The Magical Kimberley Coast Part 3 - Mangroves, Crocodiles & More Rock Art

Happy New Year! 

As I write this here in Australia, it is almost midday on Sunday 31 December, and preparations have been well and truly made for big fireworks displays in all our capital cities. Sydney, of course, will again have its famous fireworks display centering on Sydney Harbour Bridge. Just before Christmas our federal parliament voted to legalise same sex marriage, so the theme of this year’s display is ‘love’. Already people, including countless tourists, were camping out yesterday around the harbour to secure prime viewing spots.  In Melbourne, fireworks will be sent into the air from the top of many of our tallest buildings, in a well coordinated display. They are saying that the total amount of fireworks used will be even greater than in Sydney, and the best viewing spots will be outside the central business district. Nevertheless thousands will pack the city square and the banks of our river. 

We are one of the first countries to celebrate the New Year, as the international dateline is just east of New Zealand. And we on the east coast celebrate it before other Australians.  Anyhow, wherever you are, I do hope you can see our fireworks on your local media, and that you have great celebration yourselves. May the New Year bring the fulfilment of your most cherished hopes and dreams, and many wonderful times!

Many of you have asked me if I plan to travel in 2018. At this stage the only travel I am planning is going back to Lake Macquarie (which is near Newcastle) twice over the year to see my son and two younger grandsons. In fact I am leaving on the train next Thursday evening for a late celebration of Christmas and a celebration of my youngest grandson’s 4th birthday. The next time I go will be in August to celebrate his older brother’s 7th birthday. It takes 15 hours of train travel to reach there from Melbourne. This time I am not staying in Sydney on the way.

Back to the Kimberley Coast: 

I have just found my notes from that journey and realise that I need to correct some details in the last post, so I will go back and edit that after I have completed this post. The story behind the plane wreck I showed is quite fascinating. It is too long a tale to retell in full, but the plane, which was a C-53 Sky Trouper, had been heading to Broome but overshot it due to bad weather. When the fuel ran out the crew decided to do a wheels-up landing on a salt pan. The plane was wrecked but no-one was injured and eventually the crew and passengers were rescued by a flying boat. Whilst they waited, the six men who had been on board rigged up a distillation unit using bits from the plane wreckage, as there was no fresh water nearby. Ironically Broome was bombed a few days later. The men had seen a Japanese reconnaissance plane fly over their wreck, so no doubt were not surprised. 

The next day we travelled down the Hunter River where we saw lots of mangroves, with their prop roots and ‘breathing tubes’. And there, on its pale grey muddy banks, we saw crocodiles and mudskippers. They were extraordinarily well camouflaged! Despite the presence of crocodiles, it was so quiet and peaceful along the river. No other ships or boats were in the vicinity. And mobile phones do not work here. We just glided along, admiring the reflections in the water and the rugged beauty of it all. 

We also walked over an island where we saw more very moving Aboriginal rock art, and crawled through a small space in a cave to see a hidden small valley. It was really, really hot there, so we did what we could to find shade. 

The next day most of the passengers were going on helicopter flights over the famous Mitchell Falls, some staying there for a couple of hours before returning. More about that day in my next post. 

A stunning dawn.

On the way to the river on the Xplorer

The mangroves - a highly important ecosystem

The lovely reflections of the mangroves in the river.

This is a tidal river. It was planned we would be here at low tide so we could see the muddy banks.

A rugged beauty.

The first crocodile we spotted.

I used a zoom lens for this! See how well the crocodile blends in. Goodness knows how many were hidden in the water. 

The shape of this mangrove tree really appealed to me.

The same mangrove tree up close.

A mud skipper up close. Again see how well camouflaged it is. 

More Aboriginal Rock Art.

Crawling back out after viewing the hidden small valley. 

The Magical Kimberley Coast Part 2 - A visit to a plane wreck and an island

Goodness, time has flown and it is almost Christmas Day! The lead-up to Christmas is always a busy time, but this time around so much has had to be done on top of all the usual shopping, gift-wrapping, posting cards and gifts, and celebrating this happy season and birthdays and so on with different sets of friends and family. I have not had time to write my annual Christmas epistle that I usually send out to family and friends, but have been involved in writing a long newsletter for my cohort at the school I attended as teenager, which is just going out today, and in writing two international chemistry competition papers. I am submitting one paper for production today; the other is still not finished, but hopefully will be finished within the next two weeks.

Anyhow, back to my story about the cruise along the Kimberley coast. . . 

After we left the King George river and sailed further along the coast, we first visited the Anjo Peninsula and then made a couple of landings on Jar Island, one of the many small uninhabited islands along the coastline. Again we travelled on the Xplorer so that we could land right on the beaches and scurry up the golden sands in case there were any saltwater crocodiles lurking in the seawater near their shores.  

On the Anjo Peninsula, the wreck of an old World War 2 plane on the salt pan generated a lot of interest. Some passengers climbed inside it and waved to the rest of us from the cockpit. I tell a little of the story behind the wreck in the next post. 

