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Leaving Alice Springs, we broke our distance records traveling north to Katherine, and did 570km in one day.
We camped at a roadside camping bay the first night just north of Devil's Marbles at Attack Creek, the terminus of Stuart's first attempt to reach the north coast. Then on to Mataranka and an afternoon dip in the warm thermal springs. Richard spotted a turtle, but mostly foreign tourists inhabit these pools.
From there, we had a short trip to Katherine, where the kids enjoyed a swim in a 'real' pool. Richard injured his knee, elbow and hip, trying to break the elusive 4 second barrier, coming down the waterslide. (3.7 secs for the record).
We spent 3 nights in Katherine. It was a chance to catch up on washing, shopping, schoolwork. The kids don't mind doing their maths books in the car. However keeping their journals up to date takes a bit more prompting.
We took a cruise along the gorges one morning. There was some walking over rocks to get to each section, and the kids had a swim in a rock pool during morning lunch. The river was closed to swimming due to a few salt crocs that had come up during the last wet season. After a hot day on the boat, we spent most of that afternoon lazing and playing in the Katherine Springs thermal pool. We found these more enjoyable than Mataranka, as it seemed less crowded, and more kid friendly. Natasha and the kids visited the school of the air which services a vast area of remote stations, before we headed west.
Travelling west, we spent 2 nights free roadside camping in the caravan, to get our average accommodation cost down. The second night we picked our own (unmarked) parking bay a hundred metres off the highway behind trees, with plenty of turning space. We roasted marshmallows on the campfire and enjoyed the solitude. A nice change from the busy designated campsites that get quite crowded at this time of year.
We were taking our time to use up all our fruit, veg and honey, before crossing the border.
The road into Keep River National Park had just been graded, so we decided to camp out another night and do some walks. The unplanned stop meant we ran out of fruit, (were kindly given some by other campers leaving that day), water (had to have sponge baths in a bucket), and electricity (kids battery-games and my laptop).
There were some striking rock formations in Keep River N.P. of similar structure to the Bungle Bungles in WA. The van got absolutely filthy with brown dust on the unsealed road. Some dust leaked inside the rear foldout bed, but not too bad.
The kids played "Thank God you are here" in the shade of a large rock in the centre of the campground, entertaining a retired couple! We joined their campfire, with more toasted marshmallows. The kids enjoy a few card games at night, or other playing, but don't get as much as they like at times as we are too busy doing other things.
Our next stop to recharge was Lake Argyle Caravan Park with excellent views over the lake and ranges from the swimming pool, where everybody cooled off.
We are staying in Kununurra for a few nights at a caravan park on a lake. Coles was open today (Sunday), so we have stocked up on food. My grocery bill was quite high, although the prices on most items weren't any higher than Adelaide.
The sun sets quite early now that we are in WA. The weather is warm - low 30s. Sometimes it's quite cold in the middle of the night and we need a blanket. We're thankful to be away from the frosts 'though.
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