Alice Springs to Tennant Creek felt like the longest stretch on this leg of our journey. It was a long and tiring day. We pulled in at Devil’s Marbles along the way – yet another iconic Australian landmark that is amazing to see. Red boulders of all sizes piled on top of each other stretched over several square kilometres. In our short stay at Tennant Creek, we found it a much nicer town than Alice Springs in that there didn’t seem to be the same cultural divides and tensions between the local indigenous population and the white population. Mind you, that impression is built on just a single night and a visit to the Aboriginal cultural centre and gallery but we certainly didn’t get that same impression in Alice Springs.
Daly Waters on night two was something a bit different. This is a very touristy Australian outback pub located where a fairly major settlement once thrived. Daly Waters used to boast an international aerodrome and now all that’s left are a couple of houses, the pub, the caravan park behind the pub to accommodate the hordes of travellers like us and a permanent population of just 20. The pub is the original pub and has mountains of character. They lay on the best barramundi feed I’ve had for years and provide entertainment by a horse breaker/jackaroo turned comedian/poet/songwriter. The whole place lays on the whole Occa thing with a trowel, but it was worth the visit. Our stay (well, my stay) was only slightly marred by the “caravan park attendants” way of directing us to our camp site. We followed him in on his bike and then rather than show me where he wanted me to back the van, he insisted on directing me in. This would have been fine too had he directed me the way normal people do by pointing or shouting the direction the van needed to go. But no, this guy directed by telling me which way to turn my steering wheel and he did this with hand signals that were just very confusing when viewed from my rearview mirror. I had no clue as to where he wanted me to go or what he wanted me to do. I finally got there, but not before a few interesting words were exchanged.
Bitter Springs near Mataranka, about 400km south of Darwin and only 160km from Daly Waters, are thermal springs forming an oasis in the middle of the desert. This was a very relaxing day. A short drive and van set up followed by several hours soaking and swimming in the thermal pool. The water temperature is around 35 degrees, which gets a little too warm on a hot day, and the pool is surrounded by trees and palms. Snorkelling in the pool was amazing. There’s magnificent underwater gardens as pretty beneath the water as above and the pool is filled with thousands of small fish.
Finally, we made Darwin last night and settled into the van park we’d booked from Bitter Springs. We spent the evening and night in the city where the Darwin Festival is in full swing. We had dinner at a Seafood and Steak buffet restaurant and then headed back up from the wharves to the city to try to catch some of the festival activities. We heard the last song performed by Ed Kuepper, so unfortunately we missed out on seeing him but the atmosphere was great. We’ve booked tickets to see Clare Bowditch next Saturday, so that should be good.
One of the things I like about Darwin is its sense of fun. You get the idea that they like to play and that they’re a little bit mischievous up here. Even our seafood buffet bought into this spirit. For us, the game was to see which of us could find the bad oyster or prawn in the buffet. There were a lot of them in the servery so it took a lot of effort for me to find it. Usually Jenny is the one who wins raffles, meat trays and other prizes but last night it was finally me. And what’s more, the restaurant didn’t hold back just because it was free. They didn’t give me the cheap replica for the tourist food poisoning, they gave me the full strength both ends version. After last night, food poisoning will never be the same again. You can’t experience the full fun of an attack when you’re at home. You’ve got to take it to a caravan park and occupy a site 100m from the ammenities block to fully appreciate its – how can I put this delicately? – explosive nature.