The last few days in the Northern Territory

Matarankah (or as Mike enticingly named it, ‘what about a wank, ha?’)

We pulled up late in the arvo to Matarankah homestead and after taking the last powered site settled in for a relaxing evening chatting to the other campers in the area. I think our common bond that begins all our conversations with fellow campers is ‘Oh no what happened to your legs!’, Since Broome I have had the curse of midgees and mozzies attacking me wherever I go! I have been offered all types of remedies, repellants to try and get rid of these pesky bites but to no avail. Mike has loved that as soon as it turns dusk I go and put on long pants and top no matter how hot it is and then sit there and complain that it’s bloody hot!.

We had a great couple of days at Matarankah, we swam in the thermal hot pools, had camp fires at night eating marshies and generally just relaxed! Mike made some new friends and every night was next door having a few quiet ones with the old guy. The ‘old guy’s’ wife always turned in really early and every morning would apologise to me and say she started on the scotch way to early the night before and had to retire to bed! They were very funny and great company for a few days.

We left Matarankah on the Tuesday, on a mission to cross the Northern Territory outback as fast as we could. We had absolutely loved our brief time in the Northern Territory and can't wait to return when Lola is a little older so we can explore some of the national parks some more. So for the last couple of days we have had a few long drives across the country watching the same view for hours on end. We had a few stops to break the boredom, the first at the Daly Waters Pub for lunch, even though it was only 11am we ‘forced’ ourselves to have a beer at Australia’s oldest pub. We loved that there was so many people turning up to see this ramshackle old pub and I enjoyed the chat with the Irish chick behind the bar, who came out to Daly Waters to save some money, but found that she put nearly all her earnings back into the pub every night!  

Today , after a night of free camping at one of the rest stops near the highway, we headed off again, we lunched at the iconic Barkly Homestead and drove to our next destination, Camoweal QUEENSLAND! With much excitement (well ok with only excitement from me), we have finally crossed the border into Queensland. We plan to spend a night in Mt Isa tomorrow and make our way to Townsville by Saturday….looking forward to some more beautiful coastal country side!