Wednesday 25th - Devils Marbles to Mataranka

We packed up early read for a driving day. We drove approximately ****km to Mataranka. We stayed there for 2 nights to enjoy the thermal springs. As soon as we had set up camp we went down for  swim in the pool. It was very refreshing! Dinner was a bit late that night as we didn't want to get out of the spring!

The next day after an early dip in the spring and some school work we decided to take a walk out the the Mataranka Falls. It was an 8km round trip and we started it at lunchtime (not our best decision!) It was a hot walk but the kids as usual were terrific and we made it the the falls. They were quite underwhelming at only half a metre drop. Apparently you could swim in the Little Roper River along the way - I was a little put off by the large croc cage in the water and we all decided it was a better idea to wait for a swim at the end in the spring instead.

We were very hot and bothered on our return so a dip in the spring was wonderful. When we were there we met this couple there who made us laugh when they described the spring as a scene out of Cocoon the movie as a bus load of oldies had arrived and were in the spring. Gave us all a good laugh!

The next day we packed up and headed just down the road to one of the other campsites where they do Barra feeding in the ponds. We caught up with a lovely Italian family who we had seen at several stops along the way. The girls had enjoyed playing with their daughter Kamal.

Just around the corner from the barra feeding was the Bitter Springs. This was a lovely warm spring that flowed and carried you along past the reeds down to a bridge where you got out and walked back down to the start point. We went down it 3 times. It was a bit tiring as I had Olivia on my back for most of the time!

We then drove onto Katheerine. After a spot of shopping we went out to Katherine Gorge to stay the night.