Indian Ocean

Despite being travel companions our paths barely crossed today. Elspeth’s morning gym classes coincide always with Brian’s preferred breakfast time, but we are generally in the same small tour groups and on most occasions we wine and dine together.
However… Brian bravely decided to book himself on the Mitchell Falls helicopter tour which meant that his visit to Swift Bay would take place afterwards whereas Elspeth as the ground-dweller was scheduled to visit there in the morning. Fun fact: the bay was named after Jonathon Swift, the author of Gulliver’s Travels. He was a family friend of the early explorer of the region, Philip Parker King.
Great excitement. A short zodiac ride to a nearby beach where three small choppers landed just a few minutes later. A detailed safety briefing from the pilot and it was all aboard a small four-passenger chopper. To enable better viewing the choppers don’t have side doors and Brian managed to score one of the side seats. The seats are very narrow and there’s a very strung downdraft from the rotor - 200kph according to the pilot. The only thing stopping the side passengers from falling out is the safety harness, and this certainly sprung to mind each time the chopper banked steeply to give us a better view. Dropping 1000 feet into the jaws of a waiting croc gives a whole new meaning to the term fresh food delivery.
As expected, the views over the Mitchell Plateau during the 20 minute ride were great and we got an excellent birds-eye preview of the falls themselves.. Once we‘d landed it was a 500m walk, some of it over rocks and boulders, to the first lookout point. It provides a great view, but we were told that the second lookout, 100m further on, was better still. We were also told that it requires a fair bit of agility, which isn’t Brian’s strong point these days. Of course he had to try and meet the challenge and get the best photos possible. It was certainly a difficult scramble but well worth it.
There is a safe swimming hole near the helicopter landing site. Several people went in but Brian wasn’t tempted. The ride back to base was just as scenic, but viewed this time from the less breathtaking centre rear seat.
Our return to the ship was late which meant a rapid turnaround for Brian to board another zodiac for the ten-minute ride to shore to see some more recent Aboriginal cave paintings. As mentioned, Elspeth had already visited the paintings. Many of the pictures were on the ceilings of what are really a series of rock overhangs rather than caves. Interestingly the images show up better in photos than they do in real life. We have been told that it is fine to share these images with friends and family but were asked not to share them on social media.
After lunch one of the naturalists, Francesca, gave a detailed and interesting talk entitled Stuck in the Mud in which she spoke about the many species of mangrove and the animal life which depends on them for survival.
We had asked if we could have dinner with one of the naturalists and found in fact that we’d been allocated a table for four at which the other two were Brett, an older geologist and Vish, a young lady whose major area of interest was anthropology. The four of us had a great time and, while we’d had presentations and lectures from both of them it was good to be able to chat with them in an informal setting.Les mer