The King George River

We feel right at home on the Seabourn Pursuit. It really is identical to the Seabourn Venture of our Amazon expedition except for the artwork on the walls. At the end of a relaxing day at sea, punctuated with presentations and meals, we opened the bottle of Macallan and toasted our start to the exploration of the Kimberley.

King George River

The first stop was an excursion up the King George River. Half the passengers boarded zodiacs in the morning for a nine-mile ride up the river. The other half, including us, made the same trip in the afternoon. For our morning, we attended a briefing on the most interesting geology of the Kimberley and its 1.8 billion year old sandstone rock formations. At 1:30 p.m. it was our turn for the excursion. Our zodiac driver, Dannii, is an enthusiastic guide who knows and loves these waters well.

The morning zodiacs depart for the river, while we attended a lecture on the geology of the Kimberley.

Our guide, Dannii. We enter the river.

Do you see the elephant in the rock?

Left: Water erosion. Right: High above is what Dannii calls “guillotine rock”. The picture doesn’t quite catch it, but the slab of rock, the “blade”, is barely contained between the cliff faces.

Water seeps through the cliff face.

Why only nine miles? Because the trip ends at the foot of the highest waterfalls in Australia, over 300 feet.

We approach the falls.

This is the dry season.

I could not stop taking photos of the beautiful rocks and the cliffs.

Our guide did not neglect viewing the wildlife. Here is a blurry long-range (iPhone) shot of a monstrous-sized male crocodile. The bird on the right is a cormorant. Other birds passed above us.

Particularly while in the bay, traveling to and from the river, and despite the relatively calm conditions, the bouncing of the zodiac is not fun. Fortunately, I wore my back brace, so survived fairly well. Frances, who has lost most of her bottom padding, came back quite sore. But that is all the negatives I can conjure up. It was a beautiful day.