Kimberley Expedition: Day 8 (Morning)

An especially lovely sunrise in Doubtful Bay, where the Coral Discoverer was anchored … followed by breakfast at 7:00a. Then we were off on the Xplorer at 8:00a.

A walk on Raft Point Beach was first up.The name of the headland comes from recordings by Australian explorers describing how local Worrorra people, using rafts made of Kapok mangrove trunks, rode the treacherous tides 12 nautical miles offshore to Montgomery Reef to gather marine resources before riding the tide back ashore.

We did a little beach combing, which yielded the remains — mostly the shell — of what Anne identified as an immature green sea turtle; some beach morning glories; seashells galore. The cliffs were colorful and provided some interesting photo ops and a chance to do some clambering on and around them.

After boarding the Xplorer again, we went for a cruise, stopping at a few different places to check out the views and a sea cave on Steep Island. We wrapped up with a cruise through the mangroves, looking for birds and crocodiles … saw some of the former, but came up empty handed on the latter.

When we returned to the ship, we had not one but two presentations. The first one was given by Geraldine, a fellow passenger. Her topic was entitled “Geraldine’s Story” … but technically she spoke about an airplane crash in the Kimberley in which her father was involved while evacuating a family fleeing the Japanese onslaught from Singapore. Happy ending with everyone being rescued.

Anne’s presentation was entitled “Culture & Kinship.” As might be expected, the focus was on the Aboriginal culture. The kinship portion was fascinating and gave us a small insight into the complicated kinship system and skin names … which has existed for thousands of years in the world’s longest living culture.Read more