​June 2 to 8 Pine creek to Mataranka and here we sit.

We are in Never Never Land! Remember Jeanie Gunn's book 'We of the ..... ' and the movie, well that here and some of the filming took place close to where we are. We're camped at Little Roper StockCamp on the banks of Little Roper Creek in Big River country, about 7K from Mataranka. It's rather an idyllic and very rustic bush place. Here you can get up close to buffalo and cattle - they are pets. The buffaloes, rescued orphans, are called Bubble Gum, Mad Mullet and Twitch. The cattle were also orphaned. Des and Telka also have pet pigs and chooks.

Say hello to Donkey, Elsey and Little Roper. (R-L). The first two were orphaned and the little one is their baby.

How cute is this little guy? Stood up to say hello

Now I don't know who we're looking at here but their names are Bubble Gum, Mad Mullet and Twitch. If you've never heard a buffalo call then you'd be surprised to know they sound a bit like a baby's cry or grunt. Completely out of proportion to their size.

Des's bucks night car! So the story goes. Totally unroadworthy but great to go collect the wood in when the trailer is hitched up. Cool eh!?

Every morning guests are invited to a Stockcamp brekkie of either Johnny cakes or Puftaloons with whatever topping you like - they taste good, particularly washed down with Billy tea of course. All for a coin donation. They are very generous hosts.

Des keeps the fire stoked to boil the billy.
Note bare feet in the ciders .... ouch!

These are puftaloons. Des makes them with bread flour and yeast and grabs the dough when it's at first rise stage. The guests take turns at cooking. Interesting experience! The cooker is a 44 gallon drum filled with sand with rocks to hold the fry pan. It's our turn to cook tomorrow.

This beautiful little olive python joined us fit brekkie this morning.

Second night here we dined royally on a 3 course Stockcamp roast dinner. Delish!

Camp bread a bit picked over but absolutely scrumptious.

This is Des mid-yarn. He's a teacher by training and teaches at the aboriginal community schools - when he has some time. But he's spent a lot of time as a stockman around these parts and has some great stories to tell. He taught us how to mend a stock fence and gave us a few survival tips.

Since we arrived, we've had a good look around. We're on the edge of the Elsey National Park but also not so far from the Arnhem Plateau and aboriginal land. We took a spin a wee way up the central Arnhem road for a look at country - beautiful. And since then we've checked out the thermal springs in the area.
Bitter Springs was named by an overland telegraph linesman back in the 1870s because the water tasted bitter.  Water bubbles up artesian aquifer through limestone plus. Fish don't live in it because oxygen levels are low, but there are a lot of creatures that love it - algae, insects, the golden orb spider, birds, lizards etc. Talking about fish and oxygen, that reminds me that I was told aboriginals put crushed leaves of various native trees in the water to stun the fish and eels; the poisons in the leaves deleted the oxygen in the water and the fish float to the top. They then get the kids into the water to splash about and oxygenate the water. The lead poisons are harmless to mammals and soon wash away. Cool eh!?
The water at the springs, and elsewhere, is crystal clear and warm - too warm for my liking but loads of people swim and float downstream in it BUT only a little way as there are crocs downstream of the Springs. Rainbow Springs is just down the road from us so we've checked those out too.
We've done all the walks we can do - some tracks are closed still because of high water levels and the risk of crocs but also large stretches were damaged during the wet. This last wet the area got ~1.5 metres of rain. That's a lot of water in a short time.
We'll be here a few more days waiting on a package to be delivered. Our trusty 12V fan got injured on a rough road so we bought another one on eBay, as you do! We'll need it next place we're heading as there won't be a lot of spots with electricity. Hey ho, the joys of travelling in warm climes - and on rough roads. And Loving It!!