Tennant Creek was in our rear vision mirror by 8:30am this morning!! Driving through the town with all the shops boarded up with either shutters or security bars made us very thankful we’d only chosen to stop there for a night to break up the drive.

The only stop on our agenda today was the Daly Waters Pub which we hit spot on lunchtime. Such an iconic place to visit with lots of quirky features. We all enjoyed delicious meals for lunch (“A” and “R” burgers, “G” chicken parmi and “L” nachos) and just generally enjoyed looking at everything hanging around the pub. We also really enjoyed watching the dynamics of a bus tour group that came through – the bus driver and tour guide have the patience of Saints!!

As is customary at Daly Waters Pub, we needed to leave something behind to say we had been there. As “A” was not willing to give up a bra, we collectively decided that “L’s” old hat would be donated to the cause. He has bought a new one on this trip anyway and his old cap was getting a bit “young” and small for him. So, Daly Waters Pub now has a Batman Cap added to the collection!

Back on the road and about 30kms out of Mataranka we came up behind 3 x 5.5m wide oversize trucks. Everyone travelling in the opposite direction had to completely get off the road so there was no chance of overtaking these guys. Thankfully they were travelling around 90kmh and we only had 30kms to go so it wasn’t too bad.

We arrived at Mataranka Homestead and checked into our accommodation. The cabin is pretty old and basic but it will do. We unpacked and then hit the thermal pool where we spent the next hour or so. The water is stunningly clear and oh sooooo nice. “R” even spotted a couple of turtles.

We headed back to our cabin to get dressed and hit the bistro for dinner to watch the live band which unfortunately wasn’t playing tonight due to health issues. They did however have music pumping from the sound system so it was still a lovely evening eating outside and listening to music. At 8:45pm, the whip cracking show started. What an absolute spectacular!!! Nathan “Whippy” Griggs is extremely talented and has several Guinness World Records to his name. The entire show was so awesome, I think we’ll probably go back to watch it every night we are here! Andddddd, the boys may have got a whip each as early birthday presents from us 🙂

It’s pretty late now so we are all off to bed.