In the morning, we had to wait for others to move before we could hit the road. Happily this was no problem, given that we have not yet adopted the universal habit of tearing off at sparrow fart in case somebody gets there first and pinches the best spot?? We’re not in a hurry but everyone else seems to be.
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| On the road again |
An easy drive but again on the narrow single strip, with occassional double lane “overtaking” sections. Only trouble is we never seemed to find traffic on these sections, more usually just after or just before so you go through the routine of slow down and move over. Just get the revs up again and here comes another passer!
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| You never meet these on a passing lane, so you just get off the road! |
After a short stop at October Creek, we arrived at Daly Waters and the Stuart Highway about 1.00pm. We had decided to stop at the Hi-Way Inn Caravan Park, rather than the Daly Waters Pub, which is always full and so tightly packed, no awnings. The Hi-Way Inn sits on the intersection of the Stuart and Carpentaria Highways and can be very busy with roadtrains and caravaners pulling in for fuel but the CP is away behind all the activity and has a strip of grass sites with a barrier between so that they’re all reverse in. Despite a reasonably early arrival, again “pick a spot”, we found quite a few already settled in but we managed a great spot between two vans and under a huge shady Ficus tree. Soon we were all set up and soon found we weren’t the last. We knew we were back in civilisation when we tried tuning the telly (analogue only) and were happy to watch our second team beat Geelong. Our second team as you would guess, anyone playing Geelong. Unless it’s Collingwood but we heard they’d already been seen to by Gary Ablett and mates from Gold Coast. So what a great afternoon, especially since our Swannies took care of the Eagles.
After all the excitement, we drove the seven kilometers to the Daly Waters Pub and had a great Beef and Barra dinner with a bottle of wine to go with it. Great finish to the week-end
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| Dinner and entertainment at Daly Water Pub |
Day 28—Monday, 22nd July (Daly Waters 28kms bobtail)
The park emptied out pretty quickly this morning, leaving us to ourselves. Not much happens at Daly Waters except the comings and goings of travellers, mainly
caravanners but with a fair mix of roadtrains since we’re at a major intersection, with the north-south Stuart and the east-west Carpentaria which services the mine mentioned earlier. First thing, we made use of the deserted laundry and a load of washing hung out.
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| Day two at Hi-Way Inn and all alone. |
Next, we drove back to the Pub and had a wander around. Amazingly, the caravan park was as good as empty, not unusual for the time of morning. A local told us that between campers and visitors calling in for dinner and show, they average 300 vans a day. Definitely a one night stop.
We visited the souvenir shop run by last night’s entertainer “Chilli”. Then the museum, run by last night’s warm up entertainer. Then the art gallery.
By this time, the traffic was beginning to move into the caravan park. I say park but it’s more just a paddock an very dusty.
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| By midday the Pub CP is starting to fill up. |
Back to our little bit of greenery at Hi-Way Inn, where we just relaxed, after bringing in the washing, until dinner time. Part of the relaxation, watching others move onto their site. I mean relaxing for the watchers! In the early evening, we were delighted to find a mob of about twenty grey kangaroos in the paddock behind us, just quietly grazing. Full moon tonight!
Day 29—Tuesday, 23rd July (Daly Waters to Mataranka 171kms)
We started off the day thinking only as far as Larrimah, only about 70kms but Devonshire Tea at Frans got us over that idea. $27.00 for a tough old scone, supplemented by a piece fruit slice. My mug had so many chips in the rim, I had a hard time drinking it. All part of the experience? Somebody should talk to OH&S, you should have seen what she was serving as “Frans Famous Pies”.
We did have a wander around the zoo at the pub and the museum which were worth the stop but I do wish we’d gone there first!
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| Larrimah Hotel and Zoo |
Larrimah didn’t appeal as an overnight stop so we carried on to Mataranka, finding one of the last powered sites big enough to accommodate the Sterling, at tHe Territory Manor.
On a previous visit, we’d stopped at the Homestead, so thought to give the Manor a go. Quite an interesting park, boasting a resturant and barramundi feeding, twice a day. The back end of the park, where we were located had four blocks consisting of four toilet suites, that is shower, hand basin and pan, two for ladies and two for gents. Around these blocks are the sites, about six to each block. It’s almost like they were meant to be en-suite sites but somebody decided to squeeze in a couple more sites and the customers can fight for them. I suppose with many of today’s vans having their own en-suite, nobody cares. We actually scored quite a large site, #37, which was deep enough for the van and wide enough for the awning and the Patrol. We were always going to unhitch. The rest of the day was relax under the awning, then dinner then bed.
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| A shady site at Territory Manor |
Day 30—Wednesday, 24th July (Mataranka 28kms bobtail)
After breakfast, we wandered over to the restaurant area and the dam where Barra feeding was the feature every day at 9.00am. The Barra didn’t seem too interested and it looked like total failure until one, hungrier than the others showed up. At this point, anyone could step up and get in the water and feed the fish, mostly kids did. We were still with the last half dozen tourists around the dam when the manager offered us “plan B”, a look into the training farm, where a metre long Barra was being trained to take Pilchards from the trainer. Apparently they have to have about six months training and be about two or three years old.
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| Who's feeding who? |
Later, we headed out to Bitter Springs for a walk around the loop. There’s another CP here but there’s a lot of water lying around so I bet, plenty of mozzies! Our pitch at the Manor looking good.
A handful of tourists, “taking the water” which we resisted as we have all along, since as far back as Lightning Ridge. We just did the walk and took some pictures of the incredibly clear water. We also took pictures of an incredible solar pushbike but I’ll post one of those, easier than explaining. Back to the Manor for lunch.
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| Crystal clear at Bitter Springs |
After lunch, it was a visit to Mataranka Homestead. Not too different from our last visit here in 2009. The Homestead replica, looking forlorn and neglected and very dusty. The Homestead was pouring water on the grass nearer the kiosk and bar/ restaurant but they obviously don’t bother about the replica which very much looks like something the film company left behind and nobody cares. Maybe if somebody came up with an idea to make a dollar out of it!
We had a bit of a wander around the shop, where I found a book about the Stuart Highway which I thought a good buy, an unusual occurrence in these parts! All in the eye of the beholder I guess. We resisted buying a Darwin Stubby for $34.00 but bought a couple of Magnum ice creams which we went round to the bar and ate at one of the tables. We didn’t fancy the caravan park, too dusty and still have bad memories of the stay here in 2009 with the Cooks. So good choice the Manor!
Back at the Manor, we decided to have dinner at the restaurant, becoming addicted to grilled Barra. We enjoyed our dinner in the open air restaurant complete with live entertainment, although I found it a bit embarrassing when the entertainer, later visited each table, with cap in hand, asking if we’d enjoyed his singing and guitar playing. Which we had and had bought one of his CDs, so we got away with a thanks. The CD turned out to be second rate, especially the vocals which sounded like they were recorded with the mike too far away. Live and learn.
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