Day 24 17th May 2014 Saturday. Ready to leave by 7.30am but Dad’s Waeko Freezer had conked out and all the meat / fish / fruit had thawed. It was still cold so a mad rush to get it into the fridges. We headed off shortly after to Daly Waters. Stopped at Highway Inn for fuel at $180.9. Only put 50 litres to get us to Mataranka. We were planning to stop and have a look around at Qantas site, have lunch at Pub etc but everyone in hurray to get to next stop. Arrived at Territory Manor Caravan Park which is very nice. Lots of shade and very spread out. Was not allocated a specific spot and so drove around til found what we wanted. After setting up and lunch and a load of washing we headed to Bitter Springs Thermal Pool which is just at the end of the road we are on about 2.5km away. Mum was busy cooking up some of the meat that we had put in the fridges earlier and so stayed back. We had bathers, towels and noodles. Forgot to take our reef shoes but will know for tomorrow. The pools are very natural and have not been commercialized like the Homestead Springs. There are steps down into the springs, a landing for photos and at the end of ‘the loop’ steps and bridge to get you back to the starting point. We floated around for over an hour and did the loop with our thongs in our hands so that we had footwear to wear back along the path to the starting point. It was a great experience and is high on my list of best things. For tea we shared whiting (from this morning’s mishap) and chips and salad. We again played cards and Mum took the money. Today it was very hot at 34C and only 21C overnight. We needed to switch the A/C on every now and then to cool down.
