21.6.2009

Yesterday we left an overnight roadside stop about 50 km out of Mataranka

and headed south expecting to get to a lake near the town of Elliot. It was

a cold night and the rumble of road trains every 15 mins or so was a

reminder to try and find campsites a little further off the main drag.

We stopped at Mataranka to enjoy the thermal pools and at 34 degrees C they

were great! The nights and mornings are very cool now – I even dragged the

trakky daks out last night – so to have a warm bath was very nice. Getting

out again was a different matter!

From Mataranka we went to Daly Waters where we planned on doing a lunch

stop, but ended up staying the night. We had heard it was a fun place and

very unique and at $20.00 / night for a powered site we thought it too good

to pass up.

The whole scene is very funky and the pub is a hoot. It’s got a real wacky

outback vibe and needs to be seen – a real Aussie icon! They do a Beef and

Barra BBQ each night so we signed up that – again blowing the budget quite

significantly but it was great stuff and well worth the $$.

A couple of tips though for staying at Daly Waters:

– Position your camper well away from the ablutions. We were right next door

and thought initially thought it great, as we had an ‘ensuite’, but the

leech drains just weren’t coping and the gentle waft of excrement that would

occasionally blow across the camper took away from the experience just a

little…

– Position your camper well away from the pub – or be prepared to stay up

late! The Saturday night crew partied on loud and long probably till

12.00ish and when I saw loud I mean LOUD. I was too cold to go and give them

a rev, but then being Saturday night and it being a pub what could you say

anyway?…

Still – if you’re headed this way then make sure you include it for a stop.

Unpowered sites are only $10/night, there is a pool and it’s a fun

experience.

We also met another family from Ocean Reef who are also doing the lap but

going in the opposite direction so we were able to share tips and learnings.

A shame we weren’t going on the same path as they seemed like cool people.

22.6.2009

It’s great when you find a little spot out of the way that is both beautiful

and free. While we were in Barn Hill our ‘next door neighbours’ told us of

Longreach Waters, a larger inland lake just 12km out of the little town of

Elliot. Apparently it is not well known to tourists and provides great free

camping alongside a lake full of birds and mussels.

Well we are here now – have stayed one night and will probably stay another

1 or 2. It is a really nice spot and the only downside is that the water is

a bit muddy and not that great to swim in – although it’s probably only been

25 or 26 degrees C for the last few days so no one is too worried.

We saw lots of mussel shells on the bank near where we camped so Sam and I

went exploring to try and snaffle a bit of local sea-food. We wandered up to

waist deep in sludge for a little while and managed to find some snail like

creatures, but couldn’t locate the mussels. A bit of local knowledge would

be handy about now, but we haven’t seen any aboriginal folks down here. The

cook was doing up lemon chicken for dinner so we decided that as appetizing

as the snails may have been we would settle for chicken…

We did drop up to meet our ‘neighbours’ yesterday – some people camped about

a km up the lake, but upon getting closer realized they were doing it ‘el

naturel’… We didn’t want to terrify the kids so we turned back and left it

at that… and I told Ellie to put away the binoculars!

The pelicans are funny birds… I’m no ornithologist but it has been

intriguing watching them. They move up the river like a flotilla and duck

for food as a unit. Amusing to see 50 pelican all do ‘heads down bums up’ in

unison!

To get to Longreach Waters turn right just before the cattle grid as you

enter Elliot and drive 12kms west until you hit the lake. If you aren’t

going here then just keep driving because Elliot is not inspirational at

all…

Last night Danelle and I went out to dinner – our first few hours alone in 8

weeks of traveling. It was nice to get away from the little people for a

while.

It’s always hard to know where to go for a good feed, especially when in a

different city. A rough internet search finished up with me suggesting we

try The Jetty, a buffet restaurant down by the water and pretty reasonably

priced.

