Harding on board / adventuring again

The Kimberly’s with Harding aboard.
The Drysdale river was fantastic and we all had a ball, on the way out of the river we met up with Dog on Cat, they were heading up to Don Maclouds for a week or two. We are heading for Honeymoon Bay so that we can go shopping in Kalumbaru; when we get there we all go for a swim to cool off and catch up with Bob who is going to take us to town. All is organised and we are to meet bob at 8.30am tomorrow for our lift.
After a good night’s sleep we are ready to go and are quite excited to go to Kalumbaru, Bob drives us to town in his Ford 250 Super Cab 4 wheel drive, it is a fantastic vehicle and handles the terrain with ease. Bob is a very friendly chap and a gentleman, he has been going to Honeymoon Bay for 11 years and still loves it.
The shop at Kalumbaru has a good range of goods but very, very expensive. We forked out 500 bucks for what would have cost 200 in Darwin, we have kept the shopping docket and are filing it under the “You Would Not Believe What We Paid” file. To be honest I know it’s a remote community but I also know that shipping out of Darwin is no where near 300 bucks for a trolley of groceries.... it does not worry the local indigenous as they get a hand out from the dole of 1,000 bucks a week average, this is what us white Australians have created through stupidity from our past governments trying to buy votes....
It was a great experience for us and Harding has now seen the real deal with the indigenous, we trundled back to Honeymoon Bay loaded our goods into the dingy then onto the boat. While in town we met Bobs granddaughter Ellie and invited her over to see the boat, she and her friend came over for dinner and we had a great night chatting about everything.
We headed over to Jar Island the next day to see the Abo paintings and had a swim and a fish, we stayed the night and early the next morning went to the wreck of the DC3 on the mainland then over to Freshwater Bay. We arrived late so could not get to the creek for water and had to wait till the next day. When we went over to the creek the next day we had a very limited tide and only got 150litres of water and some washing done before it was too shallow to continue.
We moved on and took an anchorage in White Finger bay which turned out to be a shithole, so we upped anchor and went to Parry Harbour which is closer to our destination of The Osbourne Islands. We found a nice beach and went exploring Tess found some turtle eggs that had hatched recently; it was a bit cold so a swim was not tenable. That night we decided to have a cook up on the beach for breakfast with bacon and eggs a damper and a billy of tea.
In the morning the weather had turned to the South East so we ventured off to another beach out of the weather, turns out this beach the night before had 4 turtles lay eggs in the sand. Their tracks up the beach were still fresh as were the nests where they laid the eggs. Dingo tracks were also fresh but no eggs had been dug up, we lit a fire and had a truly good aussie breakfast.
Off to the Osbourne Islands where we showed Harding the 3 arches and the caves called the block of flats, we went fishing and landed a nice Bream, so tonight it’s fish and chips using the Bream and a Shark Harding caught yesterday, all was consumed and we planned the trip to the Mitchell River stopping at the biggest Boab tree in the Kimberly’s on the way and a beach stop for a quick swim.
We came into the Mitchell River late and missed the tide to get to Surveyors Creek so we will get there tomorrow.
Up early and we make Surveyors Creek easily, the tide is right for a venture to the pools at the head of the creek, we dingy up as far as practicable then climb over large boulders to find the lower pool. It is crystal clear with a waterfall, Tess finds a nice spa bath in the creek and washes her hair and bits,(Its called maintenance darling hahahahaha) I opt for a swim in the pool further up and Harding ventures upstream then returns with good news of a waterfall that we can sit under. The 3 of us climb to the next waterfall and it is perfect we all get under the fall and enjoy the freshwater flowing over us, there is a pool down from us which is deep enough to dive into, Harding decides to climb to a rock shelf some 6 metres above the pool and jumps off what a blast... I opt for the sissy dive off a metre high rock... we stayed for a couple of hours then headed back to the dingy just in time as the tide was now dropping , we scraped a few rocks on the way out of the creek back to Nightmoves, what a great day.
Off to the head of the river today, we pull out of Surveyors Creek with the tide rising and start the 7 miles needed to get to our destination. When we arrive river is just right for us, we all get in the dingy and find a nice place to anchor the dingy to a rock and start the trek up to the pools. Tess and I last about 100 metres before giving up, the rocks are huge and the old bodies just can’t scramble like they used to so we settle for a small pond, Harding takes off and springs from rock to rock within 5 minutes he’s 100 metres up the rocks and going strong we lose sight of him and settle for a paddle in our pond.
Harding returns some hour later after conquering the river rocks and finding a few waterfalls and billabongs, he crossed one pond only to find a croc entering the water as he got out, luckily it was only a 4 footer but still big enough to take a hand or foot off.... needless to say he did not cross that pond again. The billabong was a beauty he said it was full of water lilies and pandanus, we decided to go back to the boat for some smoko and also because the wrinkles from sitting in the water were taking on a new life form which was cow butt ugly...
After smoko we went back down river to see some other pools but the tide was too low when we got there, some hungry looking crocs were lurking in the mud eyeing us off... so we forgot about that idea. We kept travelling down the river until the low tide stopped us, we happily sat on a sandbank as the water disappeared from under the boat and we were high and dry. Tomorrow we will float off and be on our way back to Truscott so Harding can fly back to Darwin then home to the Gold Coast.
On the way back to Truscott we stopped at Freshwater bay, Harding caught a cracker Spanish Mackeral this is the way to end a holiday in the Kimberly’s, we devoured the fish with some nice chips, we all had too much to eat and ended up with Budda Belly, very rotund indeed.
We dropped Harding off at Truscott and said our goodbyes, it was sad to see him go but happy as he had such an adventure which not many people will get to have.

