A Kimberley coast crawl

[JohnM]

A bit of fun slaloming through the tops of the mangroves on the way back to the boat.



It was very hot and humid, and we were steaming a short distance to another mooring area which meant engine noise outside, so lunch was inside in the aircon.

 

[JohnM]

After lunch, a visit to some rock art.



A balmy evening, so dinner outside before moving a short distance into St George Basin in the lower Prince Regent River.



Today’s area.

 

[JohnM]

Next day was the half-way point of the voyage and visiting another Kimberley icon – King Cascades, also often called Kings Cascade, about 5km up the Prince Regent River and lying within a lagoon. It is the site of the well-publicised crocodile attack in 1987 when American woman Ginger Meadows ignored warnings not to go into the water and was fatally attacked by a large crocodile.

We were calmly anchored overnight in St George Basin after our balmy evening but awoke to steady heavy rain that had begun in the early hours. Tropical Cyclone Errol had moved E, well to our S, and had crossed the coast as a rain-bearing depression. No wind, but it was bucketing down from the low and heavy spinoff cloud generated by TC Errol.

I’ve marked our location on the radar image.



The boat moved upriver during the morning, and we reached the Cascades a little after noon. It was cranking.

The skipper took the boat into the lagoon and nosed up under the falls to a smashing torrent dunking for those who braved it.



It was 18 April this year, which happened to be Good Friday. We were certainly seeing a flood of biblical proportions.

In contrast, here’s what it was like on 23 April 2012.



This year there was no prospect of climbing to the top as we did in 2012.



We then moved back into the river and anchored outside of the lagoon, directly in line with the falls.



It was still raining heavily as the dinghies were brought back to the boat after being disconnected for the tight turn in the lagoon. Time for lunch while watching the flow build, before venturing out in the dinghies for more exploration.

 

[JohnM]

Upriver, the amphitheatre falls were impossible to get close to. The crew member driving the dinghy I was in has been travelling the Kimberley coast for 25-odd years. He was raving about the torrents we were seeing being the most spectacular he’d ever seen.



The autofocus on my dinky underwater camera was struggling in the rain and low light.



It was about 1430h when we went back near the boat and cascades. The flow had visibly massively increased in the two hours we had been here.



Even the Fisheries inspectors, whose boat was moored in the lower reaches of the river, came up for a look. Fair enough – it was a public holiday.



We then continued downstream in the dinghies for more exploring. By now the rain had eased.



Back to the boat at around 1530h for last look at the cascades before moving out of the river and a little further N to anchor for the night in Careening Bay, bringing the first week of the voyage to a close.



There is a bundle of King Cascade images here: king cascade - Google Search

None come close to our raging torrent.

Of course, there are upsides and downsides. We saw something rare; the timing being perfect as the remnants of the cyclone dumped a huge amount of rain at just the right time to see the cascades’ flow grow and grow. The downside was the low light, the rain which was quite cold, not seeing the cascades in their ‘pretty’ state and not being able to climb to the top. But it was certainly a unique experience.