After a very quiet night at Mountain Creek, we had a relatively short run into the Roper Bar, although the road was initially quite good, as usual it quite soon deteriorated into a pretty bumpy ride again.

However, driving into Roper Bar realised an ambition of mine. Why? Well I have read many stories about the pioneer explorers, and Leickhardt in particular, who crossed the Roper River here in 1845 in his epic journey from Brisbane to Port Essington.   It is just one of those places that you want to go to.   Essentially it is a general store, below left and a causeway, below right, which leads to the aboriginal Arnhem Land on the far side, we need a permit to enter this area but we decided to go across the causeway, just to say we have driven across Roper Bar. 

  

It is a beautiful place, the clear running water tumbling over the causeway gives it a kind of magical aura, though the crocs can tend to take the edge off the glamour!

  

Above the Bar are the remains of a Police Station from the early part of the 20th century and a plaque which records Leickhardt’s crossing. 

  

To some extent this completes a journey ‘we had to make’. Crossing the Gulf, through the Savannah land has been a bit of an epic trip for us, OK, so we did it in a purpose built vehicle and caravan but, the roads are still bad and the country still remote.    It is the beauty and remoteness of the country we have just travelled through that we will never forget and hopefully will have time to return to at some time in the future.   For now we just feel privileged to have had that opportunity. 

  

Our destination today is Mataranka, almost civilisation, the last 100ks are on sealed roads (luxury!) the scenery is still awesome.

We are meeting Lorraine’s brother Stuart and sister-in-law Ann at the Homestead CP in Mataranka.  They are on their own odyssey, heading for Darwin where they will meet up with friends and travel through to WA.   We will meet up at the camp and renew old acquaintances (they were with Peter and Lorraine when they visited us in 2012) and Ann has the schedule already organised when we get there, which starts with tea and cake at their site, followed by a walk down to the hot springs, Mataranka’s claim to fame, at 5.00 pm to take the waters and watch the wallabies having their supper.

The springs are around 32 degrees and it is very easy to lounge around for hours.

  

About 5.30pm a group of wallabies come down to the springs to feed, it seems that the rangers put out a corn and seed mix for them!   One female had a joey in her pouch and most of the swimmers were watching the wallabies whilst ‘taking the waters’.

  

  

The ‘swim’ was followed by usual pre-prandial beverages and later Stuart and Ann produced a splendid spag boll which set us up for a pleasant evening.

Sunday 10th August

Stuart and Ann are leaving today to wend their way to Darwin but still managed to organise a group breakfast before they left!    Over breakfast the raptors entertained us with their flying skills.

     

The rest of us had a fairly lazy day, although Peter was seen to be cleaning his car for a while.   Pat and did a bit of relaxing, sudoku and reading.   Later in the afternoon we went for another dip down at the springs, before a glass of wine whilst watching hoards of bats fly across one of this year’s three ‘supermoons’ (July, August and September) and dinner, a thoroughly pleasant day.

Monday 11th August

Rather a casual start today, we didn’t get up ’til about 8.00am, so it was nearly 10 before we went into Mataranka to do some shopping.   Mataranka (permanent population approx 100), is on the Stuart Hwy, the main north south artery through the middle of Australia from Adelaide to Darwin, the nearest conurbations are Darwin, 600 ks to the north and Alice Springs, 1000 ks to the south.   There is a healthy trade from travellers which supports three fuel stations, a supermarket  and an art gallery / coffee shop.   Sadly the bottle shop doesn’t open ’til 1400 hrs, so I’ll have to come back later!

After lunch I go and top up the wine stocks, the selection is somewhat limited (to be expected), just enough to get to Alice I hope.

Late afternoon sees us back down at the springs but today we decide to start with a swim in the river (the Roper) before the hot stuff.   There is an open gate giving access to a pontoon moored in the river, used for swimming from, the water looks green and murky but it in fact quite clean and warm, from the hot springs inflow.

  

After the swim we closed the gate to read the sign which read, “management practices reduce the risk of Estuarine (Saltwater) Crocodiles entering this area”! Hmm.

  

The hot springs were really relaxing, in fact we didn’t get to our pre-dinner drinks ’til nearly six, over which we started discussing a 2016 trip, which will take in Kakadu and the coast of WA. 

Another relaxing and pleasant day.

Tuesday 12th August

Today we’re off down the blackstuff heading for Alice Springs, it’s a long road and the scenery won’t change much for several hundred kilometres.   Peter and Lorraine have lent us an audio book, Grisham’s, The Torts and we’re enjoying listening to book as we approach a place called Lorrimah (permanent population about 6 including two dogs!).   The signs advertise a hotel and and Fran’s coffee shop, so we decide we will take morning tea here.

   We have homemade pies, coffee and tea.   Fran is a bit of a character, she tells us that it’s not cheap but it is all good quality. You do not argue with her!    Her homemade buffalo pie is not bad, the meat is good and the pastry definitely homemade but it seems to have been cooked with an unnecessary amount of pepper, which is not particularly to Lorraine’s nor my liking.

Onward and southward turning off for a look at Daly Waters, which has a history as part of the Overland Telegraph Line (Aelaide to Darwin) and as a WW II aerodrome.

  

The inside of the pub is adorned with everything from banknotes of the world to badges from police forces of the world, signed items of clothing and much, much more, very similar to the William Creek pub on the Oodnadatta Track.

After a look at the old hangar at the aerodrome, a National Trust property, and lunch there, it’s back to the blacktop for another couple of hours.   Pat has sussed out a night stop for us at Longreach Waterhole, which is reputed to be a good place to overnight.  To get there we have to negotiate 11ks of corrugations (these are child’s play compared to the road across the gulf!) but when we get to the waterhole we find a beautiful spot, a large expanse of water, with loads of birds, plenty of space, a real gem.

  

  

  

  

Over our wine tonight we were able to watch for meteor showers (it would have been better in the northern hemisphere apparently), nevertheless we spotted 6 meteors between us, in one of those huge outback skies above us with the supermoon lighting up the lagoon/waterhole.

Wednesday 13th August

When we woke up this morning an amazing scene was being played out on the waterhole, there were birds everywhere.   The pelicans, hundreds of them, were fishing in packs, surrounded by the grebes and cormorants and shags, it was a wondrous sight.

  

It had been a very windy, cold night and it was still blowing pretty hard this morning.   Unfortunately it is coming from the south east which is going to cause the fuel usage to be higher than desired as the Stuart Hwy heads almost due south. It is also very cold wind.

The Stuart Hwy is a good road passing through some very remote country, the Tablelands on our left and the Tanami desert on our right.  

  

The scenery is far from boring and though the speed limit is 130 kph on the Hwy, we are happy at 85 and maximising fuel economy, which is currently around 20–21 litres / 100k which sounds a lot but, is in fact, quite good, considering the wind.

Having passed through places such as Three Ways and Tennant Creek with have the Murchison Range on our left we approach the Devils Marbles, which are just off the highway and a ‘must see’.

 

Essentially, this is a vast area covered in boulders, some large 4 metres high, some smaller but all formed by water erosion and, of course, it is of special significance to the aborigines .

  

We have a look at the camping spot here but decide to flog on a bit further and find a rest stop at Taylor’s Creek Rest stop, which is pretty close to the Highway but it will do.   The wind is still very strong and bitter, so by the time the sun is approaching the horizon we are rugged up and reminding ourselves that two days ago we were in shorts and tee shirts soaking up the tropical North! Diesel heater and extra bedding are needed.