As I type this we are travelling through an extraordinary landscape: a series of approximately parallel long hills with water in-between.  There are breaks in the linear hills, through which we sail to progress north through the range of flooded mountains. 

The water is without waves, in marked contrast to the sea this morning: out departure from the overnight mooring had to be delayed by several hours because the wind was too strong, and had created very rough conditions.

When we did get started, our first stop was at Crocodile Creek; a beautiful spot where there were two freshwater pools separated by waterfalls from each other and the sea.  We climbed up to the second pool and swam there.  Although initially cold, once we had been swimming for a few minutes the temperature felt lovely. In keeping with the name, at the lower pool we had to keep a good lookout for crocodiles, as it was only a metre or two above sea- level and only about ten meters from the creek.  We were discouraged from swimming in the lower pool …

We sailed/motored on, past Koolan Island, which is one of the few modern infrastructure sites that we will see on this trip: a huge iron-ore mine which has largely consumed one of the islands here.  Despite the remote nature of the site it is worthwhile because the ore is such a high percentage of iron – the second richest iron ore in the world, we were told.

We are now travelling on to Talbot Bay, where are found the “Horizontal Falls”.  These are small gaps between the linear hills, with water on both sides.  The tidal range is so large (it can be over 12 metres from low to high water), that the tides create tidal races through the gaps. 

Finally, once moored, we were visited by sharks.

We woke to find ourselves in a lovely bay.

The rocks rising up enough to show out of the water have several lines on them.  The lowest is commonly covered by the tides, the next level is not covered by water often enough to have algae growing (I think)  is white from the salt (Sue’s theory) and the layer above that is a red colour from the natural rock.

In the morning we visited Edeline Island, where there were several rather sad graves, probably from unlucky pearl fishermen, and also some fantastic natural sculptures, formed by the wind and sand erosion I presume .

We then travelled on to Silica Beach, a beautiful bright pure-white sand beach, to go swimming.

After that, a longish journey on the boat to Myridi Bay, a sheltered spot to anchor, in amongst some very impressive rock formations.

Our first day of the boat trip.  To start with, though, we had a long drive from Broome to Derby.  Derby is a tiny town on the King Sound – a large bay up which we would travel later. 

There are many boab trees in and around Derby.

Properly called “Boabab” trees, they start off small, like this:

… but grow into this shape, with huge trunks but weirdly normal branches on top.

Anyway, there are lots of them in Derby.  Derby was probably a key port for the surrounding cattle stations to export their beef, and so has a very imprssive pier, now lying largely disused.  There was also a derelict railway station, which I will haver to find out more about once we have internet connection again.

The remainder of the day was spent on board “Discovery One”, our home for the next twelve days.  Travelling up King Sound to Cascade Bay, where we arrived after dark.  No pictures, therefore.