Day 78 Keep River National Park

Day 78 is a day full of walking tracks and then some nice lake lookouts to relax. The Keep River National Park is in the Northern Territory so driving about 40km back from Kununurra and 1.5h time difference to Western Australia was a bit of time travel back and forth.

Keep River National Park had about six walks on offer. We decided to start with the longest walk which included two other walks, the Jarnem Loop Walk. The walk is at first flat before a steep climb to the lookout starts. As the air was a bit dusty, probably due to all the burnings around, one couldn't look too far, but still a nice lookout over the surrounding area. The walk then goes on to Nigil Gap, where one can see some old aboriginal rock art paintings. The walk then goes back to the car park via the Nigil Gap walk, which is actually the best part of the walk with amazing views of the stone formation with palm trees. Just be aware that there are many, many flies, which really enjoy biting you all the time...

The next walk is the Jenemoon Walk leading to an aboriginal shelter in the wet season. The walk is pretty rocky and partly scrambling over rocks and at the end of the walk, there is just a bluff with some shade but nothing more to see, pretty disappointing. On the way back in one of the pools looking really dirty so not inviting to swim or cool down although the temperatures were exceeding 38C, we spotted a fresh swimming in this mud pool.

The Goorrandalng Walk almost at the start of the Keep River National Park is a short walk with some steeper sections but really nice to walk and has spectacular views of the stone formations. It was definitely the best walk with great views and a great length given the heat of the day. The last walk, the 15min Ginger's Hill Walk we skipped as it was just a way up a small grassy hill with nothing to see, which we haven't seen already.

For the afternoon we were driving to Lake Argyle in the hope for a nice swim in cold water to cool down, as walking & cooling down in a pool was always very nice in the Litchfield and Kakadu National Parks. On the quest for a swimming spot, we spotted some black cockatoos at the Lake Argyle Resort, the impressive Lake Argyle dam and took quite a few photos of this huge lake stretching quite far. Unfortunately, there was no swimming except for a fee in an artificial pool at the Lake Argyle Resort, so no swimming to cool down on this day. Instead, we time-traveled through the Western Australia Quarantine station, giving us 1.5h more time to look for some dinner for take-away in Kununurra. Pretty disappointed about the non-existent options, we went for some pizza at Subways - yes, in the Kununurra Subway you can have a pizza instead of a Subway sandwich..