Mataranka

We drove from Banka Banka up to Mataranka Thermal Pools. A really nice camp with water, power, camp fires and of course the thermal pools. The wildlife is starting to pick up a bit with many Agile Wallabies Around and a vist from a friendly and beautiful tree snake, if I wasn't informed that he was friendly he would not have appeared so beautiful and may well have met my shovel...

We also had a swim at Bitter Springs which is warm deep slow flowing river where you can have a relaxing float through the tranquil turquoise waters....or in our case get completely exhausted whilst ensuring that our kids remain calmly afloat through the forest. Zoe cracked whenever I touched her board, she didn't understand at the time that it was also keeping me afloat.

Our last two days driving...added up to a fair haul in the end.

Heading North to warmth

Peter, Kath, Tom, Ellen and Hannah arrived in Alice over the weekend and we caught up with them at Richard, Annie, Ruby, Banjo and Moses's house for dinner on the Sunday night and at the telegraph station parkland for a BBQ on the Monday night. Thanks guys for your hospitality, it was great to actually sit around a normal table and eat dinner! Whilst we were in Alice we also visited the desert park and the School of the air which the kids found very interesting.

On Tuesday morning it was time head north with the others in our little convoy with the walkie talkies keeping us amused. We drove north for about 500 + k's via the devils marbels and Newcastle Waters to see some jabiru's and have lunch. Being the experienced campers that we now are we knew that we would have to show these newbies how it's done....we left our caravan door open twice as we took off that day, the below pictures show the door well open both times just before we drove off.

Lunch at Newcastle waters and Debil's Marbels

We finished the day at Banka Banka for an overnighter. Was a nice little camp, the owner gave the kids some super dupers upon arrival which was a nice touch. Pete and Kath survived their first set up no worries. It was great to be able to finally sit outside and eat dinner, not sleep with the heater on and not freeze as you come out of the shower block after balancing on a thong whilst drying quickly.

 

 

 

Palm Valley

Today we took the drive into Palm Valley, a much anticipated track and destination, both exceeded our expectations. The track into the camp ground was easy going with several river crossings which didn't really test the snorkel as they were all bone dry. The last five km's was where it got interesting with the track going among the rocky outcrops of the gorge and the sandy bases. Ves was white knuckling the dash the entire way down and we were expecting to bottom out at some stage (signs of other cars scraping rocks everywhere) yet made it down unscathed.

The palms just appeared out of nowhere in the gorge and it was a magical spot that was hard to leave. The phrase commonly used is "the pics don't do it justice" but it really does apply here.

There was a sparkle in the sand that doesn't come out well in the pics, should have bottled some.

The track out was more enjoyable to Ves as we had already done it once, so much so that we stopped for a few action shots.