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Day 1 – We shared a meat lovers pizza for dinner last night and it was plenty for both of us, we were glad their pizza had been recommended to us. We stayed for a short time to listen to the entertainment before walking back to the van. The entertainment is fun but they are still doing the same routine as we saw 4 years ago and it was getting to the stage, I could tell you what was going to be said on each break so while the music is good, we thought we could hear it back at the van. There were quite a few people we heard at the hotel saying they were making their next stop Mataranka which is only a short drive down the road and we were intending to go there too, we thought it might be a good idea to get up a bit earlier to make sure we could find a spot at the Thermal Springs. We were up earlier and left Daly Waters at 7.45am and there were already 4 caravans out the front waiting to get in, we have never seen as many caravans on the road as we have this trip, there is just a steady stream of vans on all the roads you drive on. We arrived at Mataranka at 9.30am and we needn’t have worried about finding a spot as there were plenty available and there were still vacant spots late in the afternoon. We found a spot that suited us with a bit of greenery around and facing the right way to hide the afternoon sun and we were set up by 10.00am. We drove into Mataranka to have a look around and do a bit of shopping before returning to camp and then walking down to the Thermal Pools to take a few photos and have a bit of a look. We returned to camp for lunch and then after lunch we changed into our toggies and walked back down to the Thermal pools for a bit of a float. I have to say this is a great experience and the water is crystal clear, the colour is unbelievable and changes from green to torquoise as the sun passes over it and it is the temperature of bath water, there is heaps of cover overhead so you can tend to feel a bit cool after a while which is lovely in this heat. We joined another two couples for a bit of a chat and ended up staying in the water for nearly three hours, we only hopped out because we had all pruned up so much, what can I say, we are old. Most people had noodles to float around on, the water is about 7 feet at the deepest spot and it makes it a bit easier just to move around, we will make it our mission to pick a couple of noodles before we return tomorrow. We dried off when we returned to camp and hung our clothes out to dry for tomorrow because there is no doubt we will be returning. We walked over to the bar at 5.00pm for a quick drink because, why not, we noticed they had noodles for sale so were bought one each and after our drinks we returned to the van for dinner. We didn’t return for the entertainment or for the whip cracker but we could hear it at our camp so we listened to it until it was finished. We will go over tomorrow night to watch the entertainment.
We were both very relaxed and had a great night’s sleep, maybe it was the waters yesterday. We wanted to look at Bitter Springs which was our next choice for staying if we couldn’t get a spot at Mataranka. Bitter Springs is just down the road past the township of Mataranka and then you turn right. There is a parking spot down the bottom of the road near the entry to the Thermal Springs. We had worn our toggies and taken our new noodles with us in case we wanted to have a swim but the access was a bit difficult so decided to wait until we returned to Mataranka. The tide is quite strong at Bitter Springs so that you hop in at the entry where we were and the tide takes you down the river to another spot where they have stairs you have to make sure you grab and then you walk back to the top, it would have been fun and we were sorry we missed out. We drove back to camp and dropped all our valuables in the van before walking down to the pools. Our noodles were amazing and certainly made a difference with regards to staying afloat. Once again, we were chatting to another couple and only left here when we had all pruned up again. We would both thoroughly recommend a stop here if traveling through and make sure you take a dip in the pools. It is an easy walk down to the area but just be aware it is very slippery, we had one lady slip over today and it is heavy landing onto slate. I will be sorry to leave here tomorrow. When we returned to the van, we had lunch and after doing a few jobs I was happy to sit and download and edit my photos. The internet isn’t good enough to upload photos on my blog or anywhere else, we will just have to wait until it is a bit better and then do it all at once. We are having an early dinner so that we can go over to the bar later on for the entertainment. We walked over to the bar around 8.00pm, we wanted to watch the end of the musical act and then stay on for Nathan ‘Whippy’ Griggs. We were wondering why the music hadn’t already started and soon discovered why. It was State of Origin night so no entertainment just the game being shown on the TV. The bar was full and it was very noisy, Robb and I don’t know anything about this game so it wasn’t really of much interest to us but the atmosphere was good, we stayed for an hour or so before returning to the van. I was very disappointed not to have seen Whippy. We are moving onto Katherine tomorrow.
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