14 - Keep River National Park N.T.

June 2016 - 09/6/16

When businesses reopened at Kununurra after the long weekend we took our caravan to an auto electrician who utilised an instrument to assess our batteries. The battery assessment result was similar to our prognosis where one battery was announced as kaput but it was a different dud battery to our assessment. Naturally there were no batteries available for our requirement. The auto electrician also thought we should be able to survive with 3 batteries for our needs instead of our configuration of 4 batteries. We changed the batteries around to align all the good ones together and resumed our travels a bit puzzled by the whole scenario. 

The caravan park seemed quite full during our last couple of nights at Kununurra and as we drove out of the caravan park first thing in the morning there were about 7 caravans lined up down the street waiting to get in. It certainly looked like peak season was upon us. 

We had visited all of the locations we had on our wish list in the north eastern corner of Western Australia and it was time to execute a U turn to travel back to Katherine in the Northern Territory, where we would continue with our wish list of areas to visit north of Katherine.

Cat Fish also known as Silver Cobbler in abundance in the water ways

We travelled about 70 kilometres east, returning to Keep River National Park, (refer to entry 8). 

Last time we camped at the Gurrandalng campground and this time we decided to camp in the other campground at Jarnem. The 31 kilometres of dirt road was still in good condition suitable for a 2 wheel drive vehicle. 

We set up camp in a sunny location to assist our batteries with solar input hoping that our batteries would cope. 

It was still very hot with daytime temperatures feeling every bit of the forecast 36 degrees. There were less people in the campground than the month previous. We shared the campground with two other couples who had also arrived the same day and they voiced their unhappiness about the hot temperatures. They only stayed the night and moved on in the morning claiming it was more pleasant travelling in the cool of their vehicles than sitting around in a hot environment. 

Yes it was hot but we had a good strategy in place. Good fans circulating the air in our caravan and a four litre tub of ice-cream in our freezer. The feel of ice-cream travelling down to our stomachs felt delightful.

Campground before sunrise

 We were up early in the morning to complete the main walk from the campground, carrying plenty of cold water. We were on our way during the twilight hours before the appearance of the sun and were captivated by the effects of the rising sun on the landscape with the changing colours.

Effects of sun rising on landscape

Effects of sun rising on landscape

Heading up to the lookout

Heading up to the lookout

Heading up to the lookout

View from lookout

Looked a bit like Wilpena Pound - Flinders Ranges S.A.

Mary always gets Steve to walk in front to clear obstacles

It took 3 hours to complete the 7 kilometre loop track with stunning morning views from a lookout. Back at the caravan we striped off our soaked clothes, had a wash down followed by some nice cold ice-cream cooling our bodies.

Nice internal cooling

We were back in the country environments that we enjoy so much and as a bonus we had it all to ourselves.