FIELD NOTES// Bitter Springs

BITTER SPRINGS - MATARANKA

14.9000° S, 133.0833° E

Located in Mataranka, Bitter Springs is one of those gems you come across. Natural hot springs that wind their way deftly around pandanus palms and paperbarks. The water looks like the colour of blue obsidian - almost crystal clear but tinted acqua. The edges of the water are fringed with palm fronds, lurid green water plants and the charred trunks of bush burnt trees.

It’s the kind of water you can stare at for hours - the water presents an interesting duality of time and place. On the one hand is the reflection of vivid blue skies, on the other are glimpses of water and logs beneath. From above, so below.

Diving in, the temperature feels like bathwater - it suspends you as you float down the river, pushed along by the current.

You forget where you end and the water begins. This is what meditation feels like.

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NOTES

Smells like:

Dry eucalypts. Mineral water drying on skin. Sunshine in hair.

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Sounds like:

A kid or bird making a noise that sounds like the theme music for The White Lotus. A 4x4 showing people to their campsites. Birds twittering. Flies. The wind through the trees.

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Looks like:

Crystal clear water – where you can see the things below, but also see the reflection of trees and sky above. That blue – like the water in the Mediterranean – it makes me think of Greece. Palm trees edging the pools. Fronds fallen and decaying. Lime green water plants waving with the current. Submerged logs of deep earth brown and black.

Paperbarks and green swampy waters. Surrounded by trees, leaf litter falling to the ground.

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Feels like:

Stepping into a bath. The kind of weather I could get used to. A bit like Egypt with paperbarks and palm trees. A real holiday vibe – people with kids, tourists – relaxing in the water. Like school holidays as a kid, with all of the excitement.

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Tastes like:

A golden gaytime icecream on a hot afternoon. Hot tea.