Barrow Creek, Renner Springs, Daly Waters & Mataranka

The Army Helicopters taking off Wednesday Morning

It seems ages since I've blogged but we have been out of mobile phone coverage since we left Alice Springs last Wednesday. Tuesday night the Showgrounds was invaded by the army. They had a group of 20 trucks and 7 helicopters they have just been from darwin to WA and were on their way up to Darwin again. Wednesday night saw us pulling up camp at Barrow Creek another free camping spot and again with a quirky pub. It boasts walls of money, must be thousands of dollars (all nationalities) pinned to their walls. I had to seriously cull the photos so I hope the chosen ones do them justice.

The Barrow Creek Pub with some of their collections the back wall is covered with bank notes.

Thursday night we camped at Devil's Marbles another camp where they have an honour system where money is placed in an envelope in a specially marked box $3.30 pp pn. The Marbles are arrangements of boulders balanced on other rocks. The winds and weather over the years have eroded the rocks so they appear to falter on top of other rocks. Magnificent colourings rich ochre and bronzes.

Some of the rock formations in Devil's Marbles

Friday and Saturday we chose to spend at Renner Springs. Another lovely spot with another quirky pub.

We met up with a group of cyclist who were travelling from Adelaide to Darwin to raise money for breast and Prostate cancer. We also met them again in Daly Waters and in Mataraka. I managed to have a massage, I had a really bad back so one of the riders was a remedial masseuse and for a donation she made it bearable again. I think she has riden over 2000 kms up til then.

Parked up in Renner Springs

Sunday we ventured to Daly Waters and viewed the town quite a lot of quirky things here, The "Chookman" has set up shop opposite the pub and appears nightly in the pub. The pub has walls of money, bras & knickers and in the beer garden there is a thong tree. We had a lovely meal here of Beef and Burra.

The Daly Waters Hotel

I recommend the baramundi it was rather nice. We opted to stay at an old WW2 Aerodrome, very neglected which is a shame. We nearly camped on the runway but lucky we didn't as a plane coasted in on Saturday afternoon.

The Hangar at Daly Waters

Apparently the airport is still used a couple of times a week. We arrived in Mataranka lunchtime and after setting up and a bit of lunch we spent a couple of hours in the thermal pools. I went in as an old chook and came out a spring chicken. Just kidding. But the water was very nice.

Talk again soon