Stuart highway, NT.

After losing our hitch pin somewhere at our camp in Lake Argyle, Michael managed to rig up a bolt and wire that would get us back into Kununura to buy a new one. As we were leaving we mentioned it to our neighbours and they happened to have a spare. Great..that saved us a trip back into Kununura as we heading to Katherine that day and it would be a big day.

The road to Katherine was scenic and the Victoria River Roadhouse looked good for an overnighter but we pushed through to Katherine. We were surprised to find that Katherine had its own thermal springs so we walked through the Riverview CP where we were staying to the pools. It was a great temp and pretty busy at 5:30pm too.

We had seen our fair share of termite mounds but in the Northern Territory they loved to dress them up.

After leaving Katherine we stopped in at Mataranka and enjoyed their thermal pools. They were toasty and the girls didn't want to leave. After 20mins they were almost too warm as the outside temp was also quite warm. 

A short boardwalk leads you to the pools.

Not as natural looking as Bitter Springs thermal pools but pretty special.

In the car park we ran into Simon Christie who heads up 4WD TV.

Our next photo stop was Larrimah. It's famous for 'The Big Stubby' and it's pink hotel.

We stopped at the Daly Waters Pub for lunch. The specials were Barra Burger, Barra Bites and Barra Wrap.

After lunch Rubes asked me where Daddy was. "Oh he's at the shop across the road, the one with the helicopter on the roof"!

You've got to love the spelling in the outback

As we were leaving a group of guys on old Postie bikes rolls in. They were a bunch of friends who had so far raised $50 000 for Beyond Blue. They hat matching shirts and hats with "BTD"- beyond the darkness.

That night we stayed at Banka Banka Station and were really glad we did. It was only $20 a night, with hot showers, camp kitchen and grassy sites. 

It was lovely to walk barefoot on the grass and not worry about 3 horn jacks. I forgot to take a photo of this menace but they are like a bindi but more solid and very sharp edges. Some 3 horn jacks seemed to have too much fertiliser and had about 10 horns and double the size. Nasty types.

It was pretty full with overnighters and there was a communal camp fire and apparently they have a kiosk/bar that opens for happy hour.

Unfortunately we didn't take any photos of Banka Banka as it would've been nice to capture the amazing pink hues in the evening and the giant size black spider sculpture.

We gave this road train a wide berth.