Keep River National Park / El Questro 5/9/2013

We have decided that as it is so hot during the day, we will try to get up early, pack up ready to go, then do a walk/hike. We can then drive during the heat of the day and arrive at our next destination late afternoon, which gives us enough time to have a short walk or swim before setting up.

The hike we decided on at Keep National Park ended up being 8km return. It was very confusing, with lots of options for different distances – just going opposite directions on a circuit. We just kept going in the same direction and did it all. It was a lovely walk, the first 1.5km was quite hot with no real shade, we could see that we were headed towards some rocky outcrops. Once we got to the base of the outcrops, it got very interesting, and really lovely.

We walked up a hill to a lookout first.We then continued down and around, the photos speak for themselves.

 We spent some time just enjoying the beautiful surroundings completing the circuit and walking the hot 1.5km back to the car. It was really nice to be all packed up, all we had to do was jump in the car and go – and enjoy the aircon. Just a few hundred metres from the National park was the border crossing into WA, all cars are searched for ‘contraban’ and then finally we were in WA and we had to set the clocks back 1.5 hours. We saw a sign for Lake Argyle and decided it was worth a look. It is massive, and as we drove over the dam wall it reminded me of Lake Kariba, definately brought some memories back. After driving around and taking a few pictures, we stopped in at the shop for an ice-cream. This is where we aquired our latest travelling mascot, Craig the croc.

 

 

 

 

 We  It was another hour and we were in Kunanarra. We headed into coles to restock our fruit and veg, looked around a few shops, then went into a coffee shop to catch up on all things internet.

We had heard a lot about El Questro, a station on the Gibb River Road that hass become a tourist hot spot. The consensus was that it was way too touristy but the gorge was a must see. We decided to stay for one night to see for ourselves. There were 2 camping areas, a general one and private camping. This sounded more like us, a campsite on the Pentecost river away from other campers. We booked a site and bought a permit – you cannot do anything on the property without a permit. This set us back $70, quite steep for a camp site. We drove down to the campsite and it certainly was a lovely spot, although not as private as we thought. It was still pretty close to the road and the river crossing to the rest of the private campsites, but it was better than being crammed into a caravan park. 

We had a lovely relaxing evening, we got a fire going and just relaxed. When we decided to go to sleep, we walked around to the other side of the car – and that is when we could hear the generator for the main homestead area! Hopefully they would turn it off at around 10.