A Few Top Stopovers: Daly Waters and Mataranka

After spending a few days out of the car at Tennant Creek, we had one final long stint in the car to get us to Mataranka, our next stop. The road up to Darwin has a number of little quirky towns that make the trip interesting and not such a long haul for the kids, which was a bonus!

Passing through Elliot, a little highway town that looks like it needs a good bath, there were more camp dogs and plenty of dust. A petrol fill up and we were back on our way with the famous Daly Waters Pub in our sights for lunch.

And gee was it worth the drive! As we pulled off the highway and into Daly Waters, a town which is one street wide with nothing else much but a pumping hotel and a caravan park behind it which was packed to the rafters. What a sight! Caravans were pulling off the highway and lining the sidewalk out the front of the pub, in more numbers than if it had a big M shining above it. We parked and followed the travellers into the hotel and the kids' eyes grew wide as they tried to take in all the wild and wonderful decorations that filled the bar area and flowed out into the courtyard.

And outside was just as crazy! 

And the food... the food!!! It's no wonder hungry travellers were pulling up here in droves. The portions are enormous and the food was fresh and tasty - just the thing to re-fuel before jumping back in the car again. 

We were lucky to nab the final powered site at the chocka block Mataranka Homestead camp ground (and by final site, I mean we had to throw our power cord over the top of the ladies toilets and connect to a power socket in there, hoping no one would switch us off during the night!). We'd forgotten that it was the June long weekend, endless days of travelling has blended all our days into one! Needless to say, we were lucky to find a place to camp and in such a favourite spot for many, we didn't mind being a tad squashed in with the rest of the long weekenders, as long as it meant getting out of the car! 

The Mataranka Homestead borders the Elsey National Park, so you can literally walk from the your campsite to the deliciously warm and inviting Mataranka Hot Springs in minutes. The kids couldn't believe how warm the water was and how clear as well and even though there were a fair few other swimmers enjoying the relaxing spot, it's still a must-do when you're in the Northern Territory.

The kids also enjoyed wandering through the replica house from the Australian classic movie We of the Never Never, the story of Jeannie Gunn, a pioneering white English women who lived in the area with her husband in 1902.

But the bonus during our stay at the Homestead, was without a doubt, the live music concert put on at the outdoor amphitheater at Maluka's Bar. We could hear bush music streaming from the night as we were having our dinner and any thoughts of an early night were quickly forgotten as we went to see what was going on and ended up staying and watching some of the best bush music we've seen! The kids had a ball, dancing with the local kids until well past their bedtime and chasing cane toads into the bush. It's spontaneous nights like these in the bush, when you look up into the clear, outback skies and listen to the raw, honest music from those that call these places home, that has made us so grateful to have the chance to share these experiences with our kids.

But our memories of Mataranka will always be overshadowed by the amazing lunch we shared with two beautiful brothers, who joined our lunch time picnic at the local park. What began as a typical lunch stop, turned into a lovely encounter that we will remember fondly.

A wandering Indigenous four year old spotted us and came over and threw his footy in our direction. Arley ended up playing with him for a while before we all sat down to have lunch, and he came too! Next thing his older brother had appeared and after they shared a couple of sandwiches and a juice, the boys were so eager to hear where our 'country' and 'people' were and couldn't quite comprehend how far away our home town was when Luke showed them on the iPhone! They told us stories of their people and their family and it was so nice to share a simple bite to eat with these funny young boys and have Arley, Sage and Bassie meet a couple of kids just like them who were so similar in their curiosity and sense of fun yet so different in their day to day life. A special time! 

The Big Drive West: Normanton to Mount Isa to Tennant Creek

After weeks and weeks of incredible adventures and experiences and being able to break our trip up in to very child-managable days of no more than three to four hours in the car on any given day, (and often with a few days off in between!) we had arrived at my most feared part of the trip...

The next week has been designated to crossing over from outback Queensland to the red-centre, into the Northern Territory. But anyone who knows Australia or who has traveled these roads before, knows that the days are LONG and the roads are boring with very few places to stop in between... not the ideal recipe for three young kids with buckets of energy to burn! But I'm pleased to report that we did survive this 1592km of road which Google Maps reminds me takes a wee 18 hours and 40 minutes to complete. In fact, the the kids were so incredibly amazing, that I can only count on one hand how many times we wanted to roll down the window and gentle throw them out into the red dust (kidding!). It's amazing how adaptive children can be and how each morning they would ask, "So how many hours today, Mum?" and not once did they cry or whinge about getting back into the car. Yes we had our moments, but for the most part, we all embraced the long, straight roads ahead and survive the week with little damage!

