Fran's Devonshire Tea House

This day was the first half of the long, 1100 km drive from Katherine to Alice Springs. We wanted to take advantage of the last bit of warm, tropical weather before heading into the desert winter, so we stopped at Bitter Springs in Mataranka for a swim. This is a completely natural hot spring, with clear waters around 90 degrees. It was so pleasant we spent over an hour here, getting pruny and sunburned while chatting with another vacationing couple.




Mataranka had a little park along the highway with a giant termite mound engraved with a snorting bull (city symbol, I guess) and a number of life size statues of Outback characters. This is Jeannie and Aeneas Gunn, who ran the Elsey Station in the late 1800's. Jeannie wrote a book about her experiences called "We of the Never Never", which popularized that term for the remote outback.




A view of town.




Faithful Lonely Planet described only two real possibilities for lunch stops and Fran's Devonshire Tea House in Larrimah sounded too good to pass up. That's it, behind the hodgepodge of signs. We didn't really know what to expect, and after wandering up to the door and being greeted by Fran, the conversation went something like this:

Fran asks, "Are you hungry?"

Darrin & Michelle, looking around for a menu, say, "Yes!"

Fran asks, "Would you like some lunch?"

D&M, not finding a menu and wondering if we should have paid more attention to the signs out front, say, "Um, yes please!"

Fran offers, "How about some Camel Pie, fresh out of the oven?"

D&M, who until this very moment didn't realize Camel was edible, and for whom the word "pie" usually indicates a dessert, look at each other for a beat and say, "That sounds great!"



And so we each had our own, beautiful, homemade camel pie, which turned out to be similar to other British-type savory meat pies. It was quite tasty; not gamey or weird, and we got to add Camel to the growing list of "Critters We Have Seen in the Wild and Subsequently Eaten While on Vacation".

That is Fran behind me, bringing us our Lemon Squash. She was friendly and charming, and lay on the porch swing chatting with us while we ate. For dessert we had apricot pie with creme caramel topping, again delicious and obviously freshly made. I think this was my favorite meal of the trip.