Well what can I say about the last 6 weeks - other than absolutely bloody amazing! Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, without fail every day nature would outdo herself. I will try to summarise…
Last blog we were at Pender Bay with Mon and Paul. We sailed up to Cape Leveque and stopped there for two nights, the Kooljiman campsite is here with eco tents and a little restaurant. We were able to watch the Dockers slaughter the Eagles in the Derby on that day - but I have not heard how they have been going since then - not because we haven't had contact - just I didn't want to hear about a recent performance!
From Cape Leveque we headed to Sunday Island just around the corner and at the start of King Sound. I experienced my first shark on the fishing line, a gruelling workout for 20mins or so only to lose the rig as we got it to the boat. This became a familiar pattern over the next few days. From Sunday Island we crossed King Sound to get to Coppermine Creek. Our first Kimberley lesson learnt being that tide beats wind every time. We thought with a reasonably strong wind predicted we would have enough to push through the currents. We soon found ourselves motor sailing at full revs and about a 15-20kn breeze, but pushing against a 5-7 kn tide and making about 1-2knots. I can hear a few Kimberley cruiser friends saying "I told you so" - but we didn't make that mistake again. For the rest of the trip all our passages were planned with the tides - there is no other way to do it up here.
At Coppermine creek we had our first intro to the Lemon Shark - or Ooby Dooby Shark as we nick named them. A very slow docile creature that spends hours just droobing out around the back of the boat. When one first appeared as Nic was "bucketing off" on the back deck she nearly needed an extra wash of her bather bottoms. But we soon learnt they were pretty harmless.
From Coppermine we went around the corner to Dog Leg creek and nosed in to check out the fuelling barge. I had not planned to refuel but Chris who was manning the barge radioed us as we made our way in, so I took advantage and topped up. He also took advantage of us with the Fuel prices! But a great service in a remote location. We waited for a favourable outgoing tide to scoot past Koolan Island and pop out the other end to make our way on an incoming tide (we've got this sussed!) towards Dugong Bay. This really starts to become some of the speccy Kimberley Scenery. We edged into Dugong Bay through a narrow tidal Channel. The Bay then opens up into a vast expanse surrounded on all sides by high rocky cliffs. Paul had gone the whole day without catching a fish …. something was awry.
From Dugong we went around to Horizontal Waterfalls. as the crow flys this is about a mile, and we could see float planes and Helicopters buzzing over Dugong Bay on their way to or back from the falls. But for us it was about a 20 odd mile trip out and back the classic Kimberley "fingers" of land. We got to the falls late afternoon and were able to get on the final tour of the day for $50 each. This took us up into cyclone creek at one end of the bay and then back and through the famous falls. Very spectacular stuff, and not something we would have contemplated doing in the little tinny.
Next day an early start to go up to Raft Point, I must mention at this stage that Mon had worked out there was no way we were going to get to Hunter River without rushing too much. We scoured the cruising guides and found a "nice white sandy beach" at Hanover Bay. We texted the helicopter company via Sat Phone with the coordinates and they came back saying "no worries looks like a good beach".
We used Raft Point as a kick off early the next day to go across to Montgomery Reef. This is a huge expanse of reef that gets exposed at low water. However again because of tides you have to go over there with an outgoing tide - aim to be there when the water is pouring off the reef, hang for a few hours until the tide turns and then skidadle back to Raft point. This is exactly what we did. edging our way up into a sort of gully in the reef that reveals itself as the tide goes out. Water pours down channels in the rock. It reminded me a bit of one of those vast underwater megacities that a cunning villain has built in a Bond movie and then menacingly reveals itself and threatens to set of a nuclear missile that 007 has to defuse etc etc. Unfortunately we did not get off up onto the reef, which is meant to be pretty special as you can see turtles and fish etc stuck in many pools by the outgoing tides.
Did I mention Paul had not caught a fish now for 2 days? He was visibly shaken, I could see the edges of his mouth occasionally twitch. As we got back close to Raft point, he asked if he could get in the dinghy and have a crack at fishing off the point. "No worries" go for it. He was off. We arrived back at Raft Point and spent the afternoon relaxing, Paul was gone for hours. Just as we were starting to get a bit worried the tinnie appeared around the point. As the tinnie got closer the sun reflected brightly off Paul's teeth revealed by his ear to ear grin as he had caught two great big "Queenies" and a bag full of snapper. He was a happy man again!!
That afternoon we climbed up to see some Aboriginal rock art. Truly stunning. From Raft Point we continued up to Langgi for a brief stop, some amazing rock formations here - horses heads, elephants, old men etc etc as described in the cruising guides - truly stunning. But it seemed to me none of the guides stated the bleeding obvious - a lot of the rocks were very phallic. I couldn't help thinking and the crew all agreed we had really just witnessed - as my cousin had once described the Pinnacles - "a plethora of pricks"! But special all the same. We kept on to Kid Island at Deception Bay, then the next night to Sheep Island in Camden Harbour. This was the spot of an ill-fated settlement in the early 1830's. A Boab tree on Sheep Island sits next to the grave of Mary Pascoe, the first white woman to be buried in the Kimberley after dying in child birth at age 30. The tree also has a commemorative plague for a police constable "speared by natives". It is hard to imagine just how tough and isolated it would have been in these parts - or more to the point why you would have even considered going there?!
From Camden Harbour around the corner to Hanover Bay and our transfer site for Mon and Paul and pick up for Fi and Lloyd. Hanover Bay inlet has a lovely freshwater inlet that we anchored near after sussing out the "bright white sandy beach". We had made it a day early!!
