Our well rehearsed routine has been repeated yet again at Bitter Springs. Get up, breakfast, swim / soak in the thermal springs, lunch, swim / soak in the thermal springs, dinner, then bed. It’s pretty simple and fits in perfectly with the 35C days we have been experiencing while camped here. Our campsite is well sheltered from the sun and we are possibly acclimatised to the conditions so it doesn’t feel too hot. We have noticed that since moving away from the coast the humidity has reduced, making conditions a little easier to accept. The nights are also cooler and while it was 17C this morning when we got up, Wendy put on a long-sleeved top for a while to keep the chill out.
Around the caravan park we have noticed a gradual drop-off in patronage – while just a few weeks ago the place was full and caravans queued waiting to get in once sites freed up, there are now a number of empty sites throughout the park. We once heard a possible reason for this is that ‘grey nomads’ are heading back south for the start of the lawn bowls season at the beginning of September. Patronage at the springs has also fallen away a little, but it still attracts day trippers passing by on their way north or south along the Stuart Highway.
We were engaged by a couple who swam, like us, against the current to a quiet spot upstream of the majority of people. They were of similar age to us and up for a chat (although it was a little one-sided). It became apparent he was a climate change denialist and was firmly of the view that renewable energy was “OK to a point” but it “couldn’t deliver the base load requirements needed to power the country”. The solar farms appearing “everywhere” were also an eyesore, occupying valuable pasture land that could be put to more useful purposes. The Greens were all communists trying to get the rest of the nation to bend to their communist ways. His parting words were that it was the Greens who shut down the logging industry, costing him his job. As Wendy commented, it is always interesting to hear what thoughts people will share with complete strangers.
We bid farewell to the warm, soothing waters of Bitter Springs and wondered when next we might be passing through the area. It would be difficult to pass by here without stopping for a swim. Tonight we enjoyed the recently caught and shared barramundi we received from camping neighbours back in Jabiru. The fillet had travelled well in the freezer and cooked up a treat, poached in coconut cream and a mix of Asian spices.
It’s a reasonably big day of driving tomorrow, although all of it is along major highways. Our neighbours are also headed towards Mt Isa in their large campervan, towing a small 4WD on a trailer behind them. We may see them on the road tomorrow but somehow suspect we may travel ahead of them for much of the day given the size of their setup. A full moon is casting shadows everywhere around our campsite as we retire for the evening.