They advertise themselves as ‘Steak & Seafood’ so I figured there was

something for everyone. We got there in time for sunset – which actually

didn’t matter because you couldn’t see the sunset… and decided on an

outside table on the verandah right over the water. You could tell you were

in Darwin by the sign on the wall that said ‘please don’t feed the fish or

crocodiles’…

It was a balmy Darwin night and it was a beautiful spot to be. The waiter

took our wine order and the wine came about 20 minutes later, a little after

we had eaten our first course… the first sign they were understaffed or a

little disorganized.

The food was a mix of the superb and the very ordinary – but then that’s to

be expected at a buffet. The cold seafood was great, the steak superb and

the veggies very nice. The chilli crab was dry as a bone, the ‘crab claw’

was seafood extender wrapped in breadcrumbs and the pork in plum sauce was

more batter than pork. Still there was enough there to enjoy and plenty of

variety to savour.

When it was time for sweets the options were passionfruit cheesecake, fruit

salad or two varieties of sponge cake with either lemon icing or chocolate

icing. My tip would be to get rid of the sponge cake. It gave it that

‘sizzler’ feel and didn’t do anyone any favours.

We bravely ordered a coffee and then went to get some sweets to enjoy with

the coffee. Forty five minutes later the sweets were gone and the coffee

hadn’t arrived. We managed to grab a waiter and 15 minutes later had the

second lamest coffee I have had in a long time – a tasteless weak flat white

made from stale beans. I knew it was a gamble, but it was still pretty

awful.

We drank the coffee and headed for the exit where the total cost was $75.00

– for dinner and wine (we agreed that the coffee shouldn’t be paid for…)

All in all pretty good value for money given the nature of the restaurant.

If I had to sum up the one thing I have been sensing from God over the last

8 weeks it would be that the prophetic identity of the church must increase.

I have been feeling this with a growing intensity so I share it here for

your reflection.

To clarify, by ‘prophetic identity’ I don’t mean the giving and receiving of

prophecy but I am referring to the need for the church to be both able to

reflect on its own nature as well as the nature of the society of which it

is a part.

I am increasingly convinced that our ‘missional’ voice is tied to our

prophetic voice and if we can’t live significantly different lives and

reflect the kingdom in the things we do, then chances are people will not be

the least bit interested in our words. By the same token part of the

church’s role in society is to critique the ways we seek meaning and

fulfillment and to boldly point people back to Jesus – knowing that many

will still regard this as folly.

This quote from Segunda has resonated deeply with me over the last few

weeks:

“We believe it is appropriate to the religious life to call into question or

even protest against church and society; against the church to the extent

that it is decadent or ambiguous, or has lost its radical dynamism; against

society to the extent that it has become dehumanized or dechristianised and

thus the source of oppression and injustice” p.82 Following Jesus

Newbiggin has said that the ‘church is the hermeneutic of the gospel’, or in

laymans terms ‘the way the local church expresses itself communicates

clearly the nature of our gospel’.

I find that at times my life seems to look like nothing more than a

religious version of ordinary suburban existence as I fall into line with

everyone else, but I desire much more than this.

Our Upstream Communities identity was birthed in the midst of studying the

sermon on the mount, one of the most confronting and disturbing parts of

scripture you will ever read. It continues to challenge and inspire me to

live differently even if I do it somewhat poorly at times. My mate Jarrod

Mckenna reminds me that these are not a collection of ‘ideals’ that Jesus

presents here, but that they are his instructions for how we are to live. He

wants us to read it and do it…

I don’t think it would be any trouble to invert the beatitudes and observe

much of contemporary western culture – yet our challenge is to somehow live

in them and call others both within and outside the church to embrace them

also.

I find this concept of being ‘prophetic’ disturbing because it involves

critiquing and disturbing both within and without, a practice that rarely

makes you lots of friends. I have done a fair bit of critique over the last

few years as we have asked questions of mission and church, but I don’t feel

that time has come to an end. In fact if anything I feel it stirring

strongly again.

If the church has a healthy future then I believe that reclaiming its

prophetic voice is an important step.