This is being posted well after April 30, as I haven’t had much luck uploading any photos of our wonderful adventures. Strangely, we can both post to Facebook (yeah!) but not to the blog (boo!).
Before I begin the King George Falls story, I forgot to mention yesterday about two other interesting stories from the Wyndham stopover. First, the diamond mine: the Argyle mine produces more diamonds (20 million carats per year) than anywhere else in the world. It’s worth Googling the history of the mine and the subterfuge that went on to mask the discovery and the story of the security chief who stole $50 million worth of diamonds hidden in his toothpaste tube!
The other trivial pursuit factoid is about Airbus. Where in the world has Airbus invested millions of dollars in their HAPS (high altitude pseudo satellites)? Yes, it’s in Wyndham where Airbus opened the world’s first of these solar powered super drones (or mini satellites) in December 2018 at little old Wyndham airport.
These HAPS are solar powered and stay aloft at altitudes of 21 km for months before returning for a recharge and perform similar services to those of regular satellites at a fraction of the cost. They’re being used initially by Facebook — which might explain why I can upload pics to FB but not to my blog!
Who knew? OK, don’t answer. But I didn’t, and I find it fascinating.
Now for Koolama Bay — I bet you haven’t heard of this place either. It’s important because it’s the mouth of the King George River and is named for the vessel sunk by the Japanese during WWII.
This was our first real exposure to the fantastic sandstone rocks that typify the Kimberley. Just stunning and our three hour zodiac tour along the river to the King George Falls was definitely the highlight so far of our holiday cruise.
Some of our more adventurous fellow passengers decided to disembark the zodiacs and clamber up the rock face to the top of the falls for both a swim (no crocodiles) and a view. But Pam and I didn’t think our old knees would survive so we stayed on the rubber duckies.
The twin falls are over 80 metres high and although this is now a month after the end of the wet (and it was a dry wet this season), there was still an impressive flow of water. Our driver, Greg (Mr Crocodile) took our zodiac right under the spray to refresh us (i.e., soak us to the bone) but with the 35 deg heat, we were all dry again in about 10 minutes.
The afternoon was spent on deck where I sipped a martini and Pam swam in the ship’s saltwater pool. Dinner at the captain’s table topped a fabulous day.
