This morning I got up at 06:00 to take photos of the gorge
during the magic hour and then after, I went fishing catching the usual
mangrove jacks and estuary cod.
When I came back to Sirocco, our house battery had discharged to the
extent that the solar regulator had disconnected the load to prevent further
discharge, so I couldn’t use the toilet to have a crap. Last night’s spicy
fried rice was trying to burn its way out, and so I had to start the motor to
help charge up the battery and it seemed to take for ever to go from 12.4v to
12.5v for the load to reconnect.
Around 09:00 we un-rafted the boats and moved from Casuarina
Falls to the Amphitheatre Falls about seven miles up
the main river. Along the way I made water.
The cruise up river was just magnificent and rivalled the
King George River. We saw a 3m crocodile sunning its self on beach and when we
quietly nosed over to take a photo it slowly crawled off into the water and
disappeared.
The slow trip up the river took us about an hour and a half
and we anchored out front of Amphitheatre falls, a very impressive grand
one-hundred-metre-high rock Amphitheatre, but the falls were bone dry.
The water maker pressure pump started cavitating and so I had
to change the intake filter, a two-minute job, but the problem was it was
located under our food store, so it took us about an hour to move everything.
With the filter changed, I filled up the generator (to make
water and charge the batteries while we are away) and we all headed over to
find the track to walk up to the top of the Amphitheatre Falls. There was no
track and the climb was extremely rugged. Putu and Luke stayed back at the
dinghies while Bruce and I pushed on eventually reaching the summit.
The view was magnificent which made the hell sick climb
worthwhile. Behind the falls were some really large clear ponds, but we didn’t
go for a swim as the bottom was very silty and once stirred up wouldn’t be very
nice, a real pity as we were pretty hot and dirty after the climb up.
The walk back down turned out to be much easier than I
expected, but by the time we both got back down to the dinghies we were both
very knackered. (at least I was)
After a bit of a rest, Bruce, Putu and I went out fishing
and none of us caught anything worth keeping. When we returned, we went over
and met Gordon & Myra (from S.V Harmony) also anchored at Amphitheatre
Falls.
For tonight’s dinner, Luke cooked a stew and brought it over
to have on Sirocco. (with the awnings down)
Late at night I could see some glow in the dark fish, but
nothing like we saw in the King George River.
Track Sirocco’s
progress
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