Kimberley Trip, Day 11: King George Falls

Sunday, June 2, 2024

Today, we begin our visit to the Kimberley, which is the trip’s theme.

The seas again became choppy overnight as we crossed the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf west of Darwin. To give us time to complete the trip from Darwin, we spent the morning listening to lectures on birds and the geology of the Kimberley and headed out to visit King George Falls in the afternoon.

After lunch, we boarded one of the Zodiac boats for King George Falls, which was about a 3-hour round-trip ride with some narration stops. The early part of the ride was a bit choppy, but it settled down as we approached the coast. At one of the stops early on, we were fortunate to see a rock wallaby, which is notoriously shy. We also saw a couple of peregrine falcons, which are said to be the fastest animals.

The sides of the canyon on the way to the falls are red sandstone cliffs, with the different layers of sandstone visible. Our Zodiac boat was paired with another carrying Kirt, the geologist, and Goyma, our Indigenous guide, so we had detailed descriptions along the way.

The falls themselves were very picturesque. There was a fork in the canyon with falls on both sides. Our driver took the Zodiac boat right up to the falls, allowing those who wanted to be doused under them (Kenna and I didn’t, but Jan and Dave did). It was fun to watch.

The ride back to the Orion was speedier than the outgoing leg, but we stopped for a few bird sightings.

This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Indonesia and Australia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.