CAMPSITE # 143 - Oz360's favourite seafood recipes

Thumbs up for Freshwater Prawns!! On our way into our Mataranka campsite, the boys set the Opera House shaped prawn net in a little creek. The next morning, as we drove off from camp we collected the net and found four rather friendly surprises...

We cooked them up on the side of the road so that they'd be good and ready for us come lunchtime. To cook prawns or crabs, we've found that you're best off doing so when they're fresh. We'll generally boil water in the deepest & widest billy we have, that way it'll fit your entire catch in comfortably without any claws hanging out the edge. We drop them straight into the water live. I know, not the nicest way to go but is there any nice way to die? I don't time how long it takes to cook, generally just go by their colour. Once they turn lobster red you're good to go... remembering that the hot shell will continue to cook the meat a bit after you've removed it from the water.

My favourite way to have prawns is making them into a Prawn Cocktail...

• A decent amount of shredded iceberg lettuce
• Generous amount of prawn meat
• Good squeeze of lemon juice
• Bit of Salt & Pepper
• Drizzled with some homemade Seafood Sauce - mayo, tomato sauce, Worcestershire & lemon juice. 

For crab meat, Taryn knocked up a killer Crab Dip for us all when we were in Katherine. It was an absolute winner & one I'll continue to make in the future...

• Meat of one crab torn into small pieces
• 2 cloves of finely diced garlic
• Seasoned with Salt & Pepper
• A slurp of sweet chilli
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• Small handful of spring onions
• Served with a packet of yummy crackers & they'll absolute treat!

Our favourite way to have calamari was good old Salt & Pepper Calamari. It tastes amazing when it's cooked right but I found out (the hard way) that they're really easy to bugger up. 

• Pan needs to be super hot.
• Lightly smear a small amount of butter and throw the calamari rings on right away without letter the butter burn.
• Grind a decent amount of Salt & Pepper & a good squeeze of lemon juice all over pan. 
• Providing all rings are flat on the pan, leave them alone to sit for about 20 seconds. Once you see the bottom half of the ring's colour turn from a clear flesh to a bright white, flip them over.
• Move them around the pan a bit to grab any excess S&P for 5 - 10 seconds then take them off the pan and place them onto some paper towel to drain out the oil.

Cooking calamari is always a very quick process as they shouldn't need to be on the pan for longer than 30 seconds so having everything ready to go before you begin cooking will make life a lot easier.

This is Borroloola, NT. Located off the beaten track about 250kms west of the NT / QLD border, this town features red dirt, empty cans of XXXX littered everywhere and dozens of stray dogs having brawls in the middle of the main strip. It's not exactly the type of place you would take your family on a holiday to but the caravan park had everything we needed, followed by an early morning departure the next day for the big drive back to home soil... back to the Sunshine State!!

Site : Borroloola Tourist Park

Rating : 7 / 20

Facilities : Basic Caravan Park. Good shady sites. $22 unpowered.

CAMPSITE # 142 - Mataranka Hot Springs, NT

Hot springs seemed to be all the rage in this area. All of the way from Litchfield down to Mataranka. But the ones we kept on hearing about were the hot springs at Mataranka and Bitter Springs.


We checked ourselves into -


Site : Mataranka Homestead 
Rating : 11 / 20
Facilities : Short walk to the hot springs pool. Riddled with people but that's what you can expect I suppose. Just 12kms drive to Bitter Springs. Loads of roos and peacocks ready and waiting to scavenge a free meal.

Mataranka Hot Springs - 

The colour of the water almost looks artificial. It's as though someone has come along with a giant bottle of blue food dye and tipped it all in. You can see right to the bottom! Tom and Jim thought it would be a good idea to go for a late night swim, when you can see the steam coming off the water and there's no other folk around to bother you. The swim got cancelled very quickly when a brown snake found its head within inches from Tom's ankle and tried to have a go at him. Urgh! For some reason, the boys got really put off by the thought of going for a swim in the dark!!

At Bitter Springs there's a gradual current that will sweep you along the springs. At this point we really wished we had some sort of flotation device because you can't touch the bottom so it quickly becomes a rather tiring swim.

I've been leading James down the Australian path. I tempted him with a good old Aussie Lamington and not surprisingly, he very promptly asked for seconds...

Tom's been desperate to take James out for a fish, so that they can tick catch / fillet / cook a fish off of his To Do list. To date, there's been no fish to speak of but we've just continued to remind Jim that persistence will prevail...

CAMPSITE # 141 - Katherine NT. Laws of the land.

