The Magical Kimberley Coast Part 6 - Montgomery Reef and Cyclone Creek

As I sit here back in my home in Melbourne, it is 42 degrees Celsius (about 108 degrees Fahrenheit) outside! What a day! Sitting at my computer with the ceiling fan on full pelt is one of the few things I can do in this heat. (I do have a ducted evaporative cooling system, but it is of no use in this kind of heat because you have to open all the windows.  All you succeed in doing is making the house very humid.) There are bushfires across the state, but so far none are threatening townships. 

In my last post about the Kimberley Coast, I forgot to mention our amazing time exploring one of the creeks at night, looking for crocodiles. We were out of sight of the ship, which meant we also were out of its light, and right in the middle of ‘nowhere’.  For  a few minutes the person in charge of our Xplorer turned out its lights so we were able to see the canopy of stars that sits above the Earth, usually invisible with all the city lights. It was the most stunning sight you can imagine - countless dots of light covered the night sky. For the first time since I was a child, I could easily see the well-known constellations - such as the ‘Saucepan’ and the Southern Cross and its Pointers, as well as the Milky Way in all its glory.

Anyhow, the next day we visited the huge coral reef known as Montgomery Reef. Because of the massive tidal changes, at high tide this coral reef is completely invisible. As the waters drop, it becomes visible. But it appears that the reef is magically rising up out of the water. Now this is not a reef with pretty coloured. interestingly shaped  corals - it just looks rocky and brown. Sea birds land on it and start eating some of the rich food on its surface. What really struck you was the speed at which the water rushes off it - it’s extraordinary, making many almost horizontal ’waterfalls’. The water around there is very clear and we saw some sea snakes and sea turtles swimming around the reef, though unfortunately they swam so quickly away from our Xplorer I could not capture their photos.    

The following day we explored Cyclone Creek, which had the most fascinating geology. The rich red rock formations, the mangroves and the reflections in the water along the various valleys were just beautiful to see. I have included some of the photos I took there. But what this region is famous for is the Horizontal Falls. I will talk about that in my next post.  

The first five photos were taken at Montgomery Reef.  The remainder trace our journey down Cyclone Creek.

The Magical Kimberley Coast Part 5 - Beautiful waterways, and an extraordinary bear

When we got up bright and early the next morning so that we could leave at sunrise and make the best use of the massive tidal changes over the day (about 12 metres difference between high tide and low tide), we found we had been joined during the night by the other two ships in the fleet. Both of these were quite a bit smaller than our ship. It was good to see signs of other people after all that time. 

We went exploring more of the coastline and sailed around some uninhabited islands in the Xplorer, again seeing mangroves and a few sea birds. We learned about the use of a huge, very steep rocky island that was used by a local Aboriginal tribe to initiate their young men, who were left on the island to fend for themselves for a while to prove themselves.

This island had a cave near its base, and we were told the most memorable, moving story about a discovery made there. Some the crew had walked into the back of the cave at low tide and found a very battered, broken teddy bear lying there. They assumed it had been lost overboard from a passing ship and had eventually been pushed into the cave by the strong currents. They decided to bring it back to the ship, where at the time an Australian army surgeon was having a cruise for much-needed R and R. Her spirit was somewhat battered and bruised too - by all she had seen in the past months. Somehow she found the materials she needed to ‘operate’ on the bear and the result for the bear, and for her, was astonishing.  Both were fully restored! That bear is now on display on the ship, and is dubbed ‘Kim Bear Lee’.  

Interestingly, when I went back on the ship in 2015, no-one on the crew that time knew the story behind the bear, so I was delighted to be able to pass it on. 

That afternoon we went out again to see an incredible coral reef ‘rise’ out of the sea. I will tell you about that in my next post. 

I loved the way the cliffs glowed a brilliant red at sunrise and sunset. This photo was probably taken about 6 am. 

In the Xplorer ready to go as the sun started to rise from the horizon.

