Mataranka (21.07.2012): The first leg of our journey today took us 100km to Mataranka stopping off first of all at the Cutta Cutta Caves 29km outside of Katherine. Our next stop upon reaching Mataranka was Territory Manor, where checked out one of the daily barramundi feeding sessions (Adam got to see his favourite Aussie dish - a barra burger - alive). We then drove on to Bitter Springs which is located in Elsey National Park. The springs are a constant 34 degrees, the water is a gorgeous clear minty blue colour in which you can swim. The experience was amazing. We swam in the springs, travelling downstream with our flip flops in tow so that we could walk back to our van. The best lazy river experience ever! Despite the book saying that the sulphur would smell badly of rotten eggs, it wasn't bad at all.

We had to drag ourselves away from the nice warm springs BUT not for long as we travelled a further 2km to Mataranka Thermal Pool and Rainbow Springs. The Mataranka Thermal pool was much more commercial than bitter springs having been made into a pool with concrete. Never the less it was still very relaxing. A free hot tub!

We went on a walk to Steve's Hole before hitting the road again at 5pm in a race to reach Daly Water before it got dark. 167km later we arrived at Daly Waters pub checking into their campsite and hitting the famous outback pub. The pub is extremely quaint. It has held a licence since 1893 and is full of memorabilia including discarded IDs, underwear, flip flops etc. all left behind by travellers passing through. Ok the beer was overpriced but it was worth it. We managed to catch the nightly entertainment show - the man only sang around 4 times in 2 hours, it was more a stand up show - he was hilarious. We ended up leaving with his CD - we now have music to play in our CD player. We have been music-less up to yet.