Kimberley Trip, Day 14: Montgomery Reef

Wednesday, June 5, 2024

Today’s breakfast came with an announced request to allow the COVID-infected people to pick up breakfast first, after which they would clean the serving utensils and invite the rest of us for breakfast. We were asked to wash our hands at a sink on the back deck to limit any further spread.

Today’s activities consisted of two outings in Zodiac boats, which we just toured and didn’t land anywhere. The morning cruise was around a few nearby islands and into a mangrove-lined area where we hoped to see some crocodiles. We didn’t see any, but we did see some birds and the stunning local geology, and we were treated to some more stories from Goyma, our indigenous guide, who happened to be on our zodiac boat.

Around lunchtime, I ran into Dr. Bob, our ship physician. He said there was a “trickle” of additional COVID cases but that some had recovered, none of the existing cases were severe, and most patients were taking Paxlovid. This is probably appropriate considering most passengers’ ages (we estimate the median age at 73).

After another ship repositioning, we were off on zodiac boats to Montgomery Reef, a unique reef formation. The reef is just below sea level at high tide but emerges more than several feet above water level, to the delight of birds and other creatures. We saw several turtles in the water and many birds (mostly egrets) on the reef and in the air. During the approximately 90 minutes we were there, the reef went from just emerging from the water to over 10 feet above water level, with very substantial amounts of water draining from the edges of the reef.

As we were leaving, we noticed a zodiac boat flying the Lindblad/National Geographic flag. Sure enough, we pulled up alongside it and were treated to tropical drinks served from a punchbowl before our ride back to the Orion.

Dinner was again outside and comfortable; meals will probably be outside for the rest of the cruise. After dinner, they arranged to shut off the lights in one area of the ship and held a star party. We easily saw the Southern Cross, as expected, but also the Big Dipper, except it was pointing down to Polaris, which was below the horizon.

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.