A Kimberley coast crawl

[JohnM]

Next morning in the Drysdale River estuary. Fishing, but we didn’t go. There was a little excitement for one dinghy when a manta ray swam by, while another dinghy with the very keen fisherman thought they had hooked a snag and started pulling hard. No – up came a croc, jaws snapping near the dinghy that they managed to get some video of.

A large amount of driftwood was washed up on the N shore of the bay, replete with osprey.



Later in the morning a quite long ride in the dinghies up the Drysdale/Forrest Rivers to ‘freshwater’ – the furthest extent of the estuary salt water. The anglers couldn’t resist having another crack.

 

[JohnM]

A swim at a lovely spot on the way back.



Look for the bombie jumper in mid-air.



Our departure was being monitored.

 

[JohnM]

Moving around the corner to a W-facing beach with driftwood for our Kimberley coast small-boat traditional bonfire sundowner.



And up she goes.

 

[RooFlyer]

And up she goes.

and into a new AFF avatar pic

 

[JohnM]

That night we moved on towards Koolama Bay, at the mouth of the King George River. It was quite rough going around Cape Londonderry. As previously mentioned, the easiest thing to do was go to bed and get rocked to sleep, rather than stagger around the boat.



We awoke to being moored in Koolama Bay, but unable to move into the King George River and its Kimberley icon King George Falls until later when the tide rose. The skipper, sensing – or trying – an unplanned diversion, decide to up-anchor and flip around the corner to see if we could get the dinghies into a swimming spot in the secluded and true Koolama Bay. Inspired action – the usual large sandbar in the (low-tide) Google Earth image usually blocks access to the creek, but it had been scoured enough to form a slim access channel.



The small bay, being what we called the ‘real’ Koolama Bay is so named after the ‘Koolama Incident’. The WA State Ship Koolama was attacked by Japanese aircraft on 20 February 1942 and damaged to the point that the captain beached it in the small sub-bay of greater Koolama Bay.

A somewhat convoluted process followed, culminating in the Koolama eventually sinking and being written off in Wyndham – best followed here: MV Koolama (1937) - Wikipedia

Anyway, we had an excellent excursion that filled in the morning very nicely before we could enter King George River. Even then, the skipper proceeded very cautiously over the sandbar with not a lot of leeway.

Heading off to our ‘real’ Koolama Bay.



Sneaking in.

 

[Quickstatus]

Presumably one of the crew is a Heli pilot?

 

[JohnM]

Presumably one of the crew is a Heli pilot?

Sorry, I don't understand that query.

We didn't have a helo.

 

[JohnM]

Heading back to enter King George River.



The shade sail over the front deck will soon come down…

 

[JohnM]

And thar she flows!



Time for a shower. We all went out onto the front deck and took a drenching as the skipper nosed the boat under the falls.



Then into the dinghies to check things out a little more closely - cautiously approaching the raging left falls.

 

[JohnM]

Well, that was a bit of fun! After swinging back downstream of the boat, it was time to head back for lunch with a view.

 

[JohnM]

We were at King George Falls on 24 April.

I’ve been to King George Falls a few times. Here’s some views at other times.

In 2012 I was there on 30 April. Less flow than this year, but still good.



Back then, there were no restictions on climbing to the top. Cruise operators are no longer permitted to do this, but I’m sure plenty of individual visitors still do so.



It’s a different story in the dry season. 27 September 2023.

 

[JohnM]

After lunch we headed back downriver.



A stop on the way for another waterfall – replete with sentry.



Dinghies hoisted and back into the ocean at Koolama Bay for dinner before another night sea run to Berkeley River.