Excitement every day

The Abrolhos Islands stretch a long way north in an area famous for the shipwreck of the Batavia. To get to the shipwreck, at least that's what I thought, given the wreck or what is left of it, is now in Fremantle, was a two stage journey. A zodiac ride to Wallabi Island and then a small boat to the wreck site at Beacon Island. On the island there was a brief telling of the story of the Batavia. We were provided with much more detail later in the lecture. As with most croral islands, it is very tiny with some vegetation but of course no trees.

During the talk two osprey flew over us one with a fish clearly visible in its talons, quite a sight and a distraction from the commentary. Wildlife is still plentiful, apart from the osprey there were many terns, cormorants and gulls. At Wallabi Island a sea lion was enjoying the attention of arriving passengers. It frolic in the water for quite some time and completed an acrobatic maneuver jumping out of the water, flipping over and landing back in the water. Our naturalists also enjoyed the show and as they never go anywhere without their cameras were lying in the zodiac taking pictures.

The real highlight of the day however, was the zodiac ride back to the ship. The plan for the afternoon was to snorkel in Turtle Bay which sounded very inviting even though the water temperature did not promise to be very high. Those plans however were soon scuttled when a violent thunderstorm approached and all excursion activities, including those that were about to start were canceled. The waves were quite high and the wind pushed them up towards the zodiacs, drivers doing their best to get us back quickly but safely. The zodiac pounding through the water was lifting up at the front and then crashing down on the other side of what were now very high waves. The sky, black overhead, eventually sent down hail and rain. If we hadn't been wet before we were now and even more so as the waves broke over the front of the zodiac soaking all inside. A hot shower was very welcome. We were luckier than some who did not make it off the ship because the storm broke just before they were due to leave. A snorkel in Turtle Bay was planned for the afternoon but the weather put paid to that.

The visit to the two islands and journey to get there provided an excellent context for what it must have been like for the passengers and crew on the ill fated voyage of the Batavia. The journey from Holland to Indonesia ended when the ship ran aground in the Abrolhos Islands. There was an attempted mutiny and various passengers and crew were put ashore on different islands and left to survive. Many did not as there was no food, no shelter and no water and one particular Island. All those who were put ashore died. It was a horrendous journey for everyone.

There was much appreciation on the part of the expedition team leader for the good humour of the passengers after what had been such an exciting ride back to the ship.Read more