THURSDAY – ST PATRICK'S DAY - FIRST DAY OF THE WEST PAPUA ADVENTURE

The blog is back. This time for the purpose of recording our postponed adventure exploring the Spice Islands and whale sharks of West Papua.

We arrived at out hotel early in the morning of St. Patrick's Day and were collected five hours later for a day trip to Kakadu. Having seen it in the dry when we last tried to go on our West Papua cruise in November last year, we were keen to see it in the wet, and we did.

The wet season here hasn't been particularly wet but, thanks to the low pressure system in the Gulf which didn't become a cyclone as threatened, there was plenty of rain on the Arnhem Plateau which meant that the water falls were pumping.

We tried to do a scenic flight when we were here in November but couldn't make it happen. That worked out for the best because we were able to do a scenic flight yesterday and saw the Jim Jim and other falls in full flight. The gorge at the bottom of the falls where we swam last time in idyllic peaceful conditions was a raging torrent obscured by mist from the falls.

 

We also did the same cruise at Yellow Water that we did last time but how different. The water was about two metres deeper. The walkways we used last time were under water. There were water lillies everywhere and no muddy banks for crocs to lie on.

The whole area was under water and there was very little wildlife to be seen because it was able to spread out and not be concentrated in the relatively narrow channels as it was last time. The poor old tourists didn't see one croc. We were very fortunate to be able to experience the difference between the wet and dry seasons.

 

We board the Coral Discoverer at four this afternoon. If our voyage is anywhere near as pleasant as the Kimberley trip we did on the same ship several years ago, it will be fantastic.