After the feast at Fran’s, we arrived at Mataranka and Elsey National Park by mid day. The campground there has no power, which kept the numbers of fellow campers down nicely. The heat was rather a shock – no thoughts about camp fires tonight.
We set up and then headed to the famous Mataranka Thermal Springs. This is the one you always see in the brochures, looking positively idyllic with overhanging palms, pandanas and cycads. Clear blue water – an oasis in the heat. And that’s just what it’s like!

There’s a fair bit of manmade landscaping here, but the bottom is sand, with the odd pandanas root here and there. The water is about 34 degress. As it’s quite close to town, this place is rather touristy, to say the least.
Then it was time for the Mango to have an outing. The boys took the fishing rods (ever hopeful) and put in on the Roper River about 6km up stream of camp.

Need I say that they didn’t catch a huge barramundi?
Mataranka homestead is also where they filmed “We of the Never Never” in 1981, based on the book of the same name, by Jeannie Gunn.

This is just a replica they made for the movie. Still pulls the tourists in though.