Posts In The “Kimberley” Category
The Drysdale River has several miles of sandbars to negotiate, and isn’t considered as scenic as some of the other rivers in the Kimberley. So we skipped it on the westerly run and stopped there on the return trip after leaving Freshwater Bay. Rather than take on the sandbars, we anchored at the mouth and…
Shelter Bay was featured in the Nordhavn 2012 calender with Rick MacClure‘s photo of Nordhavn 55 Skie. When we first saw that picture, we couldn’t imagine being in such a wild-looking place. Continuing east from Murrara Island, we found ourselves right in that photo, in beautiful and protected Shelter Bay. We explored the area by…
Montgomery Reef was the last major Kimberley highlight on our list. From there, we returned back east towards Darwin at a more leisurely pace. We got a few boat projects done along the way and explored some areas, such as Hanover Bay Inlet, that we’d just skimmed past on the westerly “hit-the-highlights” run. Trip highlights…
The tidal phenomena at Montgomery Reef is a product of the region’s extreme tidal exchanges. The 154 sq mi (400 sq km) reef is covered at high tide, but as the tide falls over 4m of reef can be exposed, and the water inside pours out in increasingly active waterfalls. It’s best seen from a…
Doubtful Bay has several attractions, including impressive rock paintings, dramatic scenery and waterfalls. We ran from Talbot Bay to Doubtful Bay on the start of our return trip east to Darwin. Leaving Talbot Bay, we realized that not only was this the most westerly point on our journey so far, but we are nearly one…
Horizontal Falls are two narrow gorges about 300m apart that connect two saltwater basins. As the tide goes up and down outside in Talbot Bay, water can’t flow in or out of the basins fast enough to keep up. The result is extreme tidal currents and waterfalls sometimes several meters high on large tidal exchanges….
King Cascade Falls in the Prince Regent River are one of the major Kimberley attractions. The falls are about 35 miles from the sea entrance at Brunswick Bay, and reaching them requires careful timing on the tides. The waters at the approach into St. George Basin can be turbulent in large exchanges, and sandbars impede…
Our next stop after the Mitchell River was the Hunter River. While we were excited to see a crocodile or two in the previous rivers, here we pretty much lost count of the crocodile sightings. We passed one that was rearing out of the water to smash its catch against the shore, and captured video…
We made an overnight run from the King George River to the Mitchell River. We didn’t need to run overnight as there are plenty of anchorage on the way. But we’re moving quickly to visit the rivers as early as possible since their flow will slowly be diminishing in the dry season. We’ll coastal-cruise on…
We loved the Berkeley River, but the King George was even more spectacular. A narrow gorge leads from about halfway into the river to twin several-hundred-foot waterfalls at the head. The water is deep enough in front of both falls to bring the boat up fairly close, and we had just enough swing room to…
After an overnight run from Darwin across the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, we spent three nights in the Berkeley River. This was our first time in Western Australia’s famed Kimberley region and it definitely is one of our top ten destinations ever. The scenery was incredible, and we saw our first crocodiles in the wild. Traveling…