Wednesday 23rd July A Delightful Destination for a Deluge

Another early start saw us loaded onto an Explorer, soon after 8 am and cruising down the Prince Regent River. Once again, the weather was brilliant although being a little earlier in the morning, a jacket was required. The scenic cruise was impressive and we stopped at various locations to observe the endemic snubfin dolphins at play and various birdlife. After about an hour of cruising we arrived at the stunning Kings Cascade where cool, fresh water from a river, tumbled down over the terraced rock formations and into the Prince Regent River. Here we had the opportunity to experience a Kimberley shower. Our boat nudged up against the rocks and water poured onto the front section of the boat. Rob and I had worn our bathers and so we decided to try it. The water was not nearly as cold as we had expected. It was fun and many people were filling up drink bottles as the water was so pure. Once all the passengers who wanted to experience this had done so, we cruised around the bottom of the falls for awhile while our expedition team leader, Sandra retold a horrific story. It was about a young woman, who was an aspiring American actor and model named Ginger Meadows. She was taken and killed by a crocodile while swimming just below the cascades. She had been warned not to swim there but the water looked too inviting and she swam and paid the price. We enjoyed a relaxing return cruise back to the ship and we finally saw our first crocodile swimming out from the bank and quite unperturbed by the noise of the boat. There are many, many crocs but you just don’t see them. Back on our ship, lunch was followed by another extremely interesting lecture by Sandra titled, Marine Sea Turtles of Northern Australia. Keeping people our age and older awake and interested can be quite the challenge but both Rob and I thoroughly enjoyed this presentation and only one person of the 60 or so attending, fell asleep and started snoring so loud his wife had to wake him. Unfortunately, he was sitting in the front row, so Sandra stopped the talk and told him there was no need to apologise! Later, Rob and I attended a tour of the engine room hosted by the chief engineer. It was fascinating although I might not have understood it all. We saw the three, huge Rolls Royce engines that power the boat, the side thrusters, the area where fresh water is made and stored, the huge fridges used to store food, the food waste disposal macerator, the grey and black water treatment systems (yuk!) and a lot of other “stuff” that I had trouble getting my head around despite the many “expert” passengers around me trying to set me straight.J Rob then went to a wine tasting with curated canapes before dinner but I decided to write the blog as I don’t think I could enjoy too much dinner if I had attended this function.