Off adventuring again.
After we dropped off the boy we went to Magowan’s to fuel up, this set us back $2.20litre 300 litres later we motored around to Honeymoon Bay and have been here for 3 days changing oil in the motors, washing, spring cleaning, lighting fires on the beach and having sing-along’s and socialising.
We have decided to travel further west to Bigge island and stop in at various places on the way. After we finish with Bigge island we are going to start our trek back to Darwin.
We certainly have seen some sights on our way to Bigge island we headed for Swift bay and when we got there a croc was sitting on the beach, this bloke was f..ing huge we tried to get closer and Tess got some good footage of this monster running back into the water, we stayed for the night, the next day we decided to get some fresh water from a spring that feeds into Swift bay. A very thoughtful person has placed a PVC pipe from the spring to a rock ledge so that you can fill containers easily, I took this 1 step further and made up a hose bucket combination that enabled me to fill our containers in the dingy rather than haul the containers up to the rock ledge which meant crossing slippery rocks.
We soon had the water tank full and another spare 40 litres of drinking water, the water here is first class. Tess and I packed up the hose contraption then dutifully sat under the PVC pipe and had a good half hour enjoying the cool water running over us , I did a calculation of the water flow and about 14,000 litres per day flows into the bay, at this time of year the flow is one tenth compared to the wet season that’s a heap of water going nowhere.
Leaving Swift bay behind us we went to the Wollaston Island group, not another boat in sight, we anchored opposite a balancing rock off one of the islands, we will have a look for some caves here tomorrow. Found where the caves are but too rugged a track would have to be negotiated so we opt out, we head for another anchorage on the mainland which has access to a small river which is unnamed, we dingy up this river to find a fish breeding oasis, there are Barra everywhere and they show themselves quite readily.
On getting to the end of the river there was supposed to be fresh water but it may be too late in the season for it to be running, heaps of muddy water and red crabs everywhere soon reminds us that we are alone... VERY... alone, you get that shiver down your spine that says “get the fuck out of here NOW’ so you listen and make a fast exit ...
It is amazing the charter boats aren’t working this river but then again it probably hasn’t been discovered yet or the crocs ate the trespassing fishermen....
Time for us to go over to a few small islands to find some Bradshaw Abo paintings, we ended up finding them without leaving the dingy, they appeared above us as we passed a few cliffs, this was great, saved the old legs a bit.
Our next destination is Capstan Island where there are these crazy balancing rocks, mother nature has done the impossible again, there is no way these rocks should be balancing the way they do, if you built the same thing the bastard would fall over at the first passing of flatulence.....
On to Bigge island where there are some easy to get to Abo paintings on the east and west side of the island. We do the east first and find the paintings easily, they are under a rock shelf which spans some 40 metres, on seeing the span I flex the bum cheeks to avert a major rock fall should I let go a 1000 decibel bottom burp..... it would be hard for a blokes family to live with the headlines “Major rock fall caused by excessive wind kills cave adventurer......”
Over to the east side Wary Bay has spectacular paintings, they are in caves on the beach so getting to them is easy, this is the first time that we have seen hand prints and paintings of square rigger ships, the other thing is a huge painting which indicates a burial site, the other curious paintings have the indigenous smoking pipes... one would presume that the early Dutch sailors would have made landfall and made contact with the locals introducing them to tobacco in the hope of trading, this of course would never happen ( the trading that is) as they had nothing to trade, I suppose they tried to trade some of their women, I reckon this happened and the Duchies took off at such a rate they left their smoking pipes behind. Imagine being given a woman that would not work, expect you to hunt all day while she frolicked in the sea and smelled like the Sydney fish market after it had been locked up for 2 weeks in the summer...... who wouldn’t leave the place to a pommy (Captain Cook). I’m glad they did though.
