Around Oz with the Munchkins: Hot hot hot in the NT - and the march of the march flies

We headed back to Kununurra (which almost felt like home by now) to get the final problem with our car fixed – finally some peace for all with a newly patched muffler. Then we stocked up at the excellent Kununurra supermarket, mailed a pile of postcards and birthday presents back to Melbourne and said goodbye to Monty – a puppy in the local gallery with whom Zara had fallen head over heals in love. We also travelled out to Zebra Rock Gallery to try their famous mango smoothies (Yum) and feed the fish (swarming masses of weird looking catfish as well as some weird fish that spit jets of water at you as you look down on them...). We also saw heaps of long-necked turtles that stuck their prehistoric heads out of the water in an effort to get some of our bread, but who struggled against the swarms of creepy catfish who jumped on top of them to steal their snacks.

Next day we packed up in the heat then took our last dip in the lovely caravan park pool and ate cream-between icecreams before hitting the road to Keep River National Park. We were all excited when we crossed the border into the NT just before we turned off into the national Park. Was it our imagination or was it suddenly much hotter?? We lunched at Cockatoo Lagoon in the baking sun then chatted about crocs and fishing with the friendly ranger. We drove to Jarnem campground at the north end of the park and got out to set up in the afternoon sun. The ranger had warned us that there might be a few march flies around – and boy was he not joking. Swarms of the blasted things started tormenting us the moment we were out of the car. Heat, crocs, sandflies, snakes, spiders, endless packing up and setting up, quarrelling kids, mozzies – we had faced all of these with (relatively) good humour but we were finally broken by the march flies… We had set up a little dome tent for the kids and the swag for us and Kate ended up curled up in the foetal position in the kids tent moaning about the march flies. Probably not the best time to chose to start a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle we had bought at the Kununurra op shop… Kate rounded off a happy evening by stabbing herself in the thumb whilst chopping ingredients for veggie burgers. Burgers were good though.

We planned to get up early to do one of the hikes in the park before it got too hot. But of course we hadn’t banked on the time difference (NT is 1.5 hours ahead) so our usual 6am wake up time became 7.30am and by the time we had breakfasted, fiddled around and headed off it was 8.45am and really heating up. The first part of the walk was very exposed and so we were very hot by the time we reached the Bungle-Bungle like domes and found some shade at their base. We walked on until we got to an overhang with some rock painting – an emu and some other food related images. We were too hot to continue on the loop walk and so headed back to the campsite using sticks to unsuccessfully shoo away the gangs of march flies that followed us wherever we went. Back at the campsite we tried to set up the table with the mozzie net over the top in order to play monopoly and other games in the shade without the annoyance of the marchies. Kate attempted to relate to the march flies by naming them and adopting one particularly persistent one as a pet – the kids liked the idea of Maggie the march fly and it did somehow make them easier to bare.

Late afternoon when the heat had started to die down, Kate and her gang of march flies decided to walk to the lookout with spectacular 360 degree views around the park. Sitting alone at the rocky lookout with a cool breeze blowing and the beautiful soft light and colours that the late afternoon brings in this part of the world, with not a march fly in sight (they were waiting patiently at the bottom of the lookout to accompany me safely back to the campsite), almost made me forget the heat and the annoyance of the flies and allowed me to appreciate this ancient landscape. But not enough to stay another day. So after a more comfortable night under the stars, we packed up early (before the flies had gotten out of bed) and headed to Katherine.