Darwin to Broome, through the Kimberley in 28 days. 10.9. – 8.10.2008 12.10.2008 Crew: Annemarie, Switzerland Lise, Demark Shannon, Australia Sofie, Denmark From left to right: Sofie, Annemarie, Lise and Shannon. In the crack: Toni... in front of a big old boab tree marked in 1820 by the crew of the vessel H.M.C. Mermaid We left Darwin fully packed with supplies for 30 days, ready for our adventurous quest through the deserted region, the Kimberley in north western Australia. Toni and Little Swan had done the journey 14 years ago, and the stories about crocodiles and waterfalls promised an experience of a lifetime. Obviously things change in 14 years, and a large cruising industry has been build up in the Kimberley since 1994, so we expected to meet other ships, but the huge gorges, deceptive tides, murky mangrove waters and clear fresh water pools shouldn’t have changed, and we were all excited to find out what kind of adventure this would be. Meeting the Kimberley After spending two days crossing the Gulf of Joseph Bonaparte we arrived at King George River, one of the most spectacular gorges in the Kimberley. The entrance to the river is tricky with changing sand bars and shallow waters at low tide, but we managed to enter, with the dinghy as depth measure boat. Toni had the ship covered in ladies, one on the spreader, one on the rope ladder and one on the bowsprit, to look for sand bars as we went up the river. Lise and Sofie in the mast looking for sand bars Little Swan in King George River September is late dry season, and many waterfalls has dried out, so instead of the two roaring falls that was meant to be at the head of the river, there were two impressive black rock walls. A rocky path lead to the top, and the view from there was fantastic. The steep rock gorge and the dry landscape were unlike anything I had seen before. Rule no 1 Luckily not all fresh water had dried out. We had heard about a place called Rainforest Ravine, which should be the only place in the Kimberley with something that resembled, well... rainforest.  After 10 days of sailing and only a few freshwater encounters, it sounded very tempting to go there. The waters of the Kimberley are dangerous – you never know if a crocodile is lurking in the muddy water, so rule no 1 is: strictly no swimming in the sea. This makes the freshwater streams and pools very popular, especially among the crew of a boat with limited water stock – like Little Swan. It took a 2 mile dinghy ride through a spooky mangrove forest to get to the rainforest. We had been warned of a big resident croc, but didn’t see anything. At the head of the inlet, we tied the dinghy to a tree in the water and hoped the tide would be back to approximately the same level, when we came back. After a difficult climb on slippery muddy stones, we were in the most fantastic, lush, green forest growing along a small freshwater stream.  We had a deserved dip and followed the water upstream to several pools and waterfalls – heaven! Little Swan in front of the dry waterfalls The discovery of a waterfall. We believe no man has ever been here before. When we came back to the dinghy it was safely tied to the tree and floating nicely 100 meters from the shore. Hmm...The tide was going out so we could just sit and wait for it to be low enough, but something made us very inpatient – maybe the thought of the exciting quest of retrieving the dinghy in these crocodile infested waters. Anyway, I claimed to be fit enough to climb a steep rock wall from where I could get into the dinghy, but half way out, I realised I had no chance ... there was a passage of maybe 10 meters that was impossible for me to pass. The only option was to swim, so Toni threw in a big rock to scare away any big resident crocs, and I jumped in and got safely to the plateau next to the dinghy. I guess it was pretty stupid, as I later realized, that big splashes attracts crocs rather than scare them away, but we got the dinghy and I got my bit of excitement and a story to scare my mom... Night time attack We didn’t see much of those crocodiles that were supposed to be everywhere. I began to doubt if they even existed, until the day we went to Hunter River. We had anchored in an arm off the river called Porosus River to get some quiet water on a windy night. According to the cruising guide, this should be a place for crocodiles, and porosus meaning crocodile, it sounded possible. We had even heard a story of a croc biting an (empty) dinghy to pieces here, but so far we hadn’t seen the bloody shadow of one. As the night fell, we heard some splashes on the mangrove shore around us, and just for fun, we brought up the big light, to see if we could spot anything. As the spot was turned on, it caught the eye of a fine specimen of crocodile on the bank just next to Little Swan. The tide had gone out, and the bank was only 30 meters away. Finally, so they did live here! We watched the croc as it went in the water and back up on the bank hunting a fish, but after this nice performance, it retreated further down the river, out of sight. We went to bed, happy that we had finally seen a crocodile. Later that night a disturbing sound woke me up. It sounded like someone shook the anchor chain, right next to my rear cabin porthole. Still half asleep I heard Toni rush up on deck and suddenly burst into laughter.  