Exploring on the Explorer. Lautoka, Fiji to Broome, Australia

[Stumblefoot]

4 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

Here's the technical stuff.

 

The area formed in a slow tectonic plate collision during the Paleoproterozoic. The Kimberley Craton, which was moving south-eastwards, smashed into the North Australia Craton. The resulting series of deformations created the Hooper Complex and Lamboo Complex, which can be seen today along the southern margin of the Kimberley Craton.^[2] During the Proterozoic to Early Phanerozoic, the region had phases of mountain building (orogeny), faulting and sedimentary basin formation. Finally, the two cratons sutured, becoming one craton.

My head hurts and I wonder, when do the food and wine pics return? 😁

[Port Power]

2 hours ago, Port Power said:

Ord River excursion.

 

It was fabulous!

 

Being deputised by @highplanesdrifters, I made sure to takes notes!  I’ll start writing, but will have to edit to add photos from my phone.  (I’ve reached capacity so cannot synchronise with the iPad.)

 

Our group left the ship at 7:30am. 🥱 The driver of the Triple J bus was full of interesting information on the 90 minute drive to the boat, but didn’t talk the whole way.  He noted that the Boab trees all around us, originally thought to have floated as trees or seed pods across the ocean from Madagascar thousands of years ago, have now been shown by DNA to be endemic to Australia.  There were also Australian kapok trees with lovely yellow flowers that always face the sun. The seed pods contain kapok like material that was used to stuff mattresses back in the day.

2 hours ago, Port Power said:

 

The Ord River flows the whole way, but is called Lake Kununurra in the section between the diversion dam and the big clay and rock rock dam wall.  It is then called Lake Argyle as the flooded dam water.  

Our five hour cruise was broken with a one hour lunch stop at one of the two JJJ picnic sites.  There were plenty of tables and shade sails as well as the two drop toilets.  The two skippers were a well seasoned team, unloading the numerous coolers.  There were cheeses and pâté with dry biscuits as well as lots of delicious fresh paw paw, and cold soft drinks.  Lunch was a buffet of chicken, sliced corned beef, garden salad, pumpkins salad and rice salad, plus bread rolls.  
 

2 hours ago, Port Power said:

Commentary was excellent and scenery along all three sections superb.  There are around 5,000 freshwater crocodiles in Lake Kununurra.  We saw at least eight: a couple pretty big, some about 1.5m long, and two youngsters about one year old floating in the water pretending we couldn’t see them.

 

You need to look hard to see the little croc on the log in the middle of the picture.

The occasional salt water crocodile walks around the diversion dam into Lake Kununurra, usual a juvenile after a round in with bigger males.  When they don’t find any females, some will walk back.  Others are caught in one of four traps.  As there is no longer a nearby crocodile farm, these guys are euthanised.  

2 hours ago, Port Power said:

 

 

I spent ages on my phone attaching the photos, only to be told on saving that I had run out of time!

 

I have now added them above.  It might be in stages due to the time limit of editing.

[highplanesdrifters]

5 hours ago, Wombat706 said:

My great, great granduncle, Patrick Mulcahy was a member of the 1884 Harry Stockdale expedition to the Kimberley region to 'discover and report on the best methods of stocking the country and opening it up to civilisation'.

 

Stockdale's journal detailed that Patrick and George Ashton were adamant that they did not want to continue and asked if they could have some rations and camp for a while and if Stockdale would send help.

 

Patrick never returned from the Kimberley expedition and was presumed to have died after the other expedition members left him there.

Wow, what a story.  Thanks so much for posting.  I just read about the Camel Stations that opened up the interior. Fascinating history.

[highplanesdrifters]

@Port Power. It's official, you need to do more reporting. Great stuff. 

 

Fyi, our bus driver kept yapping. We saw the tree he planted 50 years ago and the one that fell down in last years storm. Also learned about passing lanes. 🤯

[highplanesdrifters]

@Stumblefoot

Champagne and a rice ball to tide you over.🤣

 

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by highplanesdrifters

[highplanesdrifters]

King George River Falls

Gobsmacked,  report to follow.

 

 

 

 

[highplanesdrifters]

King George River Falls, Kimberly. Australia

 

We were given two zodiac cruise options today. Early, 7:30, 3 1/2 hour slow option. OR, the sleep in wussy 9 a.m. fast 2 hour trip. Sleep in wussy that I am, 2 hours it is.  Perhaps @FauxNomcan report on the early trip. 😁

 

Another wet and bumpy ride to the river entrance. No one cared. Flanked by the soaring 300 foot red sandstone cliffs for the entire ride we were mesmerized. Here's the eye candy. Stunning day.

