2006/07 Australia trip - Gurrundalng, Keep River |
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We were almost at the Western Australia border when we came to Keep River national park. The signs at the entry point showed that one of the campgrounds was open, and most of the park was accessible. The Gurrundalng campground is famous for its strange and colourful rock formations. With golden cane grass, green trees and grass, and the red rocks against the blue sky it’s certainly colourful. The “grass” is mainly very sharp spinifex, which grows head high in this area, vastly increasing its potential to do damage to the unwary hiker.
Average daytime temperatures in this area are in the 90s and this day was about average, so Sandie decided to stay in the shade. I hiked the trail up and over the rocks, a photographer’s paradise with all the strange shapes, cliffs, caves, and plants.
That night we had almost everything for dinner.
There is a quarantine station at the border with Western Australia, and no fruits, veggies, honey, or cane toads are allowed to cross. The toads were originally imported to Queensland from South America to eat sugar cane bugs, and they have now spread into the Northern Territory and this border is now Western Australia’s front line of defence. The toads are very large, live for up to forty years, have no significant predators, and are poisonous, killing anything that eats them, including crocodiles. Their skins are hallucinogenic and can be licked or smoked if you are so inclined.
We’d already given our honey away to someone going in the other direction. So, that night, nearly all remaining fruit and veggies went into a massive lamb sausage madras curry. We didn’t find any cane toad stowaways. Hopefully there weren’t any in the curry.
Our nearest neighbour at the campground ran his generator for the whole afternoon and evening. At night time he had arc lights
, which lit up his campsite like day. It made us wonder what he goes camping for.
Sunday July 2nd
Sunrise was pretty again, with the sky a matrix of tiny clouds lit up by the sun. The tiny clouds stayed with us all day but did little to reduce the heat. We were spending the whole day in the park, but we packed up and took everything with us anyway as we didn’t want to return to the same camp site and share with generator-man again.