Koolama Bay / King George River
Today is our first day venturing out in the zodiacs into some of the more remote areas of the Kimberley. The plan is to go up the King George River to the King George Falls, quite a trip, about 3 hours return. Conditions are not perfect with a 24 knot breeze blowing against us, but fortunately is is an outgoing neap tide, so the wind waves could have been a lot worse if it was wind against tide.
Zodiacs travelled past our balcony as they were offloaded from deck 9
Nevertheless it is a very wet ride across Koolama Bay until we reach the entrance to the river. The zodiacs are large and hold 8 people plus driver with a 60 HP outboard, so have plenty of speed on flat water, but on the choppy conditions we set out in, it is slow and wet progress.
Departure is in groups and our departure time was 10 am, returning at 1 pm. Until we reach the river mouth, the travel across the bay is very bumpy.
A lone yacht is running with the wind out of the bay as we head towards the river entrance
The water flattens out a bit as we get closer to the shore and the river entrance.
Once out of the bay the scenery changed dramatically as steel walls of sandstone became the prominent feature.
We then begin to enter the river gorge
The walls of the gorge heading towards the King George Falls were spectacular.
Erosion of the waterline along the cliffs
As we got closer to the falls the height of the cliff faces increased to around 80 metres at the falls.
The black stains on the rock face indicates that during the wet season, waterfalls cascade down these cliffs.
A rare sight is to see this pocket of moss thriving on the rock face, surviving the dry season because moisture seeps through cracks in the sandstone cliff face year round.
Finally we could see the falls in the distance. Water flows are diminished as the dry season goes on but there is still plenty there when we get closer.
There are two waterfalls , one either side of the large central out crop
During the wet season, these falls are massive. We were shown a video in the briefing session
A few volunteers opted for a shower under the falls before we headed back
The trip back to the ship was a lot quicker as we were doing close to 20 knots over the flat water. Overall, the whole tour took 3 hours as planned.
Once back in the bay, it was bumpy and a wet trip for the last run to the ship.
Silver cloud awaiting our return
For most of us, it was straight to the room for a warm shower after disembarking from the zodiac, which was being tossed around a fair bit in the waves.
A Ponant ship seems to be on a similar itinerary to us as this is the second time we have seen them. Apparently the crews are communicating with each other to ensure we do t get in each others way for the shore visits.
There is another zodiac trip on offer this afternoon to a couple of secluded bays, but given the wind conditions, only a small group took up this option.
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