 

 

This was called the guillotine. 

Geologist do not know how the webbing is formed. I'm going with Alien carved grafitti.

 

Twin Falls

 

Look what was hiding around the corner for us. Silverseas drive through bottle shop. YAY!

 

 

On the way back we found this bad boy. A few in our zodiac got to see a Djougong, similar to a manatee.

 

 

 

 

 

[Port Power]

5 hours ago, Port Power said:

Ord River excursion - Part two photos. EXPAND to view photos.

 

There were tiny little water birds called comb crested Jacanas.  The comb was red.  They were walking on the lily pads of the snow drop lily.  Tiny flowers that come out daily.  There were a few Whistling Kites flying about, and one large White Bellied Sea Eagle in a tree.  Easy to see by eye, but not in a photo.  We also saw a sea eagle’s nest in a tree later on.

 

Hard to see, the Jacana is in the middle of the photo. Adults have a red comb, juveniles j yellow.  Long, thin legs, but they can certainly run across the lily pads.

5 hours ago, Port Power said:

There was a group of trees housing sleeping Black Headed Flying Foxes.  Their lookouts set up an alarm as our boat stopped, causing some rustling, but they settled down. Lucas told us that the reason bats hand upside down is so they can spread their wings on letting go to catch the up draft and start flying.  This is when crocs can grab them for dinner.  Bats cannot fly from the ground or from standing.

We were right next to the colony and there was definitely no bad odours.

We ended up at the dam wall and disembarked to board another JJJ bus.  It stopped stop the dam wall for a look, before heading past the resort/caravan park/camping ground to the rebuilt Durack homestead.  An abandoned Bower Bird bower surrounded by assorted white items was still there.  After wandering through the house we continued onwards, driving through Kununurra and past the airport on our way back to the ship.

 

 

We were all very happy with our choice of day out, but next time I’m up that way, I will take the helicopter flight from Lake Argyle Resort to view the extent of the vast area of water.

5 hours ago, Port Power said:

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by Port Power
Add photos

[jpalbny]

So many great posts and pictures to catch up on this morning! You all were busy while I was snoozing. Thanks for sharing.

[highplanesdrifters]

@Port Power wowza you saw some cool stuff. I'm going to have to come back to go on that tour.  Love the bats!

[drron29]

We did a Kimberley cruise on the Orion in 2006. We did a helicopter ride to the top of the falls when anchored in the King George river. We were back reasonably early so Captain Mike got the tender lowered and took us to the falls but on the way back got stuck on a sand bank. # zodiacs pulled us off.

It should have been a warning as several years later he ran a cruise ship onto a coral reef in Irian Jaya.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/indonesia-seeks-justice-after-cruise-ship-irreparably-damages-worlds-richest-coral-reef/bjolqcb06

[highplanesdrifters]

8 hours ago, drron29 said:

We did a Kimberley cruise on the Orion in 2006. We did a helicopter ride to the top of the falls when anchored in the King George river. We were back reasonably early so Captain Mike got the tender lowered and took us to the falls but on the way back got stuck on a sand bank. # zodiacs pulled us off.

It should have been a warning as several years later he ran a cruise ship onto a coral reef in Irian Jaya.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/indonesia-seeks-justice-after-cruise-ship-irreparably-damages-worlds-richest-coral-reef/bjolqcb06

Good story. It begs the question...where is Captian Mike now?🤣

 

Our zodiac drivers had been warned about an area with sand bars. We had the worst driver of the expedition team. I was a bit nervous.🫣

[highplanesdrifters]

@Stumblefoot

 

As good as it looks!

 

Smoked salmon with Q Tip

 

Falafel - yum

 

 

Shish K Bob

 

 

 

[mysty]

8 minutes ago, highplanesdrifters said:

Good story. It begs the question...where is Captian Mike now?🤣

 

Our zodiac drivers had been warned about an area with sand bars. We had the worst driver of the expedition team. I was a bit nervous.🫣

 

High, I can't like this post.  With no other options to acknowledge your post I will use this.....😮‍💨

[drron29]

The last I heard was he was retired in Florida. Never captained another ship.

He was an Irish man and did have a common addiction that some Irish men have so may not be still in this world.

