Around Oz the First Time - Chapter 15 - Mataranka for a Day

The need to be ready to go by checkout time is gone for the day. We are going to sit and “smell the roses”. There is plenty to do, even if that is only laying in the thermal springs for the day.

Here we have a museum tribute to the movie and book We of the Never Never. That will certainly be one of our ports of call today. Last night’s entertainment was a hoot. The whip cracker cracked whips on fire, fluorescent whips as well as cracking to the music. Forbsy having videoed much of the performance, suggests only once did he even looked like hitting himself. I know that in my youth as soon as I got carried away with whips, I ended up getting myself.

Where our van is situated is at the end of what turns out to be a runway. Silver Leader, who works at Macquarie Airport regales us of a story of a light plane landing here as vans were setting up. We walk the runway in the morning and check out those who crossed it overnight. There are the tracks of the peacocks we saw as we arrived as well as wallaby tracks (we even spot one on the walk). We follow a set of lizard/goanna tracks for some way until they appear to disappear. Oddly enough the animal has backtracked upon itself and then headed off at a particularly dustless point where his tracks are almost indiscernible and then reappear in deeper dust a distance away. Not bad for a bushy that has been stuck in the city in excess of 40 years ?

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There is also a gaggle of colourful birds, I suspect of the Lorikeet family in the trees and some flowers I snap and send to a friend who is always looking for flowers to paint. The falcons start circling as we return on the endless quest for food.

On our return walk a car is heading towards us at speed along the long dusty airstrip. In fact it appears to be travelling straight at us – we are in the middle of the strip of course. We move to the side, the vehicle remains on its present course and speeds for a while then slows as it gets closer and the dust pouring from around it diminishes. It goes past us at a reasonable pace and heads down a track at the end of the runway that I have investigated a little and found to be well travelled. Maybe later it will allow for further investigation, especially if we detach the Cruiser and head off to Bitter Springs or into town to get the empty gas bottle filled.

We also need some maintenance to the van. The hanger on Robyn’s side has come adrift. She has way less weight of clothing on her side, but the screws would not hold it. It is not the first time we have had issue with it, the flexing of the van has seen it pop out previously.

Into Mataranka to try and get better service so we can receive and send emails via Outlook (Gmail is fine, but Outlook is struggling for some reason) and allow Silver Leader to access his Optus phone. In town we park under a tree not far from a group of young aboriginals also congregated under a tree. While we are doing our technical bits a police van drives up to them to say hello. We did note that yesterday as we arrived and filled up one of them was heading away from the main road with a slab of VB under his arm and dribs and drabs of further “mates” following him. Alcohol is a problem in the area so say the signs posted around but as far as we can tell the people are simply having fun.

Neither service is enhanced by the trip to town, so we head off in search of the Bitter Springs pools. These are a little Larger than the ones at the Homestead and the current is quite a deal stronger. Robyn and I with a “noodle” supplied by Forbsy meander down in the warm water. My breathing makes us go up and down as air fills my lungs.

A couple of hours there and the fingers have become suitably pruny. Silver Leader got locked in a conversation with other travellers and get the low down on some “special” spots we should look forward to (and some we should avoid). Whereas we had seen no issue with any of the aboriginals we saw today we are advised to ensure that free camping is at least outside a 30 kilometre radius of a town, a distance that seems to thwart a drunken car full from visiting during the night. But the good with the bad, they speak of spectacular views from escarpments, sunsets nothing like we have ever seen (and we have seen some beauties even on this trip) and roads that might cause things to shake around a bit but well worth the hassle of the drive.

The traveller who also has a van like ours (but much older) tells all sorts of horror stories relating to the specifications of their van, yet overall he praises it and certainly has not seen cause to get rid of it over the three years they have had it. Apparently, it was one of the first of this line built and came with the relevant teething problems.

On the way out of Mataranka we saw a shop offering Mango Smoothies and decide to attack it with zest (well 4 of the car occupants will – I detest mangoes). Unfortunately, the shop is closed “until next year” according to the sign on the door. Disappointed, we head home. Robyn did a load of washing before we left so I retrieve it as with the breeze and the comfortable heat they are well and truly dry. 27 kilometres darting around today – a far cry from the distances previously.

We have been joined by 2 new neighbours. The site adjacent to us has a van setting up in it as we return and no more than 100-metres away now stands a helicopter. I send a picture of this to a friend of mine who has been particularly interested in the trip but with 2 youngish children might find the long legs difficult in a can and van.

I go for a wander. Here there is a replica of the house made famous from the book We of the Never Never. The museum inside shows lots of the hardship and the view from the back porch must have been almost as it was all those years ago. I wonder if many of the old homes in the area now still have similar views. Jeanie Gunn and her husband are buried about 21 kilometres away along with many of those named in the book according to the material in the rooms.

The first occurrence of heat on the trip has taken its toll. That and the exercise of the walk along the runway and the first swim in Bitter Springs pool. Nanna naps all round before the call of the pub becomes too loud to ignore ?. For us this means an ice cream and a walk around (oh yes there was an alcoholic libation there as well of course). The heat and the colds we now are both fighting are not giving way to any great hunger. We will be lucky if we even eat dinner tonight. The air-conditioning is on and although we have not fully closed the van, does cool things off significantly. It will be interesting to see how we cope in a free camp in the heat. Having said that there are lots of fans in the van to circulate the air.

After “circling the wagons” in the Silver Leader “beer garden” we dine. Robyn and I having fish and chips, which means we have frozen battered fish fillets and potato slabs on the barbeque. I am surprised we both get through the meals. We give the daily call to the Missing Link who regales us with stories of how the caravan yard have now lost his keys. It’s so laughable except it is keeping them away from the tour that they had actually planned, and roped the five of us into all those months ago.

After dinner our attention turns to the night skies. With the absence of significant light pollution, Gugurmin (the Dark Emu in the lore of Wiradjuri people) is easily discernible in the night sky, something not visible from north of the equator as because of the orientation of the earth to the rest of the solar system only the southern hemisphere gets to look at the centre of the galaxy. Between downloaded apps on our phones and the monoculars we have in our van we peruse the night sky. The app I have downloaded even shows satellites streaming across the night sky.

I have a thought to truly test out the new driving lights on the airstrip. I grab the Cruiser and head off, phone on video in hand. The lights are certainly bright. A kangaroo at the end of the runway skips off into the night. As I turn around and head back, I wonder at what point I should switch to low beam given the rest of the travellers were watching. As I do, I notice I cannot see sufficiently to see where I am going. On approaching the van sites, I flick them on again just to see where I need to go and switch back again.

On arrival Silver Leader suggests the lights need to be dimmed even before I see anything coming such is their brightness. What I did notice was they are pitched probably less than 1 degree too low to give maximum effectiveness. Will I be trying to adjust, not any time soon.