On jar Island we saw some very interesting rock formations, and signs of the island having been inhabited by Aboriginal people tens of thousands of years ago. We saw a midden, which is a site that was once occupied by Aboriginal people where they left the remains of their meals. It usually looks like a round dome of shells. These can be several metres deep, depending on how many generations of the same group (or ‘mob’) used the site.  We also saw Aboriginal rock art inside caves and hollows. That experience has very powerful effect on you, knowing that very few people have been privileged to see them, and imagining the people from so long ago telling their story, their beliefs, in the only way they could, with materials they found nearby. 

And at the end of the day we were treated to a spectacular sunset. 

Arriving on the first island.

Mangroves. Notice their 'breathing tubes'. 

Our first siting of Aboriginal rock art.

At the rock art site.

Extraordinary rock formations.

The WW2 plane wreck. 

A magnificent sunset seen from the ship after our day on the first island.

And a magnificent sunrise seen on the way to the second island.

Arriving on the second island.

More amazing rock formations.

This 'dome' of tiny shells is an Aboriginal midden. No doubt the Aboriginal people sheltered under the natural rocky shelf whilst eating. 

Close to the midden.

More of the rocks around the midden.

Along the beach. I suspect this sandy mound was built by small crabs. It was covered in 'air holes'.  

View along the shoreline of the island. 

Our ship, the Oceanic Discoverer.

Along the walk around the second island.

An incredible bit of what I think was coral washed up on shore. 

A very different style of Aboriginal rock art. 

We often saw outlines of hands painted in ancient times along our journey. 

Relaxing back on the top deck of the ship at sunset. 

The sun going down. 

The richest variety of colours were seen just after the sun had set.

The Magical Kimberley Coast Part 1 - The King George River

After exploring Darwin for a couple of days, I was picked up from my hotel by a chauffeur and driven in a limousine to the small ship on which I was to spend the next ten days travelling along the Kimberley coast. This was just the start of the excellent service provided by the ship. 

At that time the ship was called the ‘Oceanic Discoverer’. It is now called the ‘Coral Discoverer’ and has been completely refurbished, but even then in 2013 it more than matched the big ocean liners in terms of its comfort, food and service. This is an Australian-owned ship; the company is now called CoralExpeditions and has four ships, which travel along the Great Barrier Reef, across Cape York and Arnhem Land and along the Kimberley Coast, as well as to places like New Guinea, the Spice Islands and Indonesia.

I have now sailed on Queen Mary 2, three different Royal Carribean ships, two different Celebrity ships, and the Dawn Princess, but none of them could ever match the kind of experience we had on the Oceanic Discoverer on our voyage along the Kimberley Coast. They are too big! The Oceanic Discoverer only had around sixty passengers, so as you can imagine, it was a much more intimate, more personal experience. And we were able to travel much closer to the coastline. On board there was a kind of small ferry or tender boat called an Xplorer, which held every passenger and took us up rivers and across to some of the islands along the coast. As well there were three Zodiacs for those wishing to get even closer to cliff faces and so on. (I could not go on the Zodiacs because water may have splashed into my ears.)  

Moreover we had two guest experts on board, one of whom was an expert on sea turtles and runs the Sea Turtle Foundation, and had a fantastic sense of humour. The other had a doctorate in ecology and had been researching our endangered species in northern Australia, including spending time in consultation with Aboriginal groups in the different regions. Both made our voyage all the more meaningful, informative and fun. Every day we had fascinating sessions with them on board the ship. In addition they accompanied us on all our excursions, adding stories, pointing out things we otherwise many not have observed. The rest of the staff were all excellent too, and looked after every need extremely well. 

The first place we explored after crossing a big bay was the King George River, a spectacular introduction to the coastline that even David Attenborough has described as the most beautiful place in the world. It is rugged kind of beauty, with rich red rocks formations that are so old they contain no fossils. It is said that the rocks in our ‘Top End’ are the oldest rocks in the world. This red contrasted with the bright blue skies and bright azure blue of the water as well as the green of the trees and golden yellow of the sands. 

My photos show a glimpse of the ship as it was then, the Xplorer and some sights along the King George River. But wait until you see the magnificent sunrises and sunsets up there! 

The dining room. At night it was silver service with white starched table cloths. All the meals were not only delicious but also very healthy too.

Out on one of the decks.When this photo was taken the ship was still anchored in Darwin.

The Xplorer was lowered to one of the decks, where we were able to board it. 

Entering the King George River.

Along the river there were tall cliffs on each side. 

Some of the incredible rock formations created by erosion.

We saw incredible reflections in the still river water. The great colour in the two long grey parts you see here was created by bacteria  exposed to big waterfalls. We were there in the middle of the Dry Season so the water only flowed a little. 

Closer up to one of the waterfalls. Apparently water really cascades down in the Wet Season. 

Our Zodiacs went right under the waterfall! The passengers had quite a shower!