After leaving Litchfield, we headed back to the Low Level CP in Katherine for a couple of nights. We id a bit of shopping, our laundry, saw Johnny the TV man (AGAIN) swam and headed 101ks on to Mataranka.
Six years ago, we stopped at Mataranka hot springs for an hour for a swim, this time we booked in to Bitter Springs 3 ks out of town for two nights. We met a man at Litchfield and he suggested we go to Bitter rather than Mataranka as it’s more natural and less visited. Arriving in town we saw there is a caravan park out beside it and when we saw the lovely little place decided on two nights.
We are about 500 metres from the springs and they really are beautiful-a bit smelly (with sulphur) but so nice. The water is 33c and so clear it’s unbelievable. Tomorrow we are going to take our masks and snorkels and drift down the spring looking for tortoises and fish. It’s a 200 metre drift and as the current is quite strong, you have to swim one way. There are steps or a ladder to get out along the way.
After that, we went out to the Roper River in Elsey NP and took a swim at a couple of places there. One was a series of small waterfalls over smooth rocks. The pools that the little falls formed were wonderful to lie in-just like natural spas. We finished the day with a last swim at Mataranka hot springs and a visit to author Jeannie Gunn’s Mataranka homestead-a replica of the original homestead that was built for the movie We Of The Never Never in 1981.
Tomorrow we plan to go yabbying and swimming and who knows-we might have to stay another night. We have two nice little dogs either side of us-Jodie (who is hurt if you call her “fat” (she’s nuggety apparently) and Junior, (a lovely little miniature Jack Russell) who has spent a lot of time with us tonight.
Editing to add-we have decided to stay another rnight after a lovely day at the springs yesterday. We took our snorkels and masks and floated down the spring to the bridge a couple of times. Other than that, we just lazed around in the main pool chatting to people-mostly guests in our park.
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