👇 South On The Stuart

Cooooeeeeee famileeeeee xx

If you fold a map of Australia east to west, the crease would be the Stuart Highway. Travelling south it’s like a time warp with pre-historic landscapes, Australia’s first people’s culture and heritage acknowledged in every direction, natural wonders that blow your mind, all available in the current day … and all leading you towards the ultimate, the incredible … Uluru. 🎉   That 600 million year old outy,  Australia’s most ancient belly button.

There was goss about an antarctic ❄ freeze ❄ hitting the southern states, possibly even reaching the NT, but as we turned south from Litchfield, baking hot at 31°, it was hard to imagine even feeling a   breeze.

The small township of Adelaide River was Northern Territory’s frontline in WW2 and ‘almost’ safe from bombing raids.  📈Numbers swelled with the mass-exodus of Darwin’s residents, earning an unofficial title of the 🐴Adelaide River Stakes.  US and Australian combined forces also increased numbers, by an additional 30,000. Safe, until the early hours of November 12, 1943, Japans’ final air raid on NT dropped one last bomb, on Adelaide River.  2015,  Adelaide Rivers population, 159 📉

📰We’d read an article about Umbrawarra Gorge, just west of Pine Creek. When the articles’ author first visited, he was approached by a bloke who said it wasn’t worth the effort, hardly any water and to turn back. Determined, he checked it out, fell in love and has returned many times since. He recounted hiking in further and finding little sandy beaches, clear swimming holes and incredible rocks to clamber over. As we drove south we saw a tiny sign 🔜Umbrawarra.  John, turn … turn … NOW 🚗💨💨🚎

⛺When we arrived, the first thing we did was ask a friendly looking couple how far to the track. He advised we needn’t rush, it wasn’t worth the effort, only stagnant water and not much to see. Geez, what about the sandy beaches? I showed them the magazine article but they just shook their heads and looked at us, incredulously. 🙅

We can do determined and the further we went in, the better it got. We found it all … beaches, sand, couldn’t wait to jump in, it was too good to be true. We could have written the identical article, so how weird is that. Party poopers everywhere and, just for the record, Umbrawarra Gorge was one of our most fun surprise swims ever, you just needed to keep exploring.

You would love this place kids 👪

I’ll pick you all up xx

There are only a few more swimming spots on the way south so if this freeze is on the way, we’ll do them all as we are …   sweltering 🌞🚗🚎

Edith Falls is before Katherine, the bottom pool was closed because of 🐊 youknowwhat 🐊, so climbing 1.8ks to the top pools was a no brainer and worth every hot step.⤵

📏Can you see the guy ? Gives a better idea of scale.

We both swam under the force, totally hectic Jason 🚿

🚗🚎  Mataranka is a small town with 3 big attractions: Bitter Springs, Mataranka Thermal Pools  and the infamous Mataranka Meat Pie. Rumour was it’s a local culinary treat of gigantic proportions, an outback gastronomic delight, not to be missed. So huge & yummy … we nevernever thought we’d eat again. 🍅

Bitter Springs was about to blow our minds 💣

✋  Sharon .. maybe a little like Ewan Ponds ?  Not as deep or large scale but amazing clarity. We’d read it was a spring fed thermal stream that meanders for over 300 metres. You just walk through a dense palm tree jungle, pick a palm to hang your stuff on then immerse yourself and start floating. Most people walk back to the beginning, a few tried to swim but it wasn’t easy and sort of spoiled the tranquility with their thrashing against the current.  It was such an unexpected adventure, completely unique and I was floating along in amazement just wishing I could teleport you there mum, you and Al would feel 21 again.  xx

If anyone feels the urge to splurge .. Fly to Katherine, hire a car and drive south on the Stuart for 100ks. The Springs are free, byo noodle and a Mataranka Pie is $8 a pop .

Floating vertically down Bitter Springs, the water was crystal clear, I tried to touch a rock below me with my hand but it was metres away. It was like floating in space, you couldn’t feel your body, it was so warm and peaceful, I was almost in a trance. As the current carries you, you don’t have to move a muscle, just watch as everything passes you by. Who would normally notice the brilliant tiny blue dragon fly landing on a lily pad … like a miniature helicopter. 🚁⤵

So crazy floating along vertically … Mum, I can’t feel my legs !

.. I see them x

I wish I’d taken a pic of the rake leaning against a palm tree, not your every day rake. Maybe 12 foot long and used to pull the surface greens aside because if they left it, the entire surface would soon be overgrown.  There are no fish present due to the low levels of oxygen. The water felt thinner, not as buoyant as other fresh water, it felt silky.

Written in 1905 about Elsey Station, We of the Never Never was Jeannie Gunn’s revered book, placing Mataranka famously on the map. The Homestead below is an authentic replica constructed for the film version. If Ms Gunn could see her house now, she’d be cleaning and scrubbing for ever and ever.

Wardrobe .. where’s my moleskin!

💭 psst … bit dusty⤴

Walking a further 500 metres past the Homestead, Mataranka Thermal Pools bubble at a constant 34° with Rainbow Spring ⤵ funneling 30.5 million litres a day. That little pond ?

.. apparently yes.

🚗🚎100ks before reaching the big guns, The Devil’s Marbles, we spent a couple of nights at the cutest camp ever, The Devil’s Pebbles. Culturally significant and a sacred indigenous women’s site, you are not permitted to climb over them. It had a special feel to the place, we both really liked it, the night sky was amazing and we slept like logs.

These places are all just sitting there, next to the Stuart Highway, just like that, beautiful landscapes and incredible natural wonders.

Karlu Karlu, The Devil’s Marbles, blew us away 😈👿💨🎺

Declared a Conservation Park in 1961, 🎂an excellent year, the marbles continue to erode by exfoliation, known as onion-skin weathering.

Dave ! .. anyone … who loved Barbra Streisand in What’s Up Doc, would instantly recognise the mineral names that make up these marbles,  grey quartz, shiny mica and whitish feldspar, and if you haven’t watched that movie, geez 👉. It’s right up there with the other classic, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad  World.  💋

Wilmaaaa … this one ?

… that one

Barney and I can have one each

Will you hurry up John, I’m getting thirsty 🍷

Whaaaat ?

That reminds me of a plumber in downtown Bedrock ⤴

Sorry .. too many marbles?  I couldn’t decide x

After Uluru, we will be turning around and heading north, back up the Stuart Highway, all the way back to Tenant Creek, so we can turn east.  Some of these places we’ll revisit but I’ve included them in this ‘letter’ because it keeps it consecutive.

We received a  sad news phone call and John needed to  fly home, so rather than drive back to Darwin, we’ve been heading to Alice Springs earlier than planned.  John’s good friend and boss, Micheal, suddenly passed away and John went home for the funeral. Every Thursday since we left home in January,  Mike’s been phoning John for a chat and a guess at our locations.  He was a really lovely, thoughtful man and will be missed very much xxxx

I’ve been camped in a nice  little C’van park on the outskirts of Alice Springs this week while John’s away, but after our first nights temp dropped to -4°,  we knew the antarctic freeze had arrived. We bought a hot water bottle, a jacket for me then pulled out every blanket we had. I got up before daylight next morning freezing so we could reboil the kettle for the hot water bottle, but there was no water … the pipes had frozen. ❄ Geez ….. it’s a freeze  ❄

Bye everyone, love to you all  xx