Day 10 Tennant Creek to Mataranka

Today we left Tennant Creek to drive to Mataranka. We stopped just out of town to see the Telegraph Station built using stone quarried from a site nearby part of the Overland Telegraph Line. The telegraph line changed the Northern Territory (NT) forever and provided Australia with its first line to Britain. It was 3,600km long and follows the steps taken by John McDouall Stuart in 1862.




Next stop The Pebbles an outcrop of mysterious granite boulders known to the Warumungu Aboriginal people as Kunjarra, The Pebbles, are a sacred site, dancing and healing rites of the Munga Munga dreaming take place, along with the ritual instruction of young girls.





We found the most unusual flowers at The Pebbles ranging in size from 10 to 50 cents growing beside the gravel pathway.




We then drove on towards Mataranka stopping at Daly Waters for lunch, such a outback pub that draws the crowds in huge numbers.









We kept driving arriving at Mataranka in time for some grocery shopping then a look at the We of the Never Never statues we remembered from some 20 years ago and found they had been replaced by a couple of newer ones and the story is no longer on display so disappointing.






Time when we got home to go for a float down the Bitter Springs thermal waters. Because of the recent flooding the walk into the springs we remembered with the palms and lush greenery has unfortunately been damaged and large flood debris pushed up against the larger plants by the water lies in clumps everywhere. As it was late in the evening we did manage to do two loops of the springs and had the entire place to ourselves which was very nice.