Finally, my brother from another mother - Ben, answered his phone. We had already been through Katherine on our way up to Darwin and somehow Ben managed to become the most difficult person to get a hold of. Ben's best mates with my eldest brother, James. Back when they were at high school together, Ben was boarding at the school. Which actually meant that he stayed in his dorm at school when he absolutely had to and then spent the remaining time shacking up at our place for five years, bringing his dirty washing home to my Mum and living life as the third Mackay Brother.

Ben was always a favourite of mine, I suppose that's because he was the only one that I remember sticking up for me when James used to hang me by my ankles off our two storey verandah while I dangled, upside down, above our concrete driveway.  Ben never managed to stop him but the future policeman inside of him certainly knew right from wrong.


Ben and his wife Taryn have been working in Katherine for the last few years as police officers. The weekend we spent with them, they doubled as tour leaders - showing us the sights of Katherine. Our favourite was the Katherine Hot Springs, just 1km out of the town centre...


Crystal clear water...

Being officers of the law, we were able to update ourselves on the local NT police laws. Some we found quite interesting...

• You can have as many people as you want riding in a car so long as all of the 5 seatbelts are in use.
• Your car is considered your own property so you can drink in your car, even the driver can drink while he's driving providing he's not over the limit.
• A minor can drink as much alcohol as he wants in a public place providing his/her parent/guardian says it's ok. In other words - 5 year olds can get blotto at the pub so long as its mother says it's ok.

Constable Simpson will enforce these laws...

Pizza in Darwin and now Burgers with the lot in Katherine... Jim really isn't being introduced into the world of camping very well...

CAMPSITE # 140 - Litchfield National Park, NT

We'd heard reports from people about how Litchfield compared to its rival on the otherside of the Stuart Highway, Kakadu... Some had criticised Litchfield for being overly populated by travellers with paved footpaths leading to uninteresting destinations. Others had said it far outweighed any attraction in Kakadu and featured a lot more to do and see.


We had to find out for ourselves and make our own minds up...


Unlike Kakadu, there are no Caravan Parks, all of Litchfield is bush camping. The first campsite we went to was packed out and felt a little unwelcoming but luckily, that led us to...

Site : Buley Rockhole 4WD access only camp
Rating : 9 / 20
Facilities : Fires allowed. Walking distance to Florence Falls. Right near freshwater creek. Drop dunnies. Great private area thanks to its 4WD only restrictions.


First on our list was a dip at the freshwater waterfall of Florence Falls. 

I was ready and roaring for a dip until Tom spotted this little (and by little I mean BIG) Olive python sunning himself on a ledge right next to the water level...

And then this slippery little sucker... I was definitely staying dry that day!

Off to the Lost City... where the striking erosional landscape is said to resemble that of a Lost City...

Jim just chilling out on the verandah of the Lost City Inn..

Kings' Castle... apparently...

Tom waiting outside the Lost City Barbers... (unfortunately as with the Lost City, the Lost City Barbers was imaginary and his long hair & beard still remains intact).

Off for a dip at Buley's Rockhole...

A dip and then a bomb dive...

Tom was determined to fight the force of the waterfall...

A red backed fiery wren...

As Jim was just a new additional to our little travelling pair, we were discussing the things he would like to learn/do during his five weeks with us. Together, the three of us made a list of "Things to do with Jim" while he's with us. Hopefully, by the end of his time in Australia, we can tick the boxes for each of the following - 

• Light a campfire using his flint
• Catch / fillet / cook a fish
• Catch / fillet / cook a squid
• Catch a shark
• Find a didgeridoo prepared by termites for our us
• See a big red kangaroo
• Learn to communicate with termites (so Jim can kindly ask they to hollow out a log and make a didgeridoo for us)
• Learn to drive the Troopie
• Learn to cook Amy's famous chocolate pudding - that one applies to Tom too
• Navigate us all the way to Cairns and check coordinates using GPS
• Learn all about the constellations
• See a snake
• Learn how to prepare, manage & cook on a campfire
• Grow taller than Tommy & Amy
• Not get bitten by anything.

So far we can already tick the boxes for - seeing a snake and Jim can now light a campfire using his flint. After Tom showed him, Jim had mastered the art within 5 minutes. 

On our last night in Litchfield, we debated our preference in the ultimate National Park-off of Kakadu vs Litchfield. Our conclusion was that the two are completely different and should not be compared. While Kakadu offered amazing scenery, spectacular wildlife and very impressive rockart, Litchfield featured extremely inviting fresh waterholes and breathtaking terrains of termite mounds and savannah bushland.

When in NT, must do as the locals do. Australia's biggest stubbie... 2 litres!!