King George River: Kimberley Day 3

22 June 2026

Approaching Twin Falls in the King George River

After a much better night's sleep we were underway around 7am and although breakfast was put out for 7:30 the staff chose to delay it. After the debacle with yesterday's lunch, the staff chose to hold all the dishes in place as we crossed the bar.

Tinny holds the breakfast dishes in place as we cross the bar

We headed for the King George River and it is, of course, another lovely sunny day. 

A lovely sunny day as we approach the King George River

As we travelled along the coast, I retired to the upper rear deck again with my book which I finished mid-morning and handed it on to another to read.

The top deck

One passenger, a man called Peter, a rather loud character who initially reminded me of a potential character for Middle Class Bogan, a series of which I've never actually watched a single full episode, has been christened 'Wally' by another passenger, and the resemblance is strongly that of the character from Crocodile Dundee. Anyway he's showing himself to be more than first impressions suggested, and he offered me a book, should I not have another, which was kind. Though I'm not sure we share the same taste in reading. I do have another book. 
in the King George River

By lunch time we were entering Kunama Bay. We were treated to documentary about the wreck of the boat - for which the bay is named - caused by WWII bombing by the Japanese.  I had not realised that the bombings were quite so geographically and numerically great.

Magnificent ancient sandstone cliffs

As we cruised down the King George River, we admired the magnificent sandstone cliffs, even more magnificent than yesterday's cliffs. And with the age of them, they predate any life on Earth. No fossils have ever been found in them.
 
Magnificent ancient sandstone cliffs

The Reef Prince went right up to Twin Falls, which were just amazing, and then backed off and anchored while we transferred to the tenders and in the tenders we went right up to the falls and those who wished were able to sit on the bow and go under the falls. That was enormous fun.

Twin Falls - right hand side

Twin Falls left Hand Side

Unfortunately, while getting into the tender one of the passengers, Madeline, tripped, fell hard and gave herself a serious bump and gash. Fortunately, amongst the passengers was a doctor and a nurse who stayed and attended to her. By the time we returned she had been patched up and given painkillers but still looked very pale and shaky and felt quite unwell. 

We were lucky enough on the tender tour for someone to spot a crocodile that was just basking on the rocks in the sun. That stayed very still as the boat came closer. 

Croc (Jasmine's photo because it was more focussed than mine)

We also saw a Jabiru, which was really special, and my purchase of binoculars paid off because I got a really good view of it. 

Jabiru (Jasmin's photo, not mine)
We also saw a number of herons. 

Heron

And earlier in the day I had seen a kite with gorgeous orange flashes on the underside of it's wings - a brahminy kite (Haliastur indus) - we were to subsequently see many of these.

We diverted and visited a waterfall called the Fountain of Youth from which I attempted to drink and got quite wet in the process.
 
The Fountain of Youth

The cliffs today had many areas of honeycomb and the paler areas in places had beautiful striations.
  
Amazing rocks

Honeycombed sandstone

There were also lovely jellyfish and I was hoping we would see some of these close up but we only saw one or two and they weren't cooperating very well.
 
Jellyfish

We visited a couple of interesting formations including King George's Crack, which is a fault line in the cliff.

King George's Crack

We also visited The Guillotine, which while it would not cut anyone's head off would certainly do more than give them a serious headache should it fall. 

The Guillotine

We passed the place where there was an osprey nest and while it wasn't occupied, it's pretty special to see it.

Osprey nest

This really is a most remarkable area and so far I have absolutely no regrets about having booked with these operators.

So after dinner, which was roast pork with crackling and was quite delicious, Jasmine gave us a talk and PowerPoint presentation about the early explorers of this area. which was very interesting. 

By that time we were underway for the next day's destination and the motion of the boat was fairly gentle, especially considering how it was two nights previously. 

I have beside my bed a container of biscuits, gluten-free and dairy free, put aside especially for those of us with those dietary needs. Given that such biscuits that were put out with the coffee, etc. were consumed very rapidly and largely not by those who were restricted to them. I will admit they were chocolate coated Scotch Fingers which had far more appeal than the plain biscuits but there was also brownie or chocolate yummy slice stuff available for the others.

I'm tucked up in bed around 8:30pm as are many others. 

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