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. 

Speaking of crocodiles - the Australian Reptile Park

Today is Wednesday 10 January, here on the east coast of Australia,  and I am again sitting in an apartment by Lake Macquarie, three hours train ride north of Sydney, visiting my son and two younger grandsons. The younger of the two turned four on Sunday. 

It has been very hot, the temperatures in the high 30s and even up to 40 degrees celsius or more for a couple of days. Occasionally there have been wild thunderstorms with very strong winds as well. 

Despite the heat last Saturday we drove to Gosford, which is almost half-way back towards Sydney along the Pacific Highway from here, to visit the Australian Reptile Park. This park holds mixed memories for me. I was there with my daughter and son-in-law about 11 years ago, on our way home from my son’s wedding in fact, when the news came through about the tragic death of the larger-than-life Steve Irwin! My son-in-law is a zoologist whose lifelong passion has been for snakes -  in fact he breeds snakes for zoos at home in his ‘spare time’ - and we had just been given a behind-the-scenes tour of the reptile park, mostly to see all the snakes they had that were not on public display. I came away feeling profoundly saddened, not only for Steve’s family but also for the world and for the animals he loved. He had generated so much interest in wildlife.  

Anyhow, this time I had two excited little boys in tow. And the park had developed considerably from what I remembered of that other visit. There were huge model dinosaurs  all through the park and even ‘dinosaurs’ walking around with their ‘keepers’ for people to take photos. Many native animals and birds were on display as well as all the reptiles spiders and frogs, including several koalas and even a platypus. Sprinklers on the roofs of their enclosures helped keep them cool in the heat, though unfortunately meant many of my photos did not work out. Young emus and even a wallaby wandered around the picnic area, which of course delighted many children and adults who were able to pat them. 

But of course the highlights were the ‘cave of spiders', the ‘frog cave’ and the ‘reptile cave’, all of which had great models - some of which moved and lit up - as well as live specimens on display, the lake containing several alligators (which are not native to Australia) and the special enclosure featuring ‘Elvis’ the crocodile. We watched ‘Elvis’ being fed - he is a very large crocodile. I thought the keepers were very brave (or perhaps foolhardy?) going into his enclosure and even standing with their back to him as he lurked in the crystal clear water. Crocodiles can leap out of water with great force and with great speed! I have seen that in the Northern Territory, where I was told horrific stories about what crocodiles have done to people and animals, including taking their heads off, and warned you should stay at least 4 metres from the water’s edge. 

My grandsons also loved the imaginative playground - sliding down the ‘lizard’s tongue’ and down its back. 

My photos will give you just a little taste of what we saw in this park and its bushland setting. We only stayed for about four hours - it was just too hot to do any more walking! 

Today we are off to the Hunter Valley Zoo, which will be a lovely drive, apart from anything else. The Hunter Valley is mostly known for its great produce, especially its wines, and also for its music festivals. 

The park entrance. The model on the top is of a frilly-necked lizard, found in central Australia.

 The next photos show two of the models of dinosaurs along the pathway down to the ticket office and shop, as well as part of a model of a crocodile inside the ticket office.

One view of the lagoon (lake) in which the alligators live. 

Another view of the lagoon.

These native birds were in the same cage as some black cockatoos, but the photos of them did not work out due to the close weave of the cage wire.

These tiny birds were a delight to see, but hard to photograph through the wire. 

One of the alligators. They have a different snout to our crocodiles.

The friendly little wallaby wandering through the picnic area. 

Some very young emus in the picnic area. 

Elvis the crocodile's enclosure.

This was the best image I could get of 'Elvis'.

Model of a funnel web spider, which proliferates in New South Wales. These rear up in an aggressive way, as the model did, and are deadly unless you can get to hospital in time for the anti-venom to work. 

A model of a huntsman spider. 

A live Indian tortoise.

A live iguana - a species of Australian lizards.