We of the Never Never

Hello dear blogsters,

After our exciting times at Katherine, we have moved on to Mataranka (about an hour down the road). Mataranka township is nothing to write home about - a couple of shops and a very well attended bottleshop and that's about it. But just out of the township, is the Elsey National Park and Mataranka Homestead - and this is where we are perched as I write this entry.

Elsey Downs was once a huge station - and was the home of Aeneus and Jeannie Gunn. If that doesn't mean anything - Aeneus (well actually it was Jeannie, writing under the name of her husband) wrote "We of the Never Never" about her experiences living here. The station has now reverted back to aboriginal ownership, with the adjoining national park open to the public. Some of you may remember seeing the film "We of the Never Never" - a full size replica of the original homestead was built as part of the set of the film - this is located just inside the national park for visitors to explore.

We set up our camp and quickly headed down to the springs - the water is a lovely, warm 32 degrees and bubbles up through a spring from deep beneath the ground. We enjoyed lolling around in the water, looking up at the palms above us. Danni, Sam and Lachlan liked it so much they stayed in for hours and I had to go and drag them out at about 7.30 pm so we could have dinner.

Mum created a feast of chow mein followed by pancakes with bananas and maple syrrup.... golly we are doing it hard! The younguns stayed up talking for a while and we more mature specimens dragged ourselves off to bed (the canoeing of the day before catching up with us I think).

This morning we all had a bit of a sleep in - except for Lachlan who inexplicably woke up at dawn and, much to his consternation, couldn't get back to sleep. I wish that happened on days when we were trying to get packed up to move on!!!!! Anyway, we had an extremely leisurely breakfast and then morning tea. After this it was nearly lunch time, so Dad, Uncle John and Lachlan picked up a bite to eat at the kiosk and headed off fishing. Mum, Danni and I went to watch the daily lunch time screening of "We of the Never Never" and have a kiosk lunch. (Sam stayed back and did some school work - and then joined us). The kiosk and reception area is a bit interesting.... and interesting is probably the kindest way to describe the food!

After lunch we wandered over to have a look at the homestead - I don't think I would have liked living in it during the wet season with all of the mosquitoes and bugs.

We wandered back to the campsite and then headed down for another swim at the pools. The blokes returned from their fishing trip (empty handed again - though Lachlan did catch a couple of tiddlers which he returned to the water) and then went down for a swim too.

Tomorrow we pack up and head off again - not sure if we will be in range, but I will write the next blog as soon as we are.

OH... and here's the photo I didn't get into an earlier blog (coz Uncle John took it and I had to get it off his camera) - here is Lachlan and the barra he caught at Kakadu - hard to believe he had to throw it back - but it was 2 cm under the legal size!

Hi to Kaity - sorry to hear about Bob. Hi to Ben - great to hear from you.