Last blog we were at Pender Bay with Mon and Paul. We sailed up to Cape Leveque and stopped there for two nights, the Kooljiman campsite is here with eco tents and a little restaurant. We were able to watch the Dockers slaughter the Eagles in the Derby on that day - but I have not heard how they have been going since then - not because we haven't had contact - just I didn't want to hear about a recent performance!
From Cape Leveque we headed to Sunday Island just around the corner and at the start of King Sound. I experienced my first shark on the fishing line, a gruelling workout for 20mins or so only to lose the rig as we got it to the boat. This became a familiar pattern over the next few days. From Sunday Island we crossed King Sound to get to Coppermine Creek. Our first Kimberley lesson learnt being that tide beats wind every time. We thought with a reasonably strong wind predicted we would have enough to push through the currents. We soon found ourselves motor sailing at full revs and about a 15-20kn breeze, but pushing against a 5-7 kn tide and making about 1-2knots. I can hear a few Kimberley cruiser friends saying "I told you so" - but we didn't make that mistake again. For the rest of the trip all our passages were planned with the tides - there is no other way to do it up here.
At Coppermine creek we had our first intro to the Lemon Shark - or Ooby Dooby Shark as we nick named them. A very slow docile creature that spends hours just droobing out around the back of the boat. When one first appeared as Nic was "bucketing off" on the back deck she nearly needed an extra wash of her bather bottoms. But we soon learnt they were pretty harmless.
From Coppermine we went around the corner to Dog Leg creek and nosed in to check out the fuelling barge. I had not planned to refuel but Chris who was manning the barge radioed us as we made our way in, so I took advantage and topped up. He also took advantage of us with the Fuel prices! But a great service in a remote location. We waited for a favourable outgoing tide to scoot past Koolan Island and pop out the other end to make our way on an incoming tide (we've got this sussed!) towards Dugong Bay. This really starts to become some of the speccy Kimberley Scenery. We edged into Dugong Bay through a narrow tidal Channel. The Bay then opens up into a vast expanse surrounded on all sides by high rocky cliffs. Paul had gone the whole day without catching a fish …. something was awry.
From Dugong we went around to Horizontal Waterfalls. as the crow flys this is about a mile, and we could see float planes and Helicopters buzzing over Dugong Bay on their way to or back from the falls. But for us it was about a 20 odd mile trip out and back the classic Kimberley "fingers" of land. We got to the falls late afternoon and were able to get on the final tour of the day for $50 each. This took us up into cyclone creek at one end of the bay and then back and through the famous falls. Very spectacular stuff, and not something we would have contemplated doing in the little tinny.
Next day an early start to go up to Raft Point, I must mention at this stage that Mon had worked out there was no way we were going to get to Hunter River without rushing too much. We scoured the cruising guides and found a "nice white sandy beach" at Hanover Bay. We texted the helicopter company via Sat Phone with the coordinates and they came back saying "no worries looks like a good beach".
We used Raft Point as a kick off early the next day to go across to Montgomery Reef. This is a huge expanse of reef that gets exposed at low water. However again because of tides you have to go over there with an outgoing tide - aim to be there when the water is pouring off the reef, hang for a few hours until the tide turns and then skidadle back to Raft point. This is exactly what we did. edging our way up into a sort of gully in the reef that reveals itself as the tide goes out. Water pours down channels in the rock. It reminded me a bit of one of those vast underwater megacities that a cunning villain has built in a Bond movie and then menacingly reveals itself and threatens to set of a nuclear missile that 007 has to defuse etc etc. Unfortunately we did not get off up onto the reef, which is meant to be pretty special as you can see turtles and fish etc stuck in many pools by the outgoing tides.
Did I mention Paul had not caught a fish now for 2 days? He was visibly shaken, I could see the edges of his mouth occasionally twitch. As we got back close to Raft point, he asked if he could get in the dinghy and have a crack at fishing off the point. "No worries" go for it. He was off. We arrived back at Raft Point and spent the afternoon relaxing, Paul was gone for hours. Just as we were starting to get a bit worried the tinnie appeared around the point. As the tinnie got closer the sun reflected brightly off Paul's teeth revealed by his ear to ear grin as he had caught two great big "Queenies" and a bag full of snapper. He was a happy man again!!
That afternoon we climbed up to see some Aboriginal rock art. Truly stunning. From Raft Point we continued up to Langgi for a brief stop, some amazing rock formations here - horses heads, elephants, old men etc etc as described in the cruising guides - truly stunning. But it seemed to me none of the guides stated the bleeding obvious - a lot of the rocks were very phallic. I couldn't help thinking and the crew all agreed we had really just witnessed - as my cousin had once described the Pinnacles - "a plethora of pricks"! But special all the same. We kept on to Kid Island at Deception Bay, then the next night to Sheep Island in Camden Harbour. This was the spot of an ill-fated settlement in the early 1830's. A Boab tree on Sheep Island sits next to the grave of Mary Pascoe, the first white woman to be buried in the Kimberley after dying in child birth at age 30. The tree also has a commemorative plague for a police constable "speared by natives". It is hard to imagine just how tough and isolated it would have been in these parts - or more to the point why you would have even considered going there?!
From Camden Harbour around the corner to Hanover Bay and our transfer site for Mon and Paul and pick up for Fi and Lloyd. Hanover Bay inlet has a lovely freshwater inlet that we anchored near after sussing out the "bright white sandy beach". We had made it a day early!!
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