Today we have anchored at the entrance to the King George River, way up north on the map!
Another night at sea as we head up to “Bigge Island’ the second largest island after Dirk Hartog in this ‘Bonaparte Archipelago’ off the Australian coast. Took a pleasant ‘stroll’ over and around the coastal area. Landing once again was tricky and even the zodiacs couldn’t get over the reef area for the early folk but another hour or so later and there was 3 feet of water covering the coral reef. Lots of crocodile searching here and no swimming allowed due to the crocodiles but the water just looks so inviting, one would love to jump in for a swim – but a big no-no! Still haven’t seen one yet though. It’s the ones you don’t see that are the problem I guess.
Lots of indication of where quolls, monjon wallabies and other small wildlife live. A light and easy walk this morning and back for lunch. Not much time for resting though around here! This afternoon was theoretically another zodiac trip to visit some cave drawings and a zodiac cruise around the coastline which we did firs then headed for the ‘cave’.
Well it was definitely a cave but the staff had headed across first and unloaded champagne and orange and one of the on board musicians had climbed high up in the cave and was playing some light jazz music on his saxophone. All in the cave of course and totally not what any of us had expected. But we couldn’t stay long, the tide was going out and the staff are always concerned about getting stuck high and dry so it was back to the ship once again. A fun afternoon though.
BBQ Dinner on our Lido deck this evening, followed up by some music and entertainment by the staff. The ‘special guest’ for the evening turned out to be the Ships Captain – a fun guy and totally involved in everything. He playfully semi stripped his shirt down and got stuck in to a rendition of Ride Sally Ride and a couple of other fun light hearted songs and away everyone went. Very much a great ship captain whom all the staff obviously respect but really enjoy being part of his crew.
Tomorrow we literally round the bend over the top of Australia and for some weird sailing ‘cabotage’ reason we have to head down to Wyndham, make a U-turn then head up to Kupang in Indonesia, offload and fly back to Darwin. All to do with strange laws for foreign owned ships. The captain says the whole thing is crazy but ‘them’s the rules!’ The ship is actually registered in the Bahamas, crew are mostly Phillipino and Indonesian as most ships around the world are and are always fun to have around. They work hard but boy they play hard as well!
The falls are the tallest in WA and the rock formations in the region are ‘jaw-dropping’ to say the least. Our zodiacs once again skim underneath all the huge stacks of rock and one wonders as to if/when they might drop on us! However something that’s been there for 1.7 billion years is probably likely to not fall so we are probably safe – we think!!
We also spotted dugong feeding in one of the tributaries, something not seen very often in the ‘wild’ so to speak. Even the botanists and all those other nature lover expedition leaders we have were all amazed at how visible they were today.
The expedition leaders travel the globe on this ship and after another cruise up the Kimberley with yet another group of passengers, the next cruise takes them on to Easter Island then up and in and around Japan for the cherry blossom season so they have a wonderful job. Although as most of their contracts are 8 months, it would be very hard being away from family for that long.
Anyway another great day out on the zodiacs.
