minute 531!! Plus he has cracked the longest whip being 100metres. He was fantastic and great pumped guns .

Of course I just had to get a photo with him...the groupie that I am

The next day more exploring on our push bikes of this beautiful area where Steve just had to jump in even though it said no swimming freshwater crocs here..

This is part of the bike/walking track.

Now for more bad news/good news ...Our fridge is working but only at half capacity staying at about 12 degrees and it won't keep our beer cold!!! In this heat this is a catastrophe! We ring all around to see what can be done but the only thing we can do is make the 420km trip to Darwin. Oh well I always wanted to see Darwin. Unfortunately due to it's high tourist season , the horse racing season has just begun and the famous beercan regatta is on, Darwin is totally booked out. Our luck comes in again and I see a post by Lisa,a friend of ours who's visiting her daughter in Darwin so I ring up and she kindly lets us park our van in front of her place. So now we are officially "Street people"

No complaints though Kara had a beautiful pool we used everyday to cool off as the temperature has been over 30 degrees everyday!!

Darwin Harbour by moonlight

We spend 5 nights living on the street but all good Steve finally gets the fridge fixed, with a few more mishaps being Steve moved the caravan 5 metres to be in the shade and ripped the back hatch cover off!!! $600 later ... we fit in some sightseeing, some great meals and meet up with an old friend so all's well that ends well.