Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

27 September

As we didn't get much sleep until early morning, we didn't leave the motel until around 10am, or just before the cleaners arrived to throw us out! We drove around the corner and stopped for some breakfast and then headed out of Katherine. The first stop on the way was at the Cutta Cutta caves. They are just off the Stuart Highway. We arrived at the visitor car par just before 11am. There were a few cars around, but otherwise nothing else to be seen. We went up to the information display and the ranger quarters. They were closed with a sign indicating that there was a tour in progress and the next one would be at 11am. Following that another tour would be at 1pm. We thought we had missed the 11am tour, so we headed back to the car. We didn't want to wait two hours! On the way I noticed a number of people coming out of the woods towards the rangers quarters. After some investigation, it turned out that this was the 10am tour, returning.
The ranger came and asked us if we wanted to do the 11am tour, which we happily accepted!

As it turned out, it was us two and the ranger. The ranger then dispensed with her normal talk and we got a private tour through the cave. The Cutta Cutta caves are limestone caves that have been formed over a long time (600 Million Years). They are classified as Dry Caves, i.e. normally there is very little water due to the dry season. They do occasionally flood during the wet, so that makes the formation of Stalactites (Grow Down) and Stalagmites (Grow Up) harder. There are still a lot of Stalactites and Stalagmites in the cave. There are some very pretty formations. The ranger told us that there were a number of wild animals in the cave as well. She had encountered snakes, even a large python while conducting tours. If the python is there, she has to usher everyone out and cancel the tour! Yet in the previous tour group, one of the tourists was complaining that she hadn't seen any snakes as promised in some of the marketing material on the caves. The ranger told us the marketing material only contained a reference to the fact that the caves had wildlife in it, no promises or guarantees that they could be seen! She said perhaps a python would have been a blessing as it could have consumed the complaining tourist!

After spending about half an hour in the caves, it was back on the road. We drove onward to Mataranka. We first went to Bitter Springs. This is one of two places on the Roper River where this crystal clear warm water trickles out of the ground. The water is around 32 degrees warm and is therefore the most ideal place to go for a swim. You may see the word Thermal Springs in the marketing material, but that is not true. There is no geothermal heat involved! The wet seasons simply provide a lot of water that filters down the sandstone layers and then the water surfaces at Mataranka after having been filtered and warmed by the sandstone layers deeper down. They are simply slightly warmer than the upper layers!

We then went to the other place, Mataranka Hot Springs. They are much better known and obviously much more visited. To get to the Hot Springs from the visitor car park, one has to go through a private caravan park. This means walking past the Caravan Park bar/restaurant where the locals are drinking and having their usual spars!

The Hot Springs are in an area with lots of trees. All the trees seem to house numerous bats. There must be thousands of them. This huge number of bats is destroying the trees and also affecting all the tourists coming to see the hot spring. This is through noise and also the huge amount of bat crap flying about! Thus the rangers have resorted to setting up water sprinklers that extend high into the tree foliage. They are then used to spray water on the bats. The idea is to drive them out of the trees above and around the springs. So, now when you visit the springs, you get wet just by walking along the path to the spring, plus if you are unlucky enough, hit by bat poo as well!!

I can’t say that this water spraying was effective at all. The bats seemed to love the showers! If anything it simply causes more noise, plus all the visitors are sprayed with water even if they are not intending to swim in the spring. I had to run and cover my camera, so it wouldn't get wet! If you want to swim in the warm springs, go to Bitter Springs!

Next we stopped at a place called Larrimah. The only petrol station in town had been a victim of recent bush fires It is on the Stuart Highway, so things can get out of control at times!

We then went to Daly Waters. We wanted to visit the Daly Waters pub, which has been operating since 1930. It is a popular place for the 4WD crowd as they either start or commence trips from there. It’s a very quirky pub. They have lots of bras, money, stubby holders and other silly things hanging in the rafters of the pub. One section contained signed national flags and to my amazement the Icelandic flag was there as well! You can see in the photo who signed it! Kylie had lots of fun there, playing pool and drinking with the locals. She had to be rescued though, when her curiosity got her caught in one of the bras! Opposite the pub is the petrol station and this funny looking fake helicopter scenic flight operation!

From Daly Waters we went to Renner Springs and booked a motel room. Renner Springs has a pub and a restaurant as well, so we headed there after settling into our room. The restaurant had all these stuffed animals in the back of the room! Kylie was thrilled to meet other stuffed beings. She was especially happy to have met Shrek the star from the movie! Kylie then finished of our bottle of red wine.