Keep River National Park 06 September 2013

Well, we woke up, had a look, rolled over, and went back to sleep. Maybe we are just not sunrise people, but we were majorly underwhelmed by the colours on the cliff faces. Still, not a complete loss as we did manage to get up, have a shower, have breakfast and pack up all before 08:00 which is a definite first. Set off for Keep River National Park, which is just before the border with WA, and is supposed to have some rock art and hills reminiscent of the Bungle Bungles.
First stop was at Gregory's Tree. Now if you did Australian History under the same syllabus as I did, you will have never heard of Augustus Gregory, but he led a successful North Australian Expedition 145km up the Victoria River in 1855/6 and explored the surrounding countryside from a base camp beside of the river. Here there was a Boab tree which the expedition's artist carved the arival and departure dates. Hence 'Gregory's Tree'. The provenance on this one is a lot more solid than the Stuart Tree from Daly Waters!





Rocked into Keep River NP to find the campground deserted, but thoughts of having the place to ourselves were soon dashed and most sites were filled by sundown. Not a problem though as there is plenty of space between sites.
Found a new game to play in the afternoon - feed the local ants with squished sand flies. The bloody flies got so bad that we spent a couple of hours reading in the camper to escape them. Had dinner and watched the stars come out - beautiful.
Next morning it was up and at em. Once breakfast was done we set off to Jarnem Lookout to view the beehive rock formations and then on to Nigil Gap for the rock art - just as well we had been to Kakadu ans Arnhem Land, or we would have had trouble even picking out most of the pictures here - very faded and very simple in subject and execution. So, don't bother going to Keep River for the rock art, but it is worth the effort to see the rock formations. Stunning views.
Speaking of stunning views - as we were diligently tromping along the winding path to enlightenment (oh alright then, climbing towards Jarnem Lookout), we did espy a female Euro tourist, naked from the sandals up, walking in a very uninhibited manner down the hill towards us. She was followed by a fully clothed male Euro tourist whom we surmised she was trying to entice into wicked ways. It was most amusing when after she had continued for at least 30 metres, she suddenly noticed our unintentional intrusion on her sun worshiping gambol and scuttled behind her man while donning a sarong of a shade of blue which nicely set off the red of her embarrassed cheeks.

It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it