André’s cousin Brigitte and her husband Eric joined us in Bundaberg to sail up the coast to Townsville. As they own a yacht and sail, spending just over 2 weeks together was not problematic. We sailed north through the Great Barrier Reef anchoring at several islands, walking on white sandy beaches as on Haslewood Island and snorkelling amongst coral like in Mantaray Bay and Hook Island in the Whitsundays. As there are minute deadly jellyfish you must be completely covered. We had bought lycra suits, gloves, booties and hoodies….it took a long time to put everything on! At Hook Island we walked up to an Aboriginal site with a cave and carvings. There are over 800 koala bears living on Magnetic Island and we visited the koala sanctuary where we also saw wombats, crocodiles, pythons, birds……We took a bus to Alma Bay where we saw many wallabies climbing on the rocks.
We said goodbye to Brigitte and Eric at Townsville and continued sailing north to Cairns (pronounced cans). Walking in the city we saw many Aboriginal sculptures. The Kuranda Scenic Railway was constructed in 1891. Our journey to Kurunda was wonderful as we went through the Eastern Highlands, gorges, tropical rain forest and stopped at Barron Falls. During our snorkel at The Islets we saw a myriad of fish and so much coral in all colours. We made the most of it as from there the waters are shark infested making swimming too dangerous. In Port Douglas we did a big shop because during the 1200 nm to Darwin we would anchor in bays or uninhabited islands. During our 14 day sail we went through the Torres Strait – the NE tip of Australia.
Darwin is the capital of the Northern Territory and has a tropical climate. Aboriginal people make up a significant proportion of the population. In the city there are murals with colourful paintings of animals, people and nature. As we wished to visit several National Parks we rented a camper-van for a week. We were amazed at the campsites which were inexpensive, had their own swimming pools and where your individual space was large and usually not too near the next one. Sometimes we had our own bathroom. Our camper-van had a/c, was roomy with an excellent kitchen and we thoroughly enjoyed this first experience. The National Parks are huge, for example Kakadu is roughly the size of Wales! Our first stop was in the peaceful Mamukala Wetlands which contain a large variety of birdlife. We kept well away from the water after reading the sign ‘crocodile safety’! Ubirr in Kakadu National Park is known for its rock art. The rock faces were first painted 30,000 BC and have been repainted every since. The circular 1km path enables you to approach them and marvel at the different scenes of mythical creatures, people and animals the Aboriginals hunted. We saw yet more beautiful paintings at the Nourlangie Rock Art Site. During our sunset cruise on the Yellow Water we saw Arnhem water lilies, mangroves, egrets, jabirus, small birds hiding in Pandanus trees and large saltwater crocodiles. In Litchfield Park there are many termite mounds like the 4m tall Cathedral one and the hundreds of Magnetic ones scattered across a wide flat plain. The hot springs in Katherine are in a lovely setting which made our swim even more enjoyable. The setting of the campsite in the Nitmiluk National Park was gorgeous being by a gorge with high cliffs. Set in thick vegetation Wangi Falls have 2 waterfalls cascading into an enormous basin. We decided not to swim because the previous week a tourist had been eaten by a crocodile. Despite this and the many signs people were still swimming! In Fogg Dam Conservation Park we parked on the dam wall which was closed to walking due to saltwater crocodiles and enjoyed the wildlife and vegetation in safety. Our last campsite was fun as there were many wallabies roaming around. A great end to a wonderful week!
One day whilst sailing along the north coast of Australia to Cocos Keeling a small aircraft flew extremely low over our boat scaring Fione. It was the Border Force who by radio checked on our identity, our movements and if we had seen any illegal small boats! This happened twice more! Cocos Keeling are beautiful coral atolls belonging to Australia, midway to Sri Lanka and home to 593 people, 65 % Muslim (2021 census). It was a welcome stop on our way to Rodrigues 1983 nm away.
