The road between our cliff-top spot at Ngumpan Cliff & Derby was fairly uninteresting actually, but great cattle country & we did pass a number of said animals en route. Missed a great photo opportunity of capturing one particular beast who did not follow his compatriots across the road, but stood looking at us with the dopiest expression that had us hooting with laughter. He was obviously a little mentally challenged I think. Bless him !!
Some of you may have seen our "Straying Stock" pic on Facebook. Have seen, and missed photographing a few "Wandering Stock" signs, but the straying one really captured our imagination, especially with the reference to the road being 'unfenced'. Am sure you Bible scholars could probably build a sermon on that !!
Have enjoyed a couple of days in Derby - the jetty at sunset is not to be missed, and the high & low tides are something to witness too, with the tide dropping 11.8metres. Quite astounding to see.
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| Low tide |
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| High tide & sunset - Beautiful !! |
We attended the Baptist Church on Sunday, and were very interested to meet a number of pilots working with Kingdom Aviation - a slightly different organisation than MAF, which we are familiar with. These pilots fly out in pairs to the remote aboriginal communities and take turns in sharing the gospel as well as practically caring for the people out there. They were all passionate about the terrible statistics of youth suicide out here, and are desperately trying to work with the elders to try and turn things around. It was a very challenging & eye opening experience for us to talk to them, about this complex and serious situation. We've visited a huge boab tree called the Prison Tree, where aboriginals prisoners were often held overnight, the tree being hollow of course, and have cringed at some of the stories of man's inhumanity to man. We visited a gallery, featuring the works of a local artist Mark Norval & talked to the artists wife. Both were teachers here & she gave another aspect of the problems here with the young people - especially the young men. Mark's paintings reflect some of the pain and hopelessness that seems prevalent in the indigenous communities.
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| The Prison Tree |
On a lighter note we had THE most spectacular day today. We were picked up at 8.15, taken to the Airport, boarded on to a seaplane & flown out to the Horizontal Waterfalls, north of here (1/2hr flight) in the Buccaneer Archipelago which is a beautiful area consisting of some 800 to 1,000 rocky islands. The islands are rugged and sparsely vegetated with patches of rain forest in moist areas and a fringing of mangroves where silt has accumulated.
The area has huge tidal ranges up to 12 metres. These create such phenomena as the horizontal reversible waterfall in Talbot Bay. The falls are caused by the differential created when the tide flows between narrow island gaps. The tides and whirlpools caused havoc with the pearling fleets late last century. Many sailors and divers lost their lives. On numerous islands there are isolated graves, a testimony to the dangerous condition.
We landed at a pontoon, with a couple of large houseboats moored there, as well as a couple of fast boats which immediately took us to see the falls which were just at the end of the tidal ebb, and we were treated to a fast trip through the narrow opening which revealed a veritable inland sea of calm water which was draining at an amazing speed through the narrow gap in the rocks.
On returning to the pontoon we had the opportunity of hopping into a shark cage, to see a number of sharks at close quarters, who are obviously well fed by the tour operators, and who don't go far from the facility. Trevor was a bit disappointed, as although they were given goggles & snorkels, the cage was only semi submerged, and didn't offer too much of an underwater viewing of the sharks feeding. Can't remember what breed of sharks they were, but not hugely dangerous as they had small mouths & teeth. Still wouldn't have wanted to put you hand in with them though - they would have your fingers!!
It did provide a chance to cool off in the water though, as no way could you dive overboard. Many sharks & crocs there apparently.
We were taken on a lovely cruise around to Cyclone Bay, which is a very sheltered cove where they tow the houseboats & pontoon for the off-season, The Wet. It is such a beautiful, pristine & remote area and we feel so privileged to have been able to see it.
After being treated to a sumptuous barbecued barramundi lunch, we were taken back to the Horizontal Falls to see the reverse falls, where the water had risen some 8 metres in 3 hours, and was pouring back through those two gaps in the rock at an alarming speed. We went through the first gap, with much screaming and laughter, because half the boat got soaked in the spray, but was too dangerous to go through the 2nd one. We all felt very satisfied that we had been treated to one of the most amazing natural phenomena and were happy to return to the pontoon and board the seaplane for the return flight to Derby. A fantastic day, and well worth the many dollars spent.
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| High tide line |
So we've enjoyed Derby and will be heading off for Broome in the morning.
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