bitter springs | Chaos roaming the world

Hmm, sweet sweet shade

We took our time leaving Mataranka, simply because it was such a nice place. Also, because we had two long days behind us, we didn’t have many plans for today.

The first one was visiting the Cutta Cutta Caves on the way to Katherine. Arriving at the caves at 11.10am, we were out of luck. The tour had just departed at 11am and the next one would go at 1pm. After a short discussion, we decided it was worth the wait and had an extended lunch break. The local ants were fascinating, transporting all our crumbs off into the mound.

At 12.30, the “office” opened and we fled inside as it had air conditioning. Our guide Cam, who also has a motorcycle, knows about heat problems and let us store our gear in the office rather than in the sunshine outside. *thumbs up*

The caves themselves were very cool. The limestone forms stalactites and stalagmites as well as the occasional column. The air flow is quite bad so the caves are hot but bats seem to like it as the live further towards the back of the cave.

Stalactites

Cam then demonstrated how the caves got their current name by turning of the light and having us stand there in utter darkness. Where the light of his torch touched the stone, most surfaces sparkled in the darkness. ‘Cutta’ means star and through the repetition of the word, it is indicated that there are many of them: Cutta Cutta is many stars.

Coming back out of the cave after an hour, we were lucky to see a rock wallaby with a baby in the pouch. So cute!

Afterwards, we drove to Katherine Gorge in a National Park to camp there and hire a canoe for tomorrow. Paddling through to the second gorge must be quite epic. We, and especially Flo, were in for a disappointment: We did get a campsite but there was no more canoe available for tomorrow.

Flo then saw no point in us staying here anymore. Luckily, we got a refund for the campground and drove another 100km to Edith Falls/Leliyn to a campground in a different corner of the national park.

Again, we just put our tent up and then jumped into the “lower pool” with a waterfall in the back, just as the sun was getting low. It was beautiful and we were the only ones in the water. I was slightly scared of crocodiles (there is much talk of them up here) but signs assured us that this is croc-free water.

While preparing our dinner, Flo managed to meet a German couple who are travelling around Australia in a camper van: Lars and Frederike.

: Hmm, sweet sweet shade

: On our way to the cave

: Down and down it goes …

: Guess why this is called Smithie’s rock ..

: Stalactites

: Glitters like many stars

: Flash light makes it less impressive

: These rock wallabies live in the cave’s mouth

: Temperature shock, coming overheated off the bike

: Evening light makes everything better

: The sky is clouding up a little every afternoon

: See you tomorrow, oh you cruel tyrant

We got on the road in very good time, around 9am. Which was well and good, since we had 560km to go *sigh*.

Heaps of memorabilia

I wish I could report anything of the trip, but really, there was very little besides refuelling and brief breaks. That is probably the main reason why two otherwise unremarkable pubs have become somewhat iconic roadside attractions. We had an ice cream at Renner Springs and a couple of cokes at the more prominent Daly Waters Pub. Filled with all sorts of memorabilia left by travellers coming through, it has sort of developed into a go-to place. As I said, in the end, what else would you do?

So we had plenty of time to talk, muse and most of all listen to audio books along the way. The landscape changed rather abruptly at Newcastle Waters. Temperatures go up again, humidity increases and all around trees and shrubs have replaced the arid plains of the centre. A more subtle change is the constant rise in height of the termite mounds, of which some are now taller than we are.

Why?! 30 Minutes without shade …

One last annoyance was a red lollypop on a construction site about an hour before our destination. We were the first to be stopped, so for the next 25 minutes we had front row seats to observe how roads are re-sealed. Thank you incompetent stick lady for no info at all and not waving past the only vehicle without AC to come through in 3 hrs …

But the light shines bright at the end of the tunnel. And it came in the form of the Bitter Springs, a ‘thermal spa’ stream in the bush. We arrived just in time for one quick swim before sunset. The perfect way to end a sweaty long day in the saddle. We swam along in the stream for a couple 100m. The water is actually ground water, leaking from an aquifer. Where the water flows, it is perfectly clear and has a lovely 34°C.