National Geographic Orion anchored in the scenic Yampi Sound, amid the 800+ islands of the Buccaneer Archipelago. Three of those islands, including the rich and famous Cockatoo and Koolan have substantial iron ore mines. Laid down as a series of sedimentary deposits over a billion years ago, the sandstone is sometimes interspersed by a layer of much softer, gray siltstone. This entire rock formation has been bent and buckled over great spans of time, forming synclines, anticlines and Calvin Klines. Because this area may have been along an orogenous zone between two landmasses that were smooched together, much of the rock has been turned on its side, and stands vertically.
Our morning started leisurely, with ‘breakkie’ and a briefing. This was followed by our first taste of the Kimberley, when we headed for (the inappropriately named) Crocodile Creek for a swim! Crocodile Creek cascades into a large pool that, when above the high tide line, is cut off from the ocean and thus from crocs. After carefully inspecting the pool for crocodiles (none were found), we were happy to take a refreshing plunge in the cool fresh water. Adding to the fun was an ice cream station set up by our hotel crew, we then head back to the ship for lunch.
That afternoon we set off in the fleet of zodiacs and poked into various inlets and scoured the shoreline for wildlife and photo opportunities. There were a number of ‘Eastern Pacific Ospreys’ (Pandion cristatus) around the bay, in flight, and around nests. Other wildlife we spotted at various times included woodswallows, cuckoo-shrikes, a lesser frigatebird soaring high above our heads, common sandpiper, a number of eastern reef egrets, and a small skulking striated heron, also known as the mangrove heron.
It was also a special cetacean day. In the early morning many of us were witness to breaching humpback whales. Then at lunchtime most people watched a small pod of inshore bottlenose dolphins. A number of the Zodiacs travelled with these stunning glistening creatures, and we were so close we could hear them take in their breaths. And in the afternoon, a few lucky Zodiacs watched snubfin dolphins, an endemic mammal to the tropical waters of northern Australia, with an inadequate dorsal fin, and a weird looking face that looks like it has been smooshed in with an iron.