A rocky outcrop, which was much higher than might be guessed from the photo. 

Sister ships.

Exploring another waterway.

You can see the watermark for high tide on these rocks.

Imagine the powerful movements of the earth behind this! 

The island with the cave where the teddy bear was found.

A beautifully restored bear!

Back to the Magical Kimberley Coast

The next day of our journey along the Kimberley Coast we spent anchored near a beach. Most of the passengers had signed up for helicopter flights to the Mitchell Falls, some staying there and being collected later. As I could not do so, I stayed on board, and watched the busy traffic ferrying people onto the beach on the Zodiacs, so they could board the helicopters. Judging by the photographs I saw of the Mitchell Falls, this was a spectacular experience. 

Mind you, we were now several days from Darwin, in the middle of a very remote area of Australia. We had only seen a couple of yachts over that time. There was no service for our mobile phones. The ship did have satellite communication however, though no medical facilities. For this reason, when travelling in such areas it is very wise to take out travel insurance that covers you for a possible rescue from a remote area, which most likely would be by helicopter.  One of the pilots that day told some passengers that a couple of days beforehand, a woman from another travel group had a bad fall at Mitchell Falls, resulting in complex fractures. She was so badly injured that not only was she flown out from there, but also in the end she had to be flown in an intensive care air ambulance thousands of kilometres down to Melbourne for specialised treatment. That would be hugely expensive without travel insurance. With remote region insurance, it would have cost her nothing.

Anyhow, once everyone was back, a beach barbecue was set up on the same beach. We all enjoyed a great evening meal sitting on deckchairs on golden sands, and witnessing a stunningly beautiful sunset. And what was great was that unlike that park in Darwin and other areas, we were not bothered by any insects. Extraordinary!

The next day we travelled down another river and saw some rather lovely falls. There were signs everywhere around the pond at the bottom of the falls warning people about crocodiles. Apparently not long before that, a teenage girl had met an untimely death falling into the water whilst climbing around the falls with a couple of friends. I would add that it was the end of July in the Dry Season when we visited. The water would have been roaring down from the plateau above had this been the Wet Season. But at least there was a lot more water here than we saw in the waterfalls along the King George River. Some passengers made the most of the opportunity to go even closer to the falls by taking it in turns to climb from the Xplorer into the zodiacs, and zooming across to them. 

I think the photos below do not need captions. You can see our ship anchored offshore in the sunset photos. We were collected by the Explorer from the beach after sunset. The remaining photos show something of what we saw the next day. 

My trip to Lake Macquarie, and the Hunter Valley Zoo

Before I return to my tale about the Kimberley Coast, I will digress once more about my trip to Lake Macquarie and the Hunter Valley Zoo.

As I think I have stated before, it takes about 12 hours to travel from Melbourne to Sydney on the train. Then you have to change trains at the Sydney Central Station and catch the train to Newcastle, which is about 3 hours train travel further on, though I leave the train a few stations before the end of the journey. Usually I catch the day train to Sydney, stay overnight in Sydney at a very nice hotel near Sydney Harbour Bridge and Circular Quay, and then travel the extra distance the next morning, feeling quite refreshed. But this time I decided to catch the night train and sit up all night to save that extra expense. There are sleeping compartments on the train but I was informed they only can be occupied by two persons and I would have to share with a stranger. I was not having any of that! But by the time I had returned to Melbourne from  my long trip, it was too late to secure the one and only single seat in the first class compartments of the train, so I still had to sit (and sleep) next to a stranger. As it turned out, the first half the journey was shared with one gentleman, and the second half with another. At least they were quiet. 

