Bitter Springs

…after the desert we are now in a tropical savannah. There are some well known springs here at Mataranka. This one is called Bitter Springs. Here I am with my friend Shellie and her children Toby and Lily. We worked together for many years and she just happened to be here at the same time as us and we met for a morning swim at 7.30 to avoid the crowds. We floated down the river talking the whole time. The outside temp was 14° And in the springs it is 34° year round. Another one nearby is called Rainbow Springs which feeds into the Mataranka pools which are lined with concrete. Ours was natural so we floated past tree branches, lily pads and rushes. It was the best swim I’ve ever had. The Rainbow spring bubbles up 30.5 millions of litres of water everyday. Heaven. There are some areas you can’t  swim in as the water is dangerous and there happen to be freshwater crocs around. The freshwater crocodiles are not very dangerous to humans but the saltwater ones definitely are. 

This area is the place Jeannie Gunn came to in the early 1900s. She wrote an autobiography about the area and their station Elsey which is now a National Park. The book and film (1982) is called “We of the Never Never”. There is a replica house which they built for the film. The original was beyond repair ( probably eaten by termites).

The rest of the day was spent doing washing and another swim this afternoon to cool off. It’s still hot. 

Even though it’s the winter solstice here this week the sun goes down at the late time of 6.15pm. Sunrise is at 7am. There is a shortage of workers here at the moment mainly due to Covid stopping immigration and backpackers which are used for casual jobs in the dry season. Many places are closed in the wet season ( summer).

Note you’ll probably not see me in the water again….it’s a rare occurrence to show my face on blip let alone be wearing my swimmers.