Day 123, Thursday, 30 July 2009

Mataranka

Just before lunch the four of us rode down to Bitter Springs. I was keen to try out our “handle bar cam” video camera under water as the day before we had seen fish hiding amongst weed along the bank. The camera’s specifications say it is safe to use the camera in the water but to date we had not tried it out under water.

The Springs are hard to describe. Surrounded by pandanus, paperbark and palm trees the water flows along a creek with a couple of sizable water holes before we suspect it enters the Roper River. The water is a constant 34 degrees Celsius extremely clear with a blue hue to it. From above you can clearly see the bottom and all the fallen tree trunks and roots that crisscross the creek. The water on the creek’s edge is covered by a mat of green water plants and flowering water lilies. St Andrews spiders stretch their webs between the trees and the trees are alive with birds.  But its true magic lies beneath the surface.

The first time we went we were fortunate that Denise had her training goggles with her and we were able to swim upstream and then drift one at a time about 100 metres downstream looking at all the fish and fallen logs below the surface. The only comparison we can come up with is to swimming through a small aquarium with little shipwrecks with the fish swimming in and out the ships. In this case the ships are the sunken logs, which make great resting perches for tired swimmers. It is just a magical experience.

The other day we said, “after all thermal springs are all the same aren’t they”. Well weren’t we wrong?

I decided to use the video camera two ways - on my bike helmet and then hand held under water. I certainly got some very strange looks as I jumped in with a bike helmet still attached to my head and the recorder strapped to my wrist. I then took the camera off the helmet and swum up and downstream with the small camera in my hand underwater. By now the children swimming in the springs had worked out what I was up to and would suddenly appear underwater waving in front of the camera. The only problem I came across was that the inline microphone did not work underwater. I had a great deal of fun chasing the fish. Click here to watch the video.

Zoom into the map and use the 'Satellite' layer to see our new location.

 

Peter and Barbara carry a toilet seat stool. However, we did not expect to find Peter trying it out in the middle of the campground!

Using the helmet camera at Bitter Springs

Toddles returned today but on this occassion did not leave us a present.

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