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NEWS
FROM BOTTOM TO TOP: Mataranka
Soaking away the Stuart Hwy stiffness at the ‘Never, Never’ hot springsRelaxing in thermal springs is one of the highlights of any Top End trip, and there’s no excuse for missing out when cruising up the Stuart Highway towards Darwin, with Mataranka’s soothing, turqouise pools just a short detour away.
While there are cheaper camping options in the area, $30 a night for a powered site at the Mataranka Homestead Tourist Resort seems money well spent, considering the lovely big shady campsites, good facilities and all just a stone’s throw from the thermal pools.
In fact, you’d be silly not to spend at least a couple of nights here, and that’s what I do, allowing time to explore other springs in the area as well as Mataranka’s other claim to fame: being the setting for the classic Australian autobiography ‘We of the Never Never’, which describes the life of Jeannie Gunn during her time on Elsie Station in the early 1900s.
If you’re not familiar with the story, you can watch the 1982 movie adaptation of the book at the park’s Never Never- themed bar/bistro, which offers a daily midday screening for anyone keen enough to turn up.
Suitably inspired after sitting through the 2 hour 12 minute epic while munching on a barra burger, I hop in the car and check out the replica of the original Elsey homestead at the caravan park entrance, before heading a few kilometres back down the Stuart Hwy to the turn-off to the original homestead site, and the cemetery where many characters including Aeneas Gunn are buried.
All hot and sweaty after staring at weathered gravestones in scorching 37 degrees sunshine, I head for Bitter Springs, which offers an even better thermal springs experience as you can drift with the current down the 120m long, crystal clear pool before walking up the track and doing it again (or swimming back against the current if you want to work off some of those barra burger calories).
Soaking in the springs helps sooth the stiffness from sitting behind the wheel for 3300km over the past week since leaving Melbourne, including relieving some mild RSI in my left arm from waving back to all the cheerful grey nomads I’ve passed on the highway...
Next day it’s up early for a final, pre-breakfast dip in the Mataranka pool; just don’t go too early like me or you could get ‘rained’ on by the bats hanging in the trees over the boardwalk!
Then it’s time to reluctantly hitch up the New Age Gecko again and make the final run to Darwin, spending a couple of nights at the shady and spacious BIG4 Howard Springs Park (with its own Porta Potti Palace dump point, no less!) before collecting the family from the airport and heading back down the highway to Litchfield National Park and the start of many gorges and waterfalls…
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Written byChris Fincham
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Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
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