Even though they turned out our lights at 9.30 pm, with the rattling of the train and the bright lights coming through from the various country stations along the way, I only slept in fits and starts. As a result, I arrived in Sydney very tired, only to discover the train line to Newcastle was having maintenance work done, which meant we had to catch a coach for the first half of the journey. When I arrived here my son collected me from the station and we only just had time to put my bags into the apartment before we were off to collect my grandsons, so it ended up ‘go-go-go’ all day. I was so delighted to see them, but must admit I was very glad to drop into bed at the end of the day! So I am not looking forward to the return journey and trying to sleep on the overnight train again! While it saved quite a lot of money, it was a hard way to do the travelling - I would not recommend it. 

Anyhow, yesterday we travelled to the Hunter Valley Zoo, which was only about an hour’s journey away through some picturesque bushland and farmland. For a regional zoo, it was far larger than I expected, and very well set up with an amazing mixture of native animals and birds, wildlife from other countries - even African lions and white lions! - as well as some farm animals for children to pat and feed. In adjacent enclosures we saw African ostriches and Australian emus. There was a maned wolf, which is not native to Australia, as well as some dingoes, which are. Other non-native species included deer, camels, different varieties of small monkeys, a tapir, meerkats and some American alligators. Children were not only able to wander amongst and pat and feed goats, sheep and deer, but also an emu, kangaroos, wallabies and various kinds of parrots. And fortunately this time the sky was clouded and there was a cool breeze, which made walking about much more pleasant than it had been at the reptile park.  

After we returned to my apartment, and spending at least an hour on one of their favourite games with me in this apartment - hide and seek! - the boys decided to play ‘Zoos’ (of course!). It was just fascinating to see how they processed all they had seen and done using their imagination and creativity. The older of the two transformed my bathroom into a scary, dark ‘bat cave’, lit only by my torch shining under his chin, which brought squeals of delight from the four-year-old.  He in turn transformed the couch and my pillows into a ‘jeep’ to drive us to different parts of the zoo (which did not happen at the real zoo, I would add), and then dressed himself in my white nightie to be a sheep. With his thick, light blond, very curly hair, he really looked the part, too! Their soft toys from the car added to the variety of species on ‘display’ - a meerkat, kangaroos, a monkey, and a Tasmanian devil. My shoe became a ‘lizard’, and other objects in the room became other species. This increasingly complex game, all of which was initiated and designed by them, kept them happily entertained for about two hours, until it was time to go off for tea and bed! I lost count of all the times I had to go around this ‘zoo’ and drive in the jeep and nurse the baby meerkat and so forth, but it was all such a joy!

I would add their dad enjoyed a good and well-earned break back at his house whilst we played. Today the children are off with their other grandparents and my son and I are going to see the movie ’The Post’. I am looking forward to seeing that. It looks like an excellent movie.  And of course it will be good to spend time with my son and ‘solve the problems of the world’ with him, which we always enjoy. 

In my next post I will bring you back to the Kimberley Coast. 

Tawny frogmouths, which are native birds that resemble owls but are not classified as owls. 

An iguana.

If I recall correctly, this is called a leopard turtle. Whatever it is, it and the lizards in the next two photos are native reptiles. 

The front lizard was just finishing moulting. 

A rock wallaby. In the wild these are generally very hard to spot, as they hide amongst the rocks and are superbly camouflaged. 

Brolgas.

Another rock wallaby.

A view of some of the zoo.

We have many beautiful parrots in Australia.

A black cockatoo pulling itself up the wire with its very powerful beak. It is hard to see how large it is and the beautiful red feathers in its tail from this angle. 

These gorgeous little parrots were very tame and would eat from the icecream cones full of food that you could purchase at the entrance. Far more sensible to use the cones than putting their food into plastic cups!

This and the parrot below were in the same enclosure as the two birds eating from the cone. It was great to be able to enter their cage instead of trying to take photos through wire mesh. 

An African ostrich, which was the only non-native bird on display. 

These kangaroos could be patted. 

An albino kangaroo.

An emu, which as you can see is smaller than an ostrich and has colours that provide excellent camouflage in the bush regions it naturally inhabits. Like ostriches, it cannot fly, but it certainly can run.