It's a long way to Tipperary...

'No it's not, it's just down the road'...

After Pine Creek, we wandered down to the Douglas Daly region, which is about 300km south of Darwin still. Earlier in Week One, one of the teachers had raved about the Douglas Daly Hot Springs, billboarding them higher than the Mataranka version, so of course it was our first stop over...
Umm, no. There's only about 3 square metres of water that is actually warm and of course that's where everyone sits. The rest of the creek is pretty damn cool. The Hot Springs themselves start further upstream but it's closed to white folk 'cause of cultural and conservational reasons - it's a sacred ceremonial site for the local Wagiman women. Also, the water can get up to 60 degrees and they don't want people hurting themselves.
Of course, none of that daunted the other maths team. They ignored warnings of quicksand, laughed at comments about scalding temperatures and jumped straight into the section that was supposedly off limits. Then they say they realised their 'mistake' on their return.

We then drove 17km along a dirt road with 5 river crossings (well, puddle crossings but damn it, its the best we've gotten all tour) and headed to Butterfly Gorge. It's a pretty short walk but steep, and the change in terrain is pretty marked - bush/rainforest to sandstone rubble. Then you walk/slide/crawl down the side of the hill and arrive in a gorgeous swimming hole. There are trees growing out of the rocks and butterflies live in the area. Very pretty, probably one of my favorites so far.

Then Douglas Daly, which was a tiny school of 6 kids. Had a headache (again) so the end of the day was bloody torture. But got through it, popped a few pills and then headed down to the local 'club' (which was basically an open shed with a drinks fridge) and watched a bit of telly (-as an aside, EXTRA's is bloody funny ;o)

Then headed off to Tipparary. R! was singing the song 'It's a long way...." and one of the kids from Douglas Daly piped up with 'no it's not, it's just down the road'. Anyway, visited the Arches (again, a gorgeous swimming hole. The NT is blessed with amazing swimming places... and crocodiles. So I guess it's a bit of a trade off.) and then made it to Tipperary...

Which is a story in itself that I shall save till tommorrow when we hit the big city lights of Darwin.