[highplanesdrifters]

UP NEXT

 

Vansittart Bay, Jar Island

Kimberly's Australia 

 

Vansittart Bay is located near the northern tip of Western Australia. The bay was named by Phillip Parker King during one of his four surveys of Northern Australia during the early 19th century.

Interesting parts of the bay include Jar Island and the opportunity to view Bradshaw (Gwion Gwion) and Wandjina styles of rock art. For these two different rock art styles there are two sites in close proximity.

An area with an example of a more recent history is the Anjo Peninsula. A beach landing and a short hike across a lagoon or -depending on tides- a walk around the lagoon will lead to a World War II site. An almost intact wreck of an old airplane, a C-53, can be seen there.

[Stumblefoot]

3 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

@Stumblefoot

 

As good as it looks!

Nice!  Now you’re cooking with peanut oil.

[highplanesdrifters]

23 hours ago, mysty said:

 

High, I can't like this post.  With no other options to acknowledge your post I will use this.....😮‍💨

CC Intelligentsia, rise up and demand more emojis!

 

What do we want?

    More Emojis!

When do we want them?

    NOW!

[mysty]

13 minutes ago, highplanesdrifters said:

CC Intelligentsia, rise up and demand more emojis!

 

What do we want?

    More Emojis!

When do we want them?

    NOW!

 

I vote yes on proposition Emoji! 😁

[highplanesdrifters]

@RetiredandTravel

Menus - at your service. 

Thanks for great report on the 10 year and market. 

 

Being a very small ship menu is limited. But they are more than happy to accommodate any wishes beyond.  There has been a lot of grumbling on the SS and Seabourn boards about quality of steaks.  I have to say they have been top knotch on this trip. I've eaten more red meat on than in the last year.

 

 

 

 

 

The Grill menu

You probably know this by heart.

[highplanesdrifters]

Shish K BOB

Who is BOB? And why does he shish?

 

Aloo Gobi

 

[highplanesdrifters]

Vansittart Bay, Jar Island

Kimberly. Australia 

 

Gwion Gwion Rock art.

A rather special stop even if Indigenous Rock art isn't your thing.

I'm surprised we are allowed to visit. 

 

We landed on a spectacular beach but again told to rush away from Zodiacs as there is a rather large Croc who lives there called George.  Swimming denied. Very big sad face. Short walk over interesting rock to the two art locations. A bit up and down but not bad for those with issues.

 

Gwion Gwion art is at least 17,500 years old, dated by radio carbon on the fossilized wasp nests which are on top of the paintings. New technology may provide a better answer soon. Depending on which tribe is asked the art is derived from the dream world or painted by a bird with a bloody beak.  You choose.

The crazy head dresses depicted reminded me of so many we saw on our leg through PNG.

 

Don't you want to take a dip in that bay?

 No sign of George.

 

Short walk to the art with minimal rock scrambling. Guides around to lend a hand.

 

 

Will our guide  did a top job of explaining.  He lived in a local village previously and his depth of knowledge went beyond the textbook.

 

 

Check out the gecko on the right. 😃

The dark lines above the figure are termite trails.

 

Fish

 

 

 

A tight fit and we are asked not to touch the rocks. Glad I skipped dessert last night.

Rocks 😃

 

Fossilized termite nest.

 

 

 

 

[highplanesdrifters]

Vansittart Bay, Kimberly Australia 

 

Captian did a quick reposition of the ship across the bay. A spot of lunch and off for the afternoon adventure, a walk to a WWII plane wreck. I was iffy on going but very glad I went even though it was a rather toasty afternoon.

 

The USAAF AirTransport Command C-53 Skytrooper a variant of the DC 3 crash landed because they were running out of gas. No navigational officer on board the wrong coordinates were entered flying from Perth to Broome. Ooops. The pilot found a salt pan and safely landed. A earlier version of Sully. They were rescued 4 days later.

 

As I mentioned a toasty walk across the Salt pan.

Lots of rocks to dodge on landing. 

 

 

Eerie sight.

 

 

 

 

 

A little nature

 

 

Mudskipper, can you find it?

 

Termite mound

 

Fiddler crab claw, bigger than its body. They wave it to attract the female.  Hmmmm.

 

A really toasty walk back.

 

 

 

 

 

[drron29]

That plane doesn't look too much different to June 2009.

[Port Power]

1 hour ago, drron29 said:

That plane doesn't look too much different to June 2009.

The plane is in a remarkable state given it has sat there for 80 years. It actually looks shinier now than in your photo.  A bit too delicate to climb into now, though.