28th July Daly Waters

 Kms today 305            Kms to date 7483

I had breakfast at The Beagle Motel where Morag and I stayed.  There were some Aboriginal women having a meeting and I asked them about the Banatjal Garden I was reading about in Bruce Pascoe's book.  This garden was established near Katherine so that the medicinal plants that Aboriginals had used for 1000's of years could be cultivated and understood. They directed me to an Elder called Mavis Jumbiri but she told me it was difficult to get to and suggested I go to the Jawoyn Association depot where there was a mini garden. She wrote down the details for me on a piece of paper in beautiful clear handwriting. So I did and met Samara, who showed me the garden, which had Lemongrass, Korik Korik and Casava.  I bought a jar of ointment which helped aches and pains.

 

Mini-banatjal Garden at Jwoyn Centre

I stopped at Mataranka to see if I could find my blue Yamaha side stand plate, but no luck.  But I did have a look at the reconstructed Elsey Station house used in the movie of We of the Never Never.

 

This Elsey Station homestead was built for the movie

 

 I went back to Mataranka township for fuel and lunch. Home baked meat pies were very good. I stopped at the Alexander Forest cairn.  It celebrated his journey in 1879 from The Pilbara to the overland telegraph at this point and on up to Darwin.  Twiggy Forest the Iron ore magnate is his great great nephew.

 

Alexander Forest Cairn from his journey in 1879 from The Pilbara

I stopped at the Hi Way Inn on the Stuart Hwy to check them out for breakfast.  A cyclist turned up to replenish his water on his way to Darwin.  I had a chat about his journey and his bicycle. A couple of adventure motorcycles also turned up to fill up and I saw them later at the Daly Waters Pub.

 

The tree near Daly Waters marked by John McDouall Stuart in 1862, while he surveyed the route for the Overland Telegraph

I checked in to the Daly Waters pub and found that I had not booked one of the new motel units but an old pub room.  They were cheaper but cold showers and noisy campers nearby made the savings not worthwhile.  Over dinner I chatted with a retired cattle farmer from Dubbo. He referred to aborigines as 'natives' and warned me to avoid Tennant Creek.  I resolved to make sure I was in the bar of the Goldfields Hotel when the local aboriginals were in full song!