Mataranka

Here in Mataranka, home to the Mangarayi and Yangman people and made famous by Jeannie Gunn’s 1908 novel “We of the Never Never”, we spent lots of time drifting along the wonderful warm waters of Mataranka Thermal Pools and Bitter Springs, where we dived down spotting turtles in amongst the lily pads and weeds. We also hung around at another amazing campground, Little Roper Stockcamp with its tagline “Pat ‘Em Feed ‘Em Eat ‘Em”! More reptiles were passed around, more cute animals fed (this time squirrel gliders), there was playground built out of giant hay balls and campers could enjoy a daily breakfast cook up of tasty Johnny Cakes as well as various evening meals, complete with Saturday night murder stories told after dark by campsite owner, Des.

Mataranka is also famous for being home to Nathan “Whippy” Griggs, world record holding whip cracker! After hearing glowing reviews, we timed our stay to coincide with his opening performance for the season. A fun mix of incredible tricks, whip cracking to music and some great NT jokes, Whippy certainly didn’t disappoint.

Our visit ended on Mother’s Day morning and Andrea felt very lucky to be treated to a bircher muesli breakfast and some beautiful gifts from our travels, and 7 hours spent together in the car travelling to our next stop 🥰Baca lagi