Our first major stop was Normanton, a small cattle town, right up in the Gulf Region in northwest Queensland. We didn't even unhook the caravan here, but simply rolled the kids out of the car and into the freezing pool to wash the hours of driving off them. A red dirt dusty town, there wasn't too much to see, yet many tourists with a keen love of fishing were using it as their base to fish for Barramundi and Salmon in the nearby Norman River or drive the 75km to Karumba, a seaside town on the Gulf of Carpentaria. 

We also inspected the damage on the caravan after hitting a 'roo on our way and luckily it was just surface stuff to the front of the van - lucky it wasn't a cow because they're everywhere out here! And the roads, although now sealed for the entire stretch of the Savannah Way, have patches that are like driving on a single lane goat track! Not exactly ideal when every second car is towing a caravan and the cattle trucks roar up this road full to the brim....

Another big day of driving with only one stop at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse was what our next day had in stall, en route to Mount Isa. An ice block and a closer look at the road train cattle trucks eased the hours in the car... 

 

We spent two nights at Mount Isa to give the kids (and us!) a rest of being in the car and spent our time exploring this hot, outback town. It's a fairly big service centre for surrounding smaller stations and townships so has most services. But it was hot and dry and dusty and the continual hum and lights of the mines on the edge of town was a bit too close for my liking. That and the fact that every second advertisement on TV was reminding people to brush their teeth often, wash their children's hands all the time and wipe down their toys and bikes outside to prevent lead contamination. This is not a place I could call home. Despite this, there was an amazing park on the edge of town which kept the kids happy and their legs stretched! 

  

Another seven hours in the car before we would arrive at Tennant Creek and we broke up the DVD's, audio tapes, reading, homework activities, lollies from the glove box and usual car games with a few breaks at the tiny little towns along the way. Camooweal was the first and the kids ran for the run-down little playground as fast as their little legs could carry them! 

 

More red dirt and long roads and we had crossed into the Northern Territory! 

Side of the road wee stops never looked so amazing! 

A final fuel fill-up and some lunch under the trees at the Barkly Roadhouse (literally a petrol station, a fast food cafe and a caravan park behind) and we are almost at our night time stop. Just two hours to go and the groan from the back seat and the "Are we there yet?" questions began. It had been a long day and our three little travelers were a tad over it but gee they had done well sitting on their bottoms for 7.5 hours! 

I never thought I'd say it, but Tennant Creek, gee were we glad to see you! Luke and I cracked a special bottle of red to celebrate our return to this wild little place smack bang on the three ways. It was eight years ago when our VW Kombi broke down just south of the town where we really got to know the town, as we were stranded for a couple of weeks, waiting for our van to be fixed. Crazy memories! While we drank our red, the kids' hands turned red playing in the dirt.

A gold mining past, cattle stations and the strong and rich culture of the local Warumungu people is what has shaped Tennant Creek. We visited the old site of the Battery Hill Mine, spent the afternoon throwing rocks into the beautiful Mary Ann Lake on the edge of the town and visited the local Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Nyinkka Nyunyu, where a bunch of locals in training at the cafe here made the kids the biggest milkshake they had ever seen! 

The Pebbles, a collection of beautiful rock formations just outside of town were a highlight. the landscape and the colours really are breath taking in the red centre. 

Even Luke found the surroundings a relaxing work environment.... ?!?!

But I felt a sadness the last time we spent time in this little town and it instantly returned this time around... It's quite confronting seeing the way some of the local Aboriginal people live, in houses literally falling apart with rubbish and junk all around. People gathered together all over the town in little groups, sitting next to the road, or on the road or under trees. And dogs, so many camp dogs, roaming the streets and barking all night long. The kids wanted to know where all the dogs lived? They also wanted if the people who lived in these houses got cold of the night time and had enough blankets on their beds.

It's a complex issue and there aren't easy answers to the questions that arise surrounding it but I found it tremendously important to show our children how some of these Australians live, our indigenous people, the first people of the beautiful country we have been exploring for so long now. Hopefully they will always be open minded, accepting and empathetic to the difficult plight our indigenous people have had to endure throughout history. 

  

Arley's Video Blog #8

From the tropical beaches of Far North Queensland to the red dirt of Mount Isa, it's been a big few weeks with plenty of kilometres under the belt for Arley and the kids!