Swift Bay

 This morning we are sharing Swift bay with 2 other ships, The National Geographic Orion, and Scenic Eclipse11. Later on in afternoon a yacht and smaller cruise vessel arrive. Our activities for today include a morning visit to an aboriginal cave art site and another one in the afternoon in a totally different location on the shores of this very large bay.

Our first trip in the zodiacs is at low tide and requires about a 300 metre walk along the sand to get to the rocky area where the cave is located. It is a bit of a mountain goat trail from there,  but the very helpful expedition staff are on hand to help to ensure everyone gets there safely.


Looking back at the wet landing area 

We walked along the sand to the rocky approach to the cave


A grey VIP carpet of ships towels has been laid out on the wet rocks to ensure no- one slipped

The cave itself is more of a long overhanging ledge where paintings appear on the walls and the roof of the sheltered area. The floor is a huge midden, and a bit loose to walk on with all of the shell remains and sandy soil. The art style used here is described as Wandjina style and is much more recent than the paintings we saw at Vansittart Bay. These ones are thought to be 1000 to 4000 years old. Most aboriginal art sites are this style. To the people of the Kimberley, the Wandjina is the Supreme creator.


Hats are not allowed as they may scrape on the roof of the ledges and damage the paintings


It is a long “cave” . These shots are taken from the centre looking in both directions 


Our faithful guide, Malcom, ( aboriginal art expert), was at hand to brief us on the many pieces of work in this cave complex and their meanings. Unfortunately, most of us are not accomplished aboriginal art critics, but tried to absorb as much of his input as we could. Here are some examples of the art.


We worked these two out



And this one

However, there were many paintings there that needed a lot of interpretation, much of the knowledge the expedition team divulge has come from the local indigenous population.









It seems these are Oyster Catchers


This one is claimed to be an Ibis

By the time we had inspected the art and had a good look around, we returned to the beach to find the tide had come in a couple of hundred metres and saved us a long walk back to the zodiacs who could now make it much further up the inlet.


After lunch, we were back in the zodiacs again for a longer trip (about 4 Nm) to another part of the bay where the tide is high enough for us to get a dry landing, stepping off the zodiac onto rocks on the shoreline. The walk to the cave is also not quite as long and is over flatter terrain, but some help is needed for some of the passengers. 


Approaching our afternoon cave site


Landing at high tide just means stepping off onto the rocks

The art at this site was a bit more distributed around a few caves and under ledges, which required you to lay on your back on tarpaulins to be able to see it in full. 



Once again it is Wandjina style and some of the paintings had been touched up over time, which was apparently traditional.






 






Throughout the day we didn’t see passengers from any of the other boats in the bay,  so we were uninterrupted in our program to see these caves.

The wind was up a bit for the trip back to the ship, but the zodiac driver kept us dry. It is only getting off the zodiac onto the ship in the chop that requires a bit of care.


We weighed anchor at 5 pm and headed off to our next destination, Hunter River.

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