Daly Waters Pub

Friday 25th July – Good drive up to Daly Waters from Tenant Creek, 400km, the road is much much busier than the roads we’ve experienced over the last month or so.  So much traffic!  Road trains are back too but at least these are wider roads.

Daly Waters Pub

 

We pulled up outside this infamous pub to check in for the night, it’s fairly late in the day so all the powered sites have already gone.  This pub is a classic old Aussie outback pub with plenty of character.  The caravan park is basically a big car park next to the pub and you check in at the bar.  There are easily 6 or 7 staff serving and checking in 3 or 4 people at a time whilst serving drinks and taking meal orders.

This place is known for it’s Beef and Barra barbecue, and it seems you have to pre order and book it as they only serve so many.  We can’t get ours until 7.30pm which is a bit late for Maddy but so be it!  Seems there’s entertainment on too, no doubt that will be entertaining!  It wasn’t expensive though, $10 for the caravan and $70 for the meals for the 3 of us, can’t be unhappy about that.

The set up at Daly Waters Pub

 

The caravan park set up is quite amazing, a slightly strange scrawny looking guy on a push bike tells you exactly where to park your van, they line you up real close and as most people are here for the night, they also park you up almost nose to tail too, I don’t think I have ever seen a caravan park quite like it, in fact I think we just call it a car park rather a caravan park, that’s more accurate.

The Showers and Toilets – funny little tin sheds!

 

The Pub itself is a totally crazy place.  It has rows of caps, bras and knickers hanging above the bar, I am guessing that happy customers donated them late in to the evening…

The Bar and Reception

 

The Bar and Pool Table

 

We hadn’t got the van set up before Maddy had found herself a little friend, Gabrielle, she was 7 years old and from Sydney, her folks lived at Galston Gorge which we know well, beautiful spot.  They had just retired and had taken Gabrielle out of school for 3 months to travel.

As it was hot and there was a pool I  took the girls for a swim, bless them they had a ball playing together in the pool. Everyone is always fascinated with Maddy’s Merfins, she’s happy to share them with her friend too which is nice.

Maddy and Gabrielle – best buddies after just 1 hour together

 

It was too cold for me but the girls loved it

 

After the girls had had a swim we showered and got ready to go over to the pub for the evening entertainment before dinner. The pub was so busy!

 

We were lucky to get a decent seat, had we left it much later we would have been sitting inside I think.  The entertainment was actually really great,   the first guy played a whole heap of covers, most of which I knew including several Buddy Holly, I was brought up with Buddy Holly as my parents were big fans, isn’t it funny how you might not have heard a song for 15 years yet you can still sing along and know almost every word.

 

The Beef and Barra BBQ was a very well organised affair, everyone had ordered and been given a time slot, so on the half hour, the music stopped for a few minutes while they shouted out peoples names to pop up and collect their meal.  There must have been easily 30 meals served every 30 minutes between 6pm and 8.30pm, that’s pretty good business for a funny little old pub in the middle of nowhere!

The BBQ area in the Pub before it got busy

 

We were pretty hungry by the time the food arrived, it was well worth the wait though, we both had both beef and barramundi and you helped yourself to as much salad as you wanted from a good salad bar.

BBQ in full swing, just beef or Barra on the menu

 

The second entertainer was also pretty good, lots of covers that were well suited to the grey nomads which of course make up 90% of the customers, they all got up to dance to the ones they liked, but they weren’t so keen on The Twist, I couldn’t resist it though…

One only does the twist after the 3rd glass of wine…

 

Saturday 26th July – Maddy enjoyed playing with Gabrielle for an hour in the morning while we packed up the van, didn’t take long as we were still hooked up and hadn’t used power or water. Destination today Mataranka which is where the hot springs are, hoorah!

Servo and shop across the road

 

Just a few more shots around the place before we left.

 

Thong Tree?