Couldn't leave Oz without a glimpse of the Kimberley, so did a detour into King George Bay. Had to motor most of the way across the Bonaparte Gulf using precious fuel, but arrived at King George Bay at midnight under a bright full moon, so chanced the entrance and dropped anchor at 1.00am.
At first light we surveyed the entrance to the river mouth, but couldn't find a way across the sandbank that builds in the dry season, and the tides were pretty low. Not to be defeated, we persuaded an American couple, Bob and Sue from Aspen Colorado on Rejoice, to join us in a 7 mile tandem dinghy run from the mouth to the waterfall. WHAT AN ADVENTURE, after seeing the jumping crocs we were on tenderhooks seeing crocs in every mangrove, and behind every rock! They were there alright, but mercifully ignored us, and we only clearly saw a couple of smallish black freshies, Jude in the rubber duckie with Bob who had to be discouraged from trying to flush one out for a photograph!!
It was a big relief when we got to the falls intact an hour later, and we welcomed the exercise of scrambling up the cliff. The view from the top was stunning, with the Adams centre-boarder, Overproof, anchored below. [sorry Cap'n Schmidt, couldn't resist the scam!]
The trip back was only slightly less scary and we were all glad to get back to the BIG boats, but wouldn't have missed it for the world. |
