Day 24 - Daly Waters to Mataranka (172km/3 hrs)

We only had a quick drive today so we weren’t in a rush so Rog cooked bacon & eggs for breakfast while we chatted to our friends next door.

We then looked more at the memorabilia in the pub and took some photos before we departed at 9:40am.

We stopped at the WWII airport and looked at the hangar and information board. Rog’s grandfather was killed in the war on his way home when his plane crashed in QLD. His second last stop before the plane went down was Daly Waters where the plane refuelled so to be here today was pretty special.

We then stopped at Larrimah to look at the WWII museum and then we went across the road to the Pink Panther. There we got to visit 3 crocodiles. One small saltwater croc, one small freshwater croc and an 18 year old, 400kg saltwater croc too. We also got to see some emus and their 2 week old babies.

We finally arrived at The Little Roper Stock Camp at 1pm. The kids were so excited to be reunited with the 2 travelling families we met yesterday that they were out of the car socialising before we even checked in. The day got even better when we got the site between the two families.

We set-up, had lunch and then went to the Mataranka homestead thermal pool with the two families. It was so warm but still refreshing and the kids had a ball. It was better than we remembered from 6 years ago.

When we got back to the caravan park we went and looked at all the animals. The kids can pat, feed and handle the 3 water buffalo, a horse, a bull, a cow, chickens, a pig and piglets, snakes, blue tongue lizards, a small croc and sugar gliders. The animals are very tame and i must say it was very different patting a water buffalo - they are quite wirey!

We chatted to our friends, had dinner and then went to the homestead for the Nathan Whippy Griggs Show. He is a local 26 year old whip cracker who is a great entertainer and very talented too. It was a great show.