Bubble, bubble toilet trouble

We left Tennant Creek by 9.15am and headed up the Stuart Highway toward Katherine but stopping short at Mataranka.
On the way we stopped at Daly Waters Hotel which is famous for all the weird paraphernalia on its walls and hanging from the rafters but it was originally licensed to service passengers and crew from the nearby airfield in 1938. Early in WWII, Daly Waters became a major staging post for aircraft, men and materials travelling to Darwin and onwards. It was very busy there and seems to be connected to a caravan park also. The sign as you pull up to park says, “ANGLE PARKING Any angle mate!” The walls have all sorts of stuff around and hanging on them including some bras with writing on them by the owners presumably saying it’s the best pub etc and even a prosthetic leg in the corner near one door! We didn’t stay there to eat since it was very busy and seemed sort of messy and not a pleasant place to eat but that’s just our opinion. There was a new looking roadhouse five minutes back down the road so we went there and got something to eat and drink to replenish us before completing our trip.
We booked into our hotel room and then went for a walk around town which didn’t take very long due to its size. There is a park on the other side of the road and once upon a time some effort was made to provide things of interest to tourists but it is looking a bit jaded now. They have a giant man-made termite mound (‘the world’s largest’ – I wonder how many there are in the world?) which is supposed to play recorded information if you press a button but it doesn’t work. It does have some written information though and there are some statues of many of the characters from the book written about this area called, “We of the Never Never” by Jeannie Gunn but they are looking a bit sad too. There are some interesting big trees in the park and one, a native fig I think, had lots of birds in it making quite a racket and feeding on the fruit.
For dinner, there didn’t seem to be much choice; we went to the pub which is also owned by the Motel owner and the menu looked rather limited so we went into a little shop/cafe and they seemed to have more variety including beef stew for $2.50 less than the pub. We ordered and were quite surprised to find that the beef stew WAS the same as the pubs since the lady said she gets the prices mixed up between them and she does the food for both! Fin said the stew was spicy and very nice; it came with buttered bread but no vegetables. We might see what else is around for tomorrow night’s dinner!
The next thing that happened to surprise us was that the toilet in our cabin started making bubbling, gurgling noises and was filling up with water. I thought it didn’t flush well earlier so Fin went to the pub and got the owner and he said he knew what the problem was and had to plunge it outside somewhere but when it didn’t clear it, he said we could either move rooms or use another room for the toilet. Despite being all unpacked we decided to move across to the cabin across the way. It is actually newer and better anyway so it all worked out fine. What a night!