Keep River

Back to the Keep River Northern Territory

9 August 2016

After a night cleaning up in the local caravan village we decided to head out of Kununurra again, this time towards Keep River. I had heard of a spring that emerges from a cave so after a little searching we found it. Taking our time exploring around the spring we even discovered a tree snake high above heads. It was fascinating watching the snake as it made its way through the tree tops, crawling along impossibly thin branches. When we explored a little more into the cave we found there were many butterflies and even a bat or two.

 

10 August 2016 – 14 August 2016

Today we decided to do a bit of exploring and in doing so we crossed the WA/NT border. This was certainly one of the more remote crossing we have done, very similar to Duncan Road which crossing the border as it makes its way from Buntine Highway to Victoria Highway.

After a few hours exploring we settled in for a couple of days beside Keep River. We have had a few Jabiru and much other birdlife for company. We also found the grandfather of boab trees, it must be so old! Sometimes Boab trees are called Bottle Trees due to their shape. The big tree are about 15m high and some of the trunks can be 20m in girth. They grow very very slowly and it would not be unexpected to find the boab tree pictured here to be 1,500 years old. Every year the tree drops its leaves and as the wet season approaches will sprout new leaves. Once the wet season sets in, the trees flower producing a boab nut which is edible.

The Jabiru is also known as the Black-necked stork. They stand about 1.5m tall with the males being about 25% taller than the females. The wing span is also huge measuring in at 2.8m and an adult can weigh up to 9kg.

 

OK Quick quiz! What do you do if you get your 4WD stuck here? This unlucky Toyota Landcruiser was just left here with snapped tow rope attached.

One of the days we were in camp we met a lovely couple Fiona and Rod. They too have retired and are seeing Australia in their Kimberly Kamper.

During our stay we did a quick trip back into Kununurra and just after we parked  in the car park we had another Amesz truck pull in besides us. It was John and Sally from Perth. It was delightful meeting them as they made there way to their next stop Kalumburu.

Tide here is amazing, we waited for 3 days to see the tide surge return after it stopped a few days earlier. At 5:30am we heard a noise like a waterfall. Within 45 minutes the water levels had risen 3m. So cool.

15 August 2016

Returned to Kununurra with the intension of doing a quick shop and head off to Bungle Bungles. Problem, fires have closed the Bungles until at least the 18 August 2016, so we headed for a caravan park for a good shower and to make some new plans which may include the Gibb River Road. Will make a decision tomorrow.