Mataranka Homestead & Kakadu

Well the holiday has kinda started for me. So far it's been about getting up here. I was planning on spending the night at Daly Waters with a couple from Syd, but as I arrived, they declared they wouldn't be staying as the camp grounds were not as good as they remembered.

But luck has it, Craig from Wodonga, on his Suzuki VStrom 650 was about to leave Daly Waters stopping further up north. We starting chatting and I checked on the web for available accomdation and I select Mataranka Homestead. He left but I had to have a beer at this famous pub. As you can tell from the pics, there are the usual hats, tops etc all hanging from the wall. To be honest it was a real let down. Points for trying, but they could do a lot better. Does not hold a candle when comparing the Birdsville, William Creek, Innamincka pubs.

There was a tour bus with 20 something onboard and they decided to play a game of 10 pin bowling on the road in front of Daly Waters Pub. The pics don't do it justice, but the boys at the pub became very interested in the game :)

We decided on budget motel rooms at the homestead rather than set up camp. I had some personal things I needed to attend to, so Craig went into the hot springs whilst I worked away. Later in the evening we headed for the bar, had a few ales and dinner and then the band came on. Whist the band was having a break, a guy who builds and promotes whips did some fantastic displays of cracking whips and getting people from the crowd involved. Really impressive place and would go back.

Today was a relaxing start with only 100km to get to Katherine. Stocked up on food and water from Woolworths, had breakfast along the banks of what I assume is the Katherine river and then headed for Kakadu. The road in from Pine Creek to Cooinda was like the black spur but at higher speed. Turns!!!!! I finally got to lean over the bike and have some fun. That's about +50km of bliss, so I was very happy. Haven't seen a turn where I had to lean in many many days. 

There are several areas where you can camp in Kakadu. They are all run by the same company and cost $36 per night for a non powered site. FU#$%^ highway robbery. but hey - it's the same company that runs Uluru, so expect to pay through the nose.


My camping ground for the next 3 nights. 

Seriously??????