Passed up the chance to visit the Tranquil Bay beach in favour of a lie-in, badly needed after several consecutive days of having to get up early.
Later this morning took us out on the Xplorer down the King George River as far as the Twin Falls. Once again, as yesterday, some amazing rock formations, but different in some respects inasmuch as there is evidence of sea erosion and deposition of different minerals, particularly manganese, giving the pink colour in these areas. Absolutely awe-inspiring stuff, and another beautiful day for it.
Also had a decent spell out in the Zodiac, which really got you right up close without the intrusion of the Xplorer’s superstructure.
We then had a safety briefing and information dissemination about our planned helicopter trip tomorrow. Very exciting.
This was followed by a really interesting presentation from Ian Morris called “Strangers on the Shore”, which went into considerable detail about the history of the Kimberley. He has had an interesting life, assuredly – even though he is a white man, he was brought up with aboriginal kids and became a science teacher, teaching aboriginal children, from whom he learned an awful lot. He has made it his life to follow up on the anthropology and wildlife of the area, and he was a rich mine of information. I felt a little sorry for him, because right at the end, there was a general wave of excitement through the ship as whales had been spotted and he had to cut his presentation short. Unfortunately, we didn’t see much of them, but at least we knew they were there.
The evening film was “Riddle of the Bradshaws”, about the native art that had been discovered by one Joseph Bradshaw, and highlighted the debate about where this art had actually come from. Academics disagree about this and it still has not been satisfactorily resolved.
Leave a Reply