Day 14 Sunday

Well we woke in Katherine this morning and decided to head to Mataranka for an overnight stay at the thermal hot springs. After setting up the van, we headed into the Elsey National Park and looked up to see thousands of red Flying foxes (bats) in the tops of all the palms. It was a truly amazing sight and it was quite noisy. At dusk they all took off, apparently towards a large mango farm nearby. The thermal pools were beautiful and very relaxing floating on our noodles. We thought the pools would be too hot, but the temperature was just perfect. One of the ladies in the pool told me that earlier she had come across a snake eating a frog In the ladies toilets! Guess I will be hanging on for a while!! Tonight we were entertained by a woman in the open air bar who had a magnificent voice and it was a pleasure to sit with a glass of wine and enjoy the balmy atmosphere.

Yep, Mataranka (famous for the biggest termite mound in the world and the location for the film We of the Never Never) 1000k from Alice Springs and 350 from Darwin. Basically in the middle of nowhere but with all the comforts of home. As you can see from the signage they only accept a classy sort of folk.

On the way down we noticed another change in the bush with a totally different shape of termite mound. These were not the tall pointed variety but much shorter and thicker with round lumps sticking out so that they looked like little Buddhas. The locals have apparently taken to dressing them up in whatever they are wearing at the time. Again there had been a lot of burning going on and it was interesting to notice that the termite mounds were not effected.

Back to Katherine tomorrow.