Snapping Handbag Billabong and Nudie Hot Springs

From the homestead, we followed tracks and signs according to our instinct to reach Snapping Handbag Billabong for a couple of days camping.

As we checked the site, a sudden snort behind us in the bush alerted to a fabulous chestnut, brumby stallion. With head erect and constant snorting, he kept galloping back to view us with wide-eyed excitement.

Watching quietly for birds, revealed a pretty pair of striated pardalotes building their nest sporadically in their secret spot. 

Flycatchers twirled and dipped in the pandanus. Fishing is very much a case of: us 0, fish 1 snagged lure lost. Fish spotted included possibly an archer fish and a thin, pipelike gar.

Back bouncing on the road to Nudie hot springs, we spotted a bustard making his way with slow, haughty steps through thick savannah grass.

The spring issues at 50C up a rocky gully, then trickles down, getting progressively cooler, to form a pleasant pool surrounded by pandanus.

What pleasure to sit still on the shady edges of the pool and watch honeyeaters, finches, and flycatchers dipping gracefully into the surface, then preening on an overhanging branch.

A solitary mistletoe bird expertly squeezes a fruit to pop the contents down its throat.





In the evening we have a fine campfire that wafts thin tendrils of aromatic smoke through the open bus window as we drift to sleep.

In the morning we set off for Walker's Rock, but just 10km later get bogged in a dry gully in deep sand. Out comes the shovel and a big dig to get the rear right wheel out of an alarming 35 degree tilt that seems like it's broken. Thankfully a bit of grunt from the 4wd finally gets us unstuck. The sign at the homestead was spot on: This Way to Adventure!

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Lorella Springs, Northern Territory, NT