Day 137 - Sunday 14 May - An outback institution

Day 137

Sunday

14 May 2017

Banka Banka Station – Elliot – Daly Waters (Camps 8 NT#89 $16pp)

It has stayed fairly warm for a fair stretch of the nigh, it felt a bit odd after being rugged up in Alice, this time we were kicking blankets off, though I did reach for them in the early hours of the morning. By the time I woke at 7.15 I was ready to kick them off again. 

We got up and went for a shower, not sure what to expect we were surprised at how hot and well pressured they were. We at our breakfast as many other campers began their journey. I wanted to get out for a walk and check out the waterhole on the property, a 5km round trip.

We followed the signs, walking a dusty, red and rocky track. We passed four old, 1950’s model, rusted out Holdens; FC, FE and EK makes. It makes you wonder how many of these treasures are being left to deteriorate in paddocks. While they were rusty, they were certainly salvageable and some of the chrome parts, while needing to be re-chromed, were still in good nick.

We continued on, watching a falcon surveying the land below for his breakfast and spying a few termite mounds.

We made it to the waterhole about 20min after starting. It was quite substantial, but we didn’t think it was overly deep. Satisfied we had made it to the end we returned to the van via the same track.

I prepared the van inside for our travel while Paul sorted outside and we were back on the road for 9.40am; good start to the day.

As we travelled along, I loaded the photos I had taken from the morning and sorted stuff ready to put on FB and the blog. The road between Banka Banka and the township of Elliot was nondescript and I wasn’t missing anything by having my head down.

At 11am we had made it to Elliot, a small highway town with a roadside petrol station. We stopped long enough to fill up the van and then we were back to the business of driving. Plenty of falcons and eagles were about today, so many circling high above, there must be plenty of food for them all. Larger eagles were making a meal of some fresher road kill, scattering as we drew close by.

I read the tourist info aloud, discussing things to see and do. Mataranka looks like our next stop and it should be stunning.

At 12.45pm we pulled off the main highway and travelled into the town of Daly Waters, there isn’t much here, but there is a historic pub and we were venturing in to hang out for the afternoon and to have the famous pub meal. As soon as we entered the pub we could see it was full of country character, signs and clothing had me laughing and pointing. We paid to stay the night at the onsite caravan park and prepaid for the barra and beef BBQ dinner before driving the van through the gates and straight to our site.

We made ourselves at home. Paul had some issues with the trailer – missing U bolt, some other bolts on the front of the trailer and then he completely broke the clutch cable on the bike. Guess we will have a list of repairs in Darwin with the bike, new trailer tyres and a service for the car.

We had our lunch in the comfort of our air con and watched the park slowly fill up. The books came out and we happily lounged about for a couple of hours, before deciding to go and check out the pub.

We made our way in through the back entrance. The beer garden was covered in an eclectic mix of paraphernalia; car number plates, thongs, cowboy hats all had a place to call home. We especially like the various signs, mostly phonetically spelled by someone who had a speech impediment.

The walls of the bar did not miss out either, here lived currency from all around the world, bras, caps, sporting jumpers of all codes, badges and ids, which we thought was probably not the smartest and a haven for any identity thief. 

The misspelled signs and food board still made me giggle “stake samige” yes please.

We caught the final kick of the Richmond v Dockers game to see the Dockers walk away with a final, after the siren goal and clinch a 2 point win much to Paul’s disappointment, We made our way to the pool area, 2 pools! We stuck our toes in one it was a little fresh.

I wandered around out the front taking more photos and checking the now closed souvenir shop. There is certainly a sense of humour in the “Outback”. We returned to the front bar and ordered a drink, happy to sit and chat to the Irish barmaid and listen in to other people’s conversations. Some of them just made our eyes roll, brows raise and head shake. Some people can be so “Tic”

We stayed at the bar for a couple of drinks before moving to the beer garden when happy hour commenced. I had already enjoyed their cocktail of the week, “Orange Orgasm” and was now on the cheap moscato.

We took up the centre front table for the entertainment. A duo, Lou and Phil, husband and wife or was that brother and sister (she was confused) from Nimbin. They were singing country tunes and they were very good. Phil swapped between a banjo, mandolin and a slide / fence picket / cricket bat, whatever you want to call it, stringed instrument. They were very good and thoroughly entertaining.

At 6.30pm our name was called and we collected our half n half, Barra n scotch fillet from the BBQ and then proceeded to fill our plate with an assortment of salads. There was enough food on my plate to fill me for a couple of days. We returned with our plates and began to devour our meals. The barramundi was delicious, unfortunately the fillet was a little too cooked for my liking and needed more seasoning, but it was fine all the same. Paul finished it off for me as I had reached my limit of food intake.

The sun set leaving a beautiful purplely pink hue across the sky. The singing continued for a further hour, people got up on the dance floor and the rest of us sang along, clapped and generally had a good time. Complimentary champagne was delivered to all the ladies in celebrate Mothers’ Day and when I had finished the last drop and the band had finished we returned to the van for the night. Paul was straight in to bed, while I joined him after I had loaded the pictures for the day, one we will remember for a while.