Still on the Stuart

Sunday 8^th June

Another day on the Stuart Highway – it’s a very long way from Alice to Katherine, especially when we keep finding interesting things to distract us.  We thought we’d be in Mataranka well before lunchtime but didn’t count on a tiny wayside inn at Larrimah providing so much of interest.

Yes, there's the pub.  However, Larrimah's also full of history due to its strategic operations during the second world war.  There's a fantastic little museum there, a voluntary project by some local historians full of wonderful old photos.  We spent ages looking and reading.  The surrounding park has old engines, bits of machinery, relics of the railways ... there in the open for everyone to see and enjoy.  Phil was in his element!

The pub is another story.  Wow, this place has a 'zoo' out the back like nothing we've ever seen. They rehabilitate injured and orphaned birds and animals and it's like a large backyard full of enclosures containing some really beautiful birds, a magpie that crows like a rooster, a huge eagle which was injured and is no longer able to fly, a 4 year old croc which has been blind since birth, a 10 year old saltwater croc, owls, lizards, snakes ... amazing stuff.  We actually spent all morning at this place!  

  

We were headed for Mataranka but took a detour to the Elsey Cemetery and site of the old Elsey Homestead.  Anyone who's read "We of the Never-Never" will know of this and several of the main characters in the book are buried here.  I read the book years ago and it was good to be right there, in the place described by Jeannie Gunn in her account of life on the station.

Mataranka "resort" is a beautiful setting among ghost gums and palms.  There's cabin and basic motel accommodation but we're enjoying the camping area which is gorgeous.  Lots of palms, greenery, a few peacocks wandering around and a mere 200 metres to the thermal pool, the first place we headed when we arrived.  Aaah, it was bliss.  Warm, relaxing, crystal clear water, a tropical oasis.

Spent the rest of the evening listening to the entertainment - a performer doing lots of John Williamson, Redgum, Aust Crawl etc.  Sitting under the stars again, in t-shirts, feeling very lucky.