When he came up, he had seen the crocodile slowly float down the river, happy after having scared that big thing lying right in the middle of its territory. Well, we weren’t that scared, but we didn’t jump into the murky water again on that trip. Going through the horizontal waterfall White water rafting The tides of the Kimberley are extreme. Around full moon the tide difference can be up to 10 meters, which can result in heavy currents and whirlpools. We had a few incidents where we stood more or less still or got tossed around by the current, but the most impressive tide phenomenon we saw was the Horizontal Waterfall.   The waterfall is actually a large crevice in a rock wall that divides Talbot Bay from a large basin surrounded by rocks. When the tide changes, there is only this small passage for all the water to come in or out of the basin, which creates a massive pressure and heavy current and whirlpools. At slack tide (when the tide is changing or exactly in between two tides) it is possible to drive through the waterfall in a dinghy, but at other times and especially when the tide difference is very big, it is dangerous. As the cruising guide stated: “Lives has been lost!”, so of cause we were off to the Horizontal Waterfall at a 9,5 meter tide difference to give it a go. We anchored outside the waterfall next to a cruising ship with a very impressive powerboat. The waterfall is a big attraction and has a helipad and a floating water plane arrival/departure area in front, but it seemed more or less quiet when we arrived. We did a test ride to the fall. It was clear to see the difference of the water level in the outer and the inner basin and the passage in between was running like a wild river stream. The current was still too strong to go through, so we had lunch and waited for it to settle down a bit. An hour later we went out again. Toni wasn’t sure how much the dinghy motor could take, so we were two in the dinghy at a time and Toni and I went for the first ride. When we came to the waterfall it still looked pretty wild. The way into the basin would be easy enough since it was going downwards and with the current, but there was a risk we would get stuck in the basin, if we didn’t have enough engine power to go back against the current. I had no idea what the dinghy could manage, but I had confidence in Toni, so when he suddenly went through, I just enjoyed the ride. Going in was easy enough, but going out again we hesitated a bit. It looked even wilder from this side, and there were whirlpools far into the basin. While we waited for the courage, the powerboat suddenly came through. The cruising guests was screaming in excitement, but it didn’t look like anything compared to what we were about to do in our tiny dinghy. The powerboat turned and went the other way through, looking very superior. It actually looked a bit boring. We knew we didn’t have a fifth of its power, so maybe we would have five times their fun! Toni suddenly went for it, at gave the dinghy full power towards the gap. He forced a couple of whirlpools contra steering, when we got tossed around, but suddenly I felt the boat disappear under me. I looked down and saw the water opening beneath us in a big black whirlpool hole. I hung on to the dinghy’s rope with both hands, and as the boat disappeared I stood up. Looking back I saw Toni sitting on the floor of the dinghy to stay onboard, and in the next now, we flew out of the water masses. The waterfall had been conquered! It was fantastic. I have never tried white water rafting I guess it is great fun. This was certainly amazing. There are many more stories to tell from the Kimberley, but this must be it for now. I am sure next time you meet Toni, he can tell you about our struggle with mud or our encounter with a beautiful coral reef, or how we got stuck in a tiny hole in crocodile creek. Here are some pictures to go with those stories. We finally made it to Broome and from here the journey continues to Bali. Lise Hoffmeyer, Broome, 12.10.2008 Little swan is taking a rest on a beautiful coral reef. This is still 45 min from lowest tide... The changing tides resulted in some muddy encounters At low tide it is obvious to see how far up the water level goes At Crocodile Creek there is only a tiny pool to anchor in. At low tide the inlet dries out, and we were completely stock, but in beautiful surroundings www.adventure-yachting.net svlittleswan@yahoo.com.au