15 July - 19 July - Attack Creek - Katherine

Saturday 15 July 

We awoke at the roadside camping ground to hear, "Between 5.30 and 7.30 this morning there were 72 cars, trucks or road trains passing up or down the highway"!  

Attack Creek is famous for the fatal attack in early 1870 by a local aboriginal man on John Milner who was an early explorer.  Clearly some people are not happy with the  story boards that tell this part of the history as they have been defaced and obscenities scrawled on them. 

Renner Springs is said to mark the place where the Red Centre desert gives way  to the tropical Top End of Australia.  The place is named after Dr Fred Renner who was the doctor to the workers on the Overland Telegraph Line. 

Daly Waters is full of history - The explorer John McDouall Stuart stopped at Daly Waters on his journey from north-south across Australia and ten years later the Overland Telegraph Line went through. The corrugated iron pub was the built in 1934 and was a supply point for drivers. Daly Waters was Australia's first international airport. 

Daly Waters Pub
Daly Waters Helipad!
Memorabilia!
Nurse Sandy giving Jim some TLC!
We enjoyed happy hour and their famous Beef and Barra feed and it was magnificent. 

Sunday 15 July 

The plan today is to head to Edith Falls, via Mataranka and Frans Tea House" in Larimah.  

Along the Stuart Hwy are oodles of termite mounds, some artfully cloaked in t-shirts, scarves or hats. 

Pics termite mounds

Arriving in Larimah, Frans tea house looked to be in total disarray, Fran wandered about in filthy clothes and bare feet and complained she had a stone in her foot!  Spotting the sign on the front fence didn't fill me with great enthusiasm - 

The sign for Fran's Home-made "Outback signse, maed to order"!
Fran's Tea House.
... but our "Explore Australia" book recommended that we stop in for tea and scones! 

I heard her adding up one table's account: "That's two of the scones and tea, so $17.00" ... so $8.50 each, not bad  I thought ...

... then the kicker, "Twice, so $34.00 ...".  Seventeen dollars for one scone with jam and cream and a cup of tea in a chipped mug!!!

" What do you recommend?" I asked a bloke sitting at a table with wife and two kids. 

"Run!"  

So we did to the pink Larimah pub next door. There, the publican was, "home, but no lights were on"!  But for $6.00 we enjoyed a lovely scone with jam and cream and tea in a chip-free mug. 



How times have changed!
Mataranka thermal pool is a beautiful palm-fringed pool with a water temperature around 28C in the Elsey National Park that has beautiful rainforest, paperbark woodlands and tufa limestones at the local falls. The weather here is a glorious 26 C, the sky a soft pale blue this afternoon having changed from a deep blue this morning and it was a relaxing stopover to relax and enjoy these spring-fed thermal pools. 

Jeannie Gunn, author of the book, "We of the Never Never" lived near here and the film, based on her story was filmed here in 1982. The replica homestead made for the film remains here in its original location.



Bitter Springs was bitterly disappointing. It was smelly and had sponge-like floating everywhere - yuk! 


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