The Central Kimberley 1 - Aboriginal Art, Crocodiles, and Spectacular Scenery

Dear all

After leaving Hanover Bay, and the comfort that comes from having other people around to provide advice, we started what was to be a 10 day period without seeing another human being.   Our only link to the outside world was our satellite phone on which we could download weather, send text based emails, and talk to the family.  No iternet, no radio, no news, and no Youtube!

From Hanover Bay, we made our way through the Coronation Islands to the Hunter River, one of the iconic Kimberley rivers.  En route, we spent a night at a tiny anchorage in a narrow passage between two islands, named Ivy Cove.  On the beach, there is one of the two historic carved boab trees in the Coronation Islands, the other being the Mermaid tree in Careening Bay. 

The Ivy tree is the less famous of the two, and bears the inscription Ivy 19.10.1890.  The Ivy was a pearling schooner working in the area under the commend of Captain Biddles.  


Entering the Hunter River was an amazing sight.   The entrance is marked by two very distinctive rocks which can be seen from a long way off.   The white tail which can been seen in the sky was from a jet passing overhead, heading we think for Singapore. We saw several more during our stay in the Hunter River. 


Our anchorage in Porosus Creek (latin for crocodile) was beautiful.  Although I scanned the tidal flats through binoculars each day, we did not spot a single croc.  But at night, the water was noisy with lots of splashes, and each morning we woke to find assorted marine creatures stranded on our back steps - tiny fish, prawns and squid, seemingly jumping out of the water to avoid predators. 

After three amazing nights in the beautiful solitude of the Hunter River, we moved north through York Sound and through the perilous Scott Straight, which we probably would not do again.   Even though we timed the passage to what we thought would be a following current, this was not the case.  We met a 3.5 knot head current through the narrow passage, with the seabed changing depth wildly between 20 metres and 0.3 metres under our keel.  We got through after about an hour of serious motoring and without touching the bottom!

We arrived in the amazing Palm/Winyalkan Island area, in South Montague Sound, after two days sailing and a night stop at one of the many island anchorages en route.   

The Palm/Winyalkan Island area was probably my favourite spot of the Kimberley.  We found some amazing aboriginal rock art and shell middens, had a croc visit us over two days at the boat (only a little one) as well as visiting amazing beaches.   The aboriginal art was of varying styles, some we think were Gwion Gwion (formerly known as Bradshaw) figures, which I have read can be up to 40,000 years old, and others were of the Wandjina style. 

We spent three nights here and another three nights at Swift Bay, again seeing more amazing aboriginal art.  Hopefully the many photos below give an idea of how amazing this area was.    Bye for now, the next blog will feature the remainder of the central Kimberely

Love Naomi and S2ee




















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