Mataranka

Driving towards Mataranka we suddenly switched from arid land and dry creek beds, to low lying water and plenty of grass on the verges. The humidity has taken a step up and the gardens are suddenly carrying many more tropical plants. Plenty of Frangipani and palms too. It’s quite a surprise after all the dry.

The primary feature here was the hot water springs and the secondary their famous pies. Unknown to us there was a 2^nd hot pool which turned out to be 600 meters from a great little caravan park recommended on the Net. This appears to be a farm that has had an area reserved and gardened with vans in mind. Around the park are stunning termite mounds but in a lawn environment. By the way most buildings you see up here have steel beams. Haven’t seen any wooden stuff.

After setting up the van we grabbed our goggles and a free noodle each (loaned out for free by the park) and headed to Bitter Springs, the closer hot pool. This turned out to be very special. There are steps and footpaths added to this area but nothing else appears to be interfered with. When you swim here you do have a bit of algae floating by but hey. This is nature. This was a bit off putting for the fussy folk but not a problem for us.

Because it has been left alone you have a lot of little fish and even turtles or tortoises swimming around. Submerged logs are covered with algae but you simply float right over them with the aid of the noodle as you float downstream. The water is quite warm so you can hang out there for hours. The usable area runs for probably a couple of hundred meters. We loaned our face masks to a couple so they could really see the place to its fullest advantage.

We went to the other hot springs area later and found it a bit more civilised. Concrete edges had been added but the bottom remains sandy. This pool was slightly hotter but a lot smaller in area. It also scores more people so it’s more like a hot tub than a natural spring. One nice feature was the spiders above the water. We were there in early morning and the sunlight through the palms really highlighted their webs just above our heads.

The 2^nd reason for stopping here was a little disappointing. The pies were $7.50 which was a surprise although they probably would feed two. But there was no gravy. It was basically a collection of meaty chunks wrapped in pastry. Tender, but not a real pie in my books.

Photo 1 Liz on the noodle

Photo 2 The walk path back to the starting point. Lots of palms here

Photo 3 Check out this baby. A 130k speed limit up here and folks are still bitching. When one of these can be around the next corner, I'll stick with a more sedate speed.  Some dummies even hammer it at night.

Photo 4 Termite mount with Bougainvillea in the background. In Vic these survive OK but up here they go mad. Lots of colour range too.