Around The World Without Flying: The Magical Kimberley Coast Part 3

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.