Twenty Twenty-Six
July - Christchurch and The
Kimberley
July 25 - Aboard Heritage Adventurer off the Kimberley Coast
of Western Australia. With no Arctic contract, I was pleased to
accept an offer from Heritage for 3 voyages in the Kimberley. Back
on 1983 I had driven from Darwin to Broome, but the road is a long
way from the coast. These voyages would be a first for me, meaning a
lot of learning, and considerable time preparing a new talk (Ancient
Australians) and recaps for the upcoming voyages. My 75th birthday
was spent mostly in the air between Christchurch and Broome. I was
then aboard for the first voyage - Broome to Darwin. The voyage
started with a number of Zodiac cruises into the mangroves and tidal
flats in among the sandstone cliffs and bays.Scenes from this period: Voyage 1: Crocodile, Fiddler crab, Boab trees, post sunset glow, Beach stone Curlew, inlet into the rocky landscape
August - The Kimberley and Christchurch
August 1 - enroute to Darwin to complete voyage 1. As the voyage went on, our activities became more land based with several visits to Aboriginal rock art sites. The rock art sits in the Kimberley include the ancient (~20,000 years or more) Gwion Gwion paintings and the more recent (~5000 years or less) Wandjina paintings. Both are remarkable. Most of the sites visited were one or the other, with the last site having Gwion Gwion art overlayed with Wandjina. We also made a landing to visit a WWII aircraft wreck. The Kimberley coast has many site related to the war history as the Japanese invasion of Jave and Indonesia continued on to include attacks on both Broome and Darwin.Scenes from this period: Bigge Island Wandjina art site; Vansittart Bay C-53 (DC-3) wreck; Jar Island Gwion Gwion art site x 2; Swift Bay Wandjina art site x 2; Swift Bay Gwion Gwion art site x 2 with a person to show scale and our approach; Wollaston Island site showing overlapping Gwion Gwion and Wandjina art x 3; Cruising the King George River gorge
August 11 - Broome on changeover day at the end of voyage 2. The return voyage from Darwin to Broome hit many of the same sites as voyage 1, so not too many different photos. The conditions remain superb - with warm sunny conditions every day. The places are wild, rugged and unique - one downside for me is the long Zodiac shuttles in sometimes choppy conditions. Due to a port strike all disembarkation/embarkation of PAX and luggage in Broome was by Zodiac in gale force winds and 2+ meter swells. The team (and PAX to be fair) handled the conditions remarkably well.
Some scenes from this period: Zodiac cruise up the King George River(video credit Andy); Thumbs up from the driver (photo credit Hannah); Paperbark eucalyptus bark and flower; Jar Island gwion gwion art; sunset glow; crocodile on the mudflat
August 21 - Darwin At the end of the third voyage. After a rough start, the first port of call for voyage 3 was the Lacepede Islands. These small sand isles and lagoon were a real highlight with the best wildlife of the contract so far. Another highlight was the whitewater at Montgomery Reef. We caught the spring tide draining from the reef into the "river" channel with lots of fun rides in the rapids. The remainder of the voyage followed a similar pattern as the previous 2.
Scenes from this period: Lacepede Islands: Brown Booby in flight, Brown Bobbies, Brown Bobby chick, sea turtle submerged, pelican; Young crocodile; River reflections; Sunset (with the clear warm weather we had wonderful sunsets every day - but, in the tropics, blink and you miss it); Montgomery Reef drone video (credit Hannah); Ashmore reef lagoon; As ever, the best part of the job is being on the Expedition Team.
Here are the links to the slideshow and voyage log for voyage 1 - and slideshow and voyage log for voyage 2. Voyage 3 was a charter so none for that voyage.
Continue to October
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