TWENTYFOURTH DAY – SUNDAY 1ST AUGUST
A pinch and punch for the first day of the month! It was really windy during the night and it even rained for awhile. It was lovely and quiet – traffic-wise though. Graeme cooked us a farmers breakfast and then off we went continuing north. The terrain changed from flat and short scrubby bush to flat and open grassy bushland with larger trees which spanned for kilometres. I loved the orange gums, they stood out from all the rest. And of course there were the ant hills of various colours – according to the coloured dirt they were in and the size and look changed here and there. Some were absolutely enormous they almost looked like nomads standing guard of the bush watching all who pass by and making sure everything is good. You might have guessed I have become a little obsessive with the ant hills but they dominate the landscape and they are such amazing sculptures I just can’t help but admire the ants ability to construct them. We also saw a dingo near the road – just looking and watched us go by before running off into the scrub. We stopped into a little place off the main road a bit called Daly Waters. It basically consisted of an old pub, a bloke with his wooden cut-outs in a funny old shed adorned with all sorts of objects, a house and a few cabins you can hire. The old pub (since 1930) was the special feature and when you go inside you see why. Hundreds of people had stapled their business cards, student cards, medicare cards, licences, all manner of cards over the walls of the pub. Graeme stapled one of his business cards on too. There was also a collection of bras hanging from the ceiling which had been signed and a whole lot of money stuck to the back wall behind the bar. It was a very quirky place. We had some Barra Bites and chips and cold drinks for a snack. We then continued north. We stopped at the Pink Panther Pub which was painted all pink – but it was more a place to stay than anything. We had lunch in our van after Graeme had a 15 minute kip. We continued. We had a look at the Mataranka Thermal Pools which were lovely – set in amongst very tall palms – it was a real oasis. The water was so clear and an interesting turquoise colour. There was also a reconstruction of the original house in the story of ‘We of the Never Never’ as this is the area in which the story is about. We could have stayed here but there were lots of people so we decided to check out the other camp a bit further on, called Jalmurark Camping Area in the Elsey National Park. This was much nicer place and so we filled out our form and put our money in the envelope and posted it into the box and went and looked for a spot to park. We set up camp then went for a bit of a walk down to the Roper River. Graeme had a very quick dip as it was fairly cold but also could be a chance of crocodile. I went and had a shower to wash my hair which badly needed it. Then we sat around outside in the cool breeze which is good cause it has been quite a hot day – not sure how hot. We checked out our brochures of the area to decide our course of action over the next week while we are up here. Graeme made dinner while I wrote this. Dinner is ready, got to go outside and eat it while fighting the bugs! Hey back again – dinner was really good. Compliments to the chef.