Banka Banka - to Howard Springs June 7-10 2015

The heat makes you do, or not do some thing, like typing up a blog every night. At least at Banka Banka I could rightly claim no internet, but that was a couple of nights ago.

Time for a bit of a travel catch-up:

Banka Banka NT June 7 2016

FB Ute parked at the door to Banka Banka NT

This is more like it, today we head out for Banka Banka, 525km to the west, and up a tiny bit. The only things of note to the traveller between the two places is the Barkly Homestead Roadhouse and Three Ways. From Camooweal, it’s 12 km to the NT border then a 258km stretch to the Barkly. It’s not actually the homestead as some signs suggest, that’s way off down south from here, it's the roadhouse and caravan park of the same name. We topped up the tank, ate a sandwich and didn't drink our ‘coffee’. It may be the bore water but it was unpleasant. Expensive, but unpleasant.

From here it's only a short 190km blast to ‘SH’, emblazoned on the signs displayed every 10km or so along the road we have been following for the last 430km. ‘SH’ is of course Stuart Highway, and given that there are no other roads, it's the intersection known as '3 Ways', which is where all the traffic is heading. 

Three Ways is not exactly on the corner, its north about 1km. Tennant Creek is south about 14.Banka Banka is an easy drive up the Staurt for 70 odd km. Banka Banka was / is a cattle run since 1885, but the part we are in is like a small oval, or a showground. There’s a ring of a low concrete wall all the way around and inside is all nicely grassed and a few big shade trees. They reason the place is here is that it’s sitting on top of a natural spring: an endless supply of perfectly clear clean water.

Mataranka NT June 8 2016

Straight out the front gate at Banka and into the 460km slog up the Stuart Highway to Mataranka, broken only by a slow down and drive-through of Elliot and refuel stop at Dunmara Roadhouse.

It is getting hotter. We saw 36C on the way up and so now that we have parked the van, even the 32C water of Bitter Springs is a relief. The springs look different this year, perhaps the undergrowth has been cleared or burnt and the creek itself seems wider and slower. They have even put a new set of stairs in at the end which seem harder to use than the old one. These springs are something special. The water flows up from the limestone acquifier below and is perfectly clear. The creek flows at around 300 litres a minute so even if the bottom gets stirred up, it clears almost instantly. The bottom is at least 2 metres most of the way, I can just stand up in one place, it's that deep. Mind you, you can't actually stand, the pressure of the water just floats you away. A highlight for us this year was seeing a huge Water Monitor (that's a big lizard, not a Bitter Springs Prefect). At first he was up in a tree, but later just sitting on the bank within arm's reach. Where is ones 70D when one needs it? The other thing we saw a few of, were the turtles, big red-faced turtles, who seem not the least bit concerned about the big white bodies floating about.

Apart from turtles and monitors, there are a few small fish and also huge spiders in their webs overhead; just close your eyes and keep floating, they are too busy with flies and insects to be worried about you.

Bitter Springs Mataranka NT

Bitter Springs Mataranka NT

Grab a noodle and just float away your cares! Bitter Springs Mataranka NT

Bitter Springs Mataranka NT

Bitter Springs Mataranka NT

Bitter Springs Mataranka NT

Now I should say that the Bitter Springs is part of the Little Roper River, which flows into the real Roper river which is just down the road a bit, and which, by the way, is alive with other lizards. Great Big bite-you-in-half lizards, aka salt water crocodiles. Why they don't come up here I do not know, perhaps it's too warm, perhaps too hot, who knows? The only defence against them, apart from the heaps of people to eat at Mataranka Springs further downstream, is this red polystyrene bubble floating at the end of the swim zone!

Red is for danger. If its got teeth marks, don't swim! Bitter Springs, Mataranka NT

The theory is, and we've seen it used before in other places, that crocodiles always attack these things. So before you go in in the morning, check it out for teethmarks! Its as simple as that!

Day 2 at Mataranka. There’s not a lot to do here in town, especially if you've stayed a day or two before, but we spent an hour buying some bread and having lunch at the Cattleman’s Corral. It’s 40C here now, so it’s back to the springs. First time in it feels decidedly cool, but by the 3rd time it’s definitely at least as hot as that 32C they claim.

We ate out at the van park restaurant tonight, its just easier than trying to cook anything in the heat. 

Howard Springs (Darwin) June 10 2016

We changed our travel plan a bit. Instead of staying in Adelaide River we've decided to come straight through to Darwin, well to Howard Springs at least. We did this because everyone kept saying how busy AR was going to be because it is a long weekend in the NT and the AR show is on. ‘Bound to be packed out’, they say. Mataranka to AR is some 300km and we did it in one go, forsaking  Katherine, Pine Creek, Edith Falls, Emerald Springs and even Hayes Creek. Naturally, it was lunchtime so we took time out and entered the Diggers Bistro, in the Hotel behind the servo. What better way to celebrate being in the top of the top end than by having a Barra Burger. Pretty tasty and quintessentially Territory. Despite the 20 odd vans parked in the one street next to the park and the Stuart Highway, we saw no sign whatever of a Show, nor did we notice anymore people about than you would normally see here, namely almost none.

Back out on the Highway, the traffic is picking up even more as we approach the Big Smoke. There is smoke about, but its from the annual land burn-off that the Aboriginal Land Owners like to do during the cooler months.

Ignoring the huge sign declaring that Howard Springs Big 4 is the next turn on the right, we went further along and turned at the correct traffic lights to make our way in. That sign amuses and annoys me: you’re zooming along at 100kph with van in tow, cars and trucks and buses flowing all around you and the 10 second grab that the driver gets is that it’s next turn right. Huge big red arrow - must be the next turn, right? Wrong. Apparently there is some detailed instruction in fine print at the bottom of the sign that correctly points out that the right hand turn in question is in fact 7km away at the Howard Springs traffic lights. 

Anyhow, we are here, we've done the washing and had a swim and now just chilling out for a bit. We have all day tomorrow to do and last minute shopping,  pack the bags and get the van ready to be stored for the next 12 days while we fly out to  the nether regions of the land and start our tour back across Arnhem Land.

We may or may not have internet connection during that time, if not, then bon voyage to us!