Week 33

31^st July 2014 – Berkley River mouth to Seaplane Bay 14° 6.314 S  127° 32.341E

A pleasant sail up here this morning.  The anchorage is subject to an awkward rolling swell which we haven’t had for a while. We’ve been spoilt in the river for too long.

 

The Mustang and Buffy the Barra Slayer lead us for a walk/climb/scramble up the hill. She’s quite pleased with her improved level of fitness(The Mustang that is. Buffy still need her nap time.)…

The view from the top.

Lots of copper ore and quartz on the beach here.

I‘ve found ,myself a new sundowner position…

1^st August 2014 – Seaplane Bay  to King George river 13° 57.891S  127° 19.877E             

 King George river mouth… Arrived here just at high tide so came on straight in.  We had only a high tide of 2.2metres which was as low as we got under the keels as we came through.  There is this beach on the south side of the entrance so the Mustang had to go a combing.

Pockets full of shells….. and

Buff checks out a petrified forest.

On the Northern side there is a creek so we went for a troll up for a look…

Caught this baby barracuda  

  and a small mackerel.  There wasn’t much depth in the creek although one metre was deep  enough for either a manatee of false killer whale that we scared out from under Merv.  The Mustang Said “Oh golly gee… that quite surprised me”

The next morning one of the large cruise boats was parked out the front and they ferried the punters in passed us in a large tour boat.  We had a quiet start and hauled anchor after having a good laugh at Buffy falling off her chair in the rush to get to the set rod when a shark took the bait.

Up to the next creek and trolled our way to the waterfall in Merv. Another Barracuda …

,,, and a small Queenie this morning. No picture of the Queenie as it managed to get off and put the hook into my fingers instead.  Nothing serious just difficult to flick the bird. 

There are a couple of ropes up the side of the waterfall that you can climb up. The mustang had to settle for just waving from Merv …

… while I did the honours… 

A BOF on top.

There is my private spa bath at the top of the waterfall…

Gold plated quartz.

The nest day we went further into the river…

… The gorges are not much higher than at the Berkley but appear older geology. We only went as far as a corner on the river called BBQ beach.  We actually went the other side of where it is suggested.  There is a only a dinghy wide break through the mangroves …

  Once through the entrance there was a large sandy area with shade, plenty of firewood and a ready made fire pit. 

…The Mustang did the cooking thing.  You can see Charisma’s mast behind here.  I made the table… 

… and The Buff got to scoff some leftovers…

Only about a nautical mile further on the river terminates at some pretty impressive falls.

. Not much water flowing but still enough for a wash.  I took Merv in for close look but The Mustang chickened out for the shower shot…

Of course no visit is complete without the climb to the top of the falls.  

  The Mustang is all smiles at the start of the trail.  It all fun until someone loses an eye…

 The cliché boat at anchor money shot.  Charisma is the second boat.

 Both The Mustang and The Buff make it to the top.

One of the things to try and locate on the climb up is “the gremlin box”  If you leave a little something in the box the gremlins will leave you alone.  The Mustang left a used tissue(hahahah)

  It was hard work on the Buffstarr . Her legs aren’t really designed for rock climbing. 

We sat out a couple of more days while the wind warning was current before heading out to the river mouth for an early start… We went for a scout on the beach north of the entrance… it was quite desolate and very small pickings for the Mustang. 

… Desolate beach. 

… Shell infanticide

… mummified sea snake.

There was this architect designed bus stop…

....  When’s the next bus?

8^th  August 2014 –King George river to Cape Talbot 13° 48.542S  126° 45.542E

We hadn’t intended to come this far today but it is forecast to blow up a bit after today so we used the good weather to get around cape Londenderry. This was the view as we left King George this morning at sunrise…

… and we had some neighbours pull up and drop the amenity of the area…

 

The Kimberley Kruising Klub Guide says “ Cape Londonderry is named after Robert Stewart Londonderry, known as Lord Castlereagh.  He cut his throat with a penknife in 1882, which is understandable if he’d just been around Cape Londonderry in a small boat when a strong wind warning was current.”!

This is the most Northern point in WA and the two conflicting currents merge just off the point and make it is a bit of a disturbed sea.  Timing and weather are pretty critical to make a passage possible and after a bit of calculation after leaving King George we knew it w3as quite doable today. Probably the best it would be for the coming week.  Bottom line is this is what the passage was like…

… yes those are the sails up.  The best days sailing we’ve had since Darwin! Complete with well deserved Backburn sundowners on the beach. ..

…sunset at Cape Talbot.  We will be stuck here for a couple of days while the strong winds blow over.  I think we’ll  manage…