Aira and Kit's Kimberley Adventures

 We will probably be incommunicado for that time, since there’s no reception out at sea.  We go to Cape Leveque and across King Sound on the first day. Then the Buccaneers Archipelago, swim at Crocodile Ck (!), and Horizontal Falls, spending the night in Talbot Bay. Next day is Montgomery Reef,  Homer, Red Cone Creek, Ruby Falls. Day 4 is Breaknock Harbour, Kurt Bay, Hanover Bay. Day 5 is Kings Cascade, a hike to Falls for a swim (crocodiles?), Cathedral Falls and  overnight in Prince Regent River. Camp Creek swim the next day. Day 7 is Careening Bay and Prince Frederick Harbour. Day 8 is  Roe River and Porosus Creek overnight.  Day 9 we get to Hunter River and on a seaplane over Mitchell Falls, then back to Broome, where we will stay overnight before flying home. Except Kit will spend a week in Perth, while I fly straight home. Looking forward to more adventure, hopefully with no seasickness for either of us!

 Got up at 6am - no sleep in - to be picked up for the Mangrove Bird Tour at the Bird Observatory. It was misty - the washing didn’t dry, but also it was hard to photograph the birds due to poor visibility. So here are some, identities to be confirmed later!  The last picture does not give justice to mangrove mud! It is gray, sticky, slippery and stinky. We sort of followed each other’s footsteps on the way and you have no idea how deep the hole might be until you step in it. The fog made for a cooler morning, but limited visibility. Then when we were to head back, we could hear the sound of the tide coming in! That was the signal to move - it was quite a loud roar and moved very quickly. At the moment they were experiencing 9 metre tides!  The pic below shows barnacles on the mangrove trunk. That’s how deep it goes. The wingspan sign was outside the Bird Observatory info centre - for our Wingspan fans!  Steve, you will be cross with me because my camera ended up wit...

 It was a long drive. Went across the Fitzroy River . This is the new bridge of which they are very proud since the first bridge was demolished in a floods. The bird is a jabiru, which is quite rare and we were lucky to see it. Then a couple of spinifex pigeons and a road train. Overall the trip was awesome. Spectacular scenery. Covered over 3000 kms. Our leaders were brilliant, providing food and tents etc extremely well.Tomorrow we spend a day in Broome with a mangrove bird trip in the morning. Then the cruise the next day.

 On the homeward stretch! Mainly driving today.  A sample of the striated rocks. Also, you can’t really see it well, but there is what I would call an aplite vein - a seam of light rock that goes for many kilometres, sometimes above ground and sometimes below. This is all sandstone country so aplite? Anyway they call it the China Wall. Stopped by a graveyard commemorating Rev John Flynn, who started the Royal Flying Doctor Service because someone was severely ill, eventually died. But read his story: amazing! Then we went to the Mary River, which was pretty dry and dusty. At the rest stop there was a bower bird bower, but the bird went awol. Then we went to the Geike Gorge on the Fitzroy River, the access to which had only recently been opened due to flood damage. Saw some interesting bids and the obligatory crocodile, which looked like a platypus until you looked closer. Don’t know the names of the bushes except for the cockroach bush - guess which one it is? From there we we...

 We got up at 4.40am, because of a long day ahead. The sun didn’t even bother to get up until 5.55am, when we were already on the road. We only had to drive about 52km, but the road was windy and bumpy and took about 2 1/2 hours, 4WD only to get to Purnululu National Park. (Bungle Bungles.) Above is the visitor’s centre and entry. Then we proceeded to do the Domes Walk and Cathedral Gorge. It was very hot and I don’t do heat well so I did not go to Picaninny Creek, but Kit did. Cathedral Gorge is - gorgeous. Some flowers in the area, and spinifex. Then the helicopter ride! I took so many pictures…. Spectacular. There were 3 of us in the helicopter, so all got a good view. Amazing country. And we got helicopter hair - took me a long time to untangle it, in a cold shower, mind you! And the helicopter! Some people then went up to Echidna Gorge,but I found the heat too much. I may not be able to do any more until we get to Broome - the next two days are simply coming back.