The drive from Alice Springs North is a long one. 1485km of the narrow single lane Sturt highway that stretches North to Darwin, skirting the Tanami Desert and Aboriginal lands of the Warumungu, Warlmanpa,Walpiri and Mudbura. Its not without its interesting moments, taking in a few well known spots such as the Devils Marbles (Karlwe Karlwe), Wycliffe Well ( sight of the most UFO sightings in Australia) and the famous Daly Waters Pub, home of the tree of thongs, and walls covered with more business cards, poetry and foreign money than you can poke a stick at.

One of my favorite places though is Mataranka. It's here that the Roper River runs out through the Elsey Pastoral Station to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The classic Australian autobiographical novel, We of the Never Never by Jeannie Gunn was based on her experiences here at the turn of the century. The real draw though for desert weary travellers are the thermal pools, known as Rainbow Springs. These have been landscaped somewhat to protect the river banks from erosion in to a cobalt blue pool of about 20 m long that has a constant temperature of 34 degrees C. It is blissful indeed to arrive at the waters edge and drink in the sight of the clear, sparkling water that literally washes your cares away. Ned and Oscar were agog at the sight of such a beautiful swimming hole after our long months of winter in South Oz and then the big dry drive through Central Australia. We dug out the snorkels and kicked back for the day in the pool.

Just down the road is the slightly less well known Bitter Springs. This has the same clear, blue water, but is more like a river than a pool with a current that you can float downstream in. Dive under the water here and you might come face to face with a turtle, but more likely a furry underwater branch. Its surreal and the only thing that has come close was watching the film Avatar- the blue, pure clarity of the alien world reminded me of Bitter Springs. We actually bumped in to some old friends that we had met on the Oodanatta Track - Charlie and Lewis and their parents, Chris and Josie. Originally from Melbourne, they were doing the speedy 5 month tour around the North and West region. Ned and Oscar were very excited to meet up with some friends in such a magical playground! It was a big day as we were headed for Katherine that night, 100km away.