Day 18 Mataranka 2

 This morning we headed into town to the local markets. There was a handful of small stalls selling local produce and fresh food and various other items. We got chatting to some locals running one of the stalls, and this Indigenous fellow Aaron, who was particularly chatty. He is training to be a teachers aide at the school in his nearby community, and was telling us about his studies and how he was aiming to be a PE teacher but was also helping teach the Indigenous cultural studies as well. He talked about all the brilliant programs that the school and community runs to get the kids to school and engaged to learn, as well as a school exchange with a school in Sydney, where their kids spend a week in Sydney and the Sydney kids come to Mataranka. He was a fascinating guy, and it was so encouraging to hear about an Indigenous community  having some positive things happen, and that some of the kids are going on to further studies when they leave.

From there we headed out to the Elsey National Park and visited the cemetery, where the real life characters from the movie and story 'We of the Never Never' by Mrs Aeneas Gunn, resided. We were able to see where the original homestead was located, and where they lived back in 1901-1903. We headed to the Mataranka Homestead, and saw the replica Elsey Homestead made for the set of the movie 'We of the Never, Never'. I saw this movie in primary school, as a school excursion, and loved it. I have also read the book, so being able to be immersed in the land Jeannie and Aeneas Gunn lived in, was pretty special. We then explored the thermal springs at the homestead, which have been cleaned up for tourism, but we thought were not as nice as the Bitter Springs, we had been in yesterday. We opted to have lunch here and they started to show the movie 'We of the Never, Never' but the venue was too loud to hear it well, so we headed off. David and Brenda were exploring the area on their e-bikes, while Matt and I went out through the Elsey National Park, to Roper River. On the way, some wild pigs and piglets ran out across the road. Not quite bacon! At the river, it was still very full, and the 8.4km return walk out to the Mataranka Falls was closed due to this, and the increased chance of encountering a croc, both salt water and fresh water crocs can be found in this river. Matt and I were not keen to take any risks!!

We headed back to our caravan park and ventured back down to the Bitter Springs thermal waters and this time, I was not connected to my IV nutrition and was able to cruise down with the current in the inflated tyre inner tube, and keep my central line above the water. It was sensational to be able to be in the warm waters and look into the crystal clear water to look for turtles. Matt brought the snorkel and mask and was able to get a better view of the bottom and spied 3 turtles. It was a delightful and relaxing way to spend the afternoon with David and Brenda on pool noodles, and as we had gone a bit later, the place wasn't so crowded and noisy. The down side is getting out, and then running in the cool to get back to the beginning, to float down again in the warm waters - natures own theme park ride!

We headed back to the Clippers for a hot shower, dinner and the caravan park was showing the movie 'Guardians of the Galaxy' and Matt, David and Brenda went and enjoyed that, while I wrote this up.