Bitter Springs

At Lorella Springs there was a notice that there was no fuel at Roper Bar and their fuel was $3/litre. We made the decision to fill up from our Jerry cans which made the tank just short of full.

We had been speaking to another man at the campground who told us they had easily made it from Mataranka although it had taken them from 9.30 to 4.30 and they had stopped for lunch so we decided to go for it.

We managed to get going early at 9.30 and decided to stop at the Southern Lost city which we had flown over. It was amazing with tall sandstone pillars and it really did look like a ruined city. We would have liked to have stayed longer, but the kids were arcing up and we knew it was a long way still to go.

Stopped for 10 mins for lunch at a river camp, but decided to eat it in the car as seemed to be a long way still to go. The road was variable with some good gravel and some pretty rough where we had to slow right down.

Finally reached the bitumen at Roper Bar and decided to try to get all the way to Mataranka which was 180km and we had just over a quarter tank. The car trip computer saying that we could comfortably make it. As we found out it is woefully inaccurate. We stopped to re-inflate the tyres on car and van before starting. Initially we seemed to be doing fine at 100kph, but it soon became apparent that this was not quite as comfortable as we thought. We slowed to 80, then 60kph, turned off the phone chargers and the air conditioning (had to open the windows). Thought about stopping the kids DVD, but decided I would rather run out of fuel. Considered stopping for the night at roadside stop, but the first had been burnt out by a bush fire and then the next was pretty close to a further fire and no phone reception, so on we went. At 50km to go the fuel light came on and I had Edwina consulting the car manual to see how much the reserve was. By 30km to go the trip computer said our range was 0 and to refuel now. We crept into The first petrol station in Mataranka at 18.10pm in the twilight. We still had 7 litres remaining! By the time we found our site it was dark and well done to Edwina for directing me into the site in the dark in a very packed caravan park. A long day for all.

Next day we went to Bitter Springs which was really beautiful, although slightly touristy. They are hot springs which are spectacularly clear. You float along with the current in the warm water, get out, walk back up and repeat. So good that we went back again in the afternoon, although slightly less clear in the afternoon.