Monday, August 5, 2019

Monday 5th August 2019 – Palm Island


I woke up around 07:00, had a coffee, updated my blog and then went fishing. I lost several lures and several really big fish, snapping me off on the sharp oyster covered rocks. Probably very large mangrove jacks. But I did catch a nice size trevally and a cod for the BBQ.

Early morning, we up anchored and headed right to the bottom of Montague Sound on the high tide, as I wanted to look at the site of the Kimberly Coast Cruising Yacht Club inaugural BBQ site, (we missed this year’s event by four weeks) and also some aboriginal paintings.


I moved Sirocco as far down the Sound as I could and dropped the anchor, then I went exploring in the dinghy. First, I went to the BBQ beach.



This place was awesome. It had the most unusual rock formations and an incredibly extensive cave system with chambers going back in all directions. I spent a good hour just exploring all the caves and tunnels and large chambers that the wind and ocean had eroded out of the sandstone.




They were defiantly the best sea caves I have ever seen. The beach was very high and large, a perfect spot for a beach party. The whole area was an old aboriginal midden site. Those dudes must have loved clam chowder as there were shells piled up tens of meters high.




Up the back behind the cave system I came across three bower bird nests, but no sight of the birds.


From here, I headed right to the bottom of the Sound checking out all the old aboriginal midden sites and rock paintings. There were so many rock paintings, I didn’t have to get out of the dinghy to view them.







Along the way I saw an eagle’s nest high up on a rock pillar and also a heap of pelicans roosting.

I then headed around to four finger creek to look for a famous painting of four Europeans in a canoe. I baited three crab pots and dropped them off in a croc infested creek hoping I might have some crabs on the trip back. Right near by were some rock paintings of kangaroos.



I went right to the rock bar at the far end of the creek and tied the dinghy to some high rocks and went looking to the rock painting. The tide was now dropping so time was of the essence.

I searched everywhere but couldn’t locate the bloody thing. I walked for ages, up and down, rock hopping and walking through the prickly spinifex and just could not find it.

Mindful of the receding tide, I eventually called it quits and headed back to the dinghy getting out just in time.

I picked up the crab nets on the way back and there was nothing in them. Bugger !!

So, I headed back to Sirocco and moved her back to our previous anchorage and then went for a sunset troll on the low tide but never caught anything.


Back at Sirocco there was a large tawny shark waiting for me.


I dropped the three crab nets off the back of Sirocco while I was eating the trevally I caught this morning for dinner, and caught a few small crabs that I threw back. After dinner I checked the crab nets again and all the bait had been taken, so I gave it away for the night.


Track Sirocco’s progress




No comments:

Post a Comment