Bitter Springs Mataranka 15th June
We dropped into the lost cities between Lorella Springs and Tomato Island on our way to Mataranka . These rock towers are the product of erosion.
This one featured in the film Night at the Museum – GUM GUM
You have to watch for falling rocks too
Our quartermaster and tactical support planner for the trip has been sacked . At Tomato Island campsite we ran out of , beer, wine , tonic, fresh food , bottled gas and were tight on diesel.
We arrived at Mataranka picked one of the three campsites visited the little supermarket and went for an aged bottle of carlton draught at a local hotel. We witnessed a horrible encounter between a landlady and an indigenous mother and child trying to book a room. The landlady bluntly explained that there was a 50 dollar deposit because the rooms keep getting trashed. Fair enough. She then proceeded to offload on the poor woman about the damage done by other indigenous renters. It was over in a flash but we left vowing never to return.
Never Never going there again
It had good beer and a lovely old bar too !
At the roadhouse I enquired about changing one of our gas bottles. Instead of getting a response about gas I was asked which part of Scotland I came from. It turned out that the tattooed (everything but his face ) questioner was half Glaswegian and half Sicilian and had been a merchant seaman in his youth . I asked him how someone with that ancestry managed to stay out of prison all his life. He then gave me a funny run down on all the stays he had had in various establishments and institutions over the years – will take my shoes off next time i put my feet in my mouth !
The campsite is right next to the Bitter Springs . It produces 30 million litres of water at 30 degrees each day and draws quite a crowd of bathers. It had a glorious bluey purple hue to the clear water that either came from the journey up through the aquifer or leached from all the purple rinses enjoying the hot waters ! The grey nomads were queuing up with their noodles under their arms , the current took you down stream then they would get out walk back and do it all over again and again and again .
We went on a lovely hike to the Mataranka Falls. A nice 8k round trip sighting a nice 2m fresh water croc . We met a family from Melbourne who were on a 3 month trip , home schooling enroute . Mum told us that they had a celebration when dad caught his first Barramundi . She then explained it was because life could get back to normal as her hubby had become fixated about the challenge and it had taken over their waking hours !
This fisho had his head screwed on – family walk and took his rod and flicked a few lures as they took in the waterfall !
The quartermaster was later reinstated on appeals made by the navigations director , accomodations organiser, social secretary , clothes washing executive and keeper of the keys to the fun house .
Boss Hogg made an appearance too