Time to leave so we head around to Catamaran Bay which is a sandy cay surrounded by cliffs, the entrance in is narrow then widens out to about 300 metres by 400 metres we anchor in the centre and the water is as clear as you’d ever get. The tide drops and when we are just about aground we check for crocs and dive in, the water is cool and refreshing, we paddle around for awhile and soon the water drops to zero depth as the tide recedes.
Time for an adventure walk. Tess opts out for a nana nap so I tromp off on my own with the trusty spear in hand, I walk up into some mangroves which are growing in the sand, looking for signs of crocs I stop and look around, stone the crows a 2.5 metre croc is lying on the sand less than a metre from me.... for some reason I did not panic or feel threatened... this bloke was not moving... I decided to walk away keeping an eye on him, back to the boat to get the camera. Tess would not come with me as she reckons I’m mad as a hatter so I walk back to the croc for a photo shoot.
After spending a bit of time with the croc I have a good video and photo’s. I tried to get the croc to go for the water but he just lay there looking at me.
Later in the day Tess got the braves up and came over to have a look, she got within 25 metres and that was her limit, it was a good effort as she hates crocs.
So swimming when the tide comes in is defiantly not going to happen, in the evening as the tide came in the croc made a move to the water, when the sun had gone down Tess spotted the croc next to the boat, they are inquisitive animals and I suppose this thing floating in its territory was worth investigation. This bloke stayed round us all night and at one stage had its nose touching the duckboards looking up at us with a lonely look as if saying ‘please cuddle me I’m all alone ’crikey in the croc world this bloke is a poofter.....
We left Catamaran Bay and the poofter croc in the morning, as we passed an island 4 boats appeared and we were all sailing in the same direction, that evening we all anchored in the same bay and had drinks as the sun set, the next day we and 2 of the boats went to Freshwater bay for the evening.
On the way in to Freshwater bay Tess hooked up a Mackeral that tried to pull her overboard, we lost the fish when it took a dive under the boat which in hindsight was a good thing as this fish was huge and we had nowhere to store 30 kilos of fish...
We went for a swim in the creek the next morning before departing to McGowan’s to take on fuel, we had to wait overnight as the tide was wrong to get fuel that afternoon, in the morning we went through the usual McGowan’s bullshit and it took two and a half hours to put 200 litres of diesel in the tanks.....these people couldn’t run a race let alone a business.
We made our way around to Honeymoon Bay where we love it, Tess organised a lift into Kalumbaru for the next day so we can get a few supplies and send off an e-mail.
Well we have everything sorted on the boat for the trip back to Darwin, we will stop at Cape Talbot for a night then see how the weather is before heading to Darwin.
Left Cape Talbot but should have stayed, the weather came in from the South East and we copped a flogging for 8 hours, I decided to delay the crossing over to Darwin and made our way to Glycosmis Bay, this was a slight backward step but who cares we were getting the shit pounded out of us, we stayed for 2 days then for a change in scenery went to the King George River.
The waterfalls were only a trickle compared to when we first seen them in July, we needed water so I rigged up a bucket siphon contraption which worked extremely well, we collected 70 litres of water in 5 minutes but just about sunk the dingy, we had to be under the waterfall to fill the bucket contraption. Tess was the official collector of water while I kept the dingy in place, she was saturated and the water was a cool 12 degrees, it was a great laugh except for the fact that the water was some 60 metres deep under the falls and we were just about sunk....
The weather report came through and we decided to go to Darwin, so off we went and that is the last of our trip through the wonderful Kimberly’s, we hope you have enjoyed with us our adventure.
Robbie and Tess.

written by

Nightmoves on September 3, 2010 from Darwin, Australia

from the travel blog: Robbie and Tess around Australia

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Love read about your adventure, makes me very jealous.

written by Gordon on September 3, 2010

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