21 Aug 2023

A Royal Slew of Wildlife Sightings at King George River

The first morning of our Kimberley Explorer voyage, expedition cruising the wild and remote coastline of Australia's iconic Kimberley region aboard Heritage Adventurer, was a relaxing one as we sailed through the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf (famously known as the Blownapart Gulf for its often choppy seas). Several species of Shearwater were observed gliding above white-capped blue waves, some of us even saw them catching fish and eating them on the wing.

This morning Tina gave her presentation on an Introduction to the Kimberley, an overview of the culture, history, flora, fauna plus many of the highlights we would experience during our voyage along the Kimberley coast.

After a delicious lunch, our Expedition Leader Steve gave us an overview of our adventure followed by a mandatory Zodiac briefing before we started off on our first adventure up to the King George Falls.

Anchoring near Koolama Bay, it was a little breezy in our Zodiacs and although we were told "expect to get wet", conditions were better than expected and we were soon at the mouth of the river. Suddenly there was lots of activity, with sightings of Humpback Dolphins, White-bellied Sea Eagle and a Black-necked Stork fishing in the shallows, while further up the gorge some of us spotted a rare Chestnut Rail. Several crocodiles were observed in the water as well as Osprey and Peregrine Falcons.

Along the way we marvelled at the beautiful formations and colours of the impressive sandstone cliffs towering above us. Water was still flowing over the twin waterfalls so some of us decided to cool down as our Zodiac drivers took us under the falls. Our journey back down the river late afternoon with the sun going down really lit up the red sandstone cliffs, and we finished off the day at the Captain's Welcome for cocktails and canapes followed by a delicious gourmet dinner.

Image (c) by: Heritage Expeditions