When we woke, we were anchored in this beautiful anchorage
surrounded by rugged stone cliffs and just off a beautiful sandy beach. We had
really done well to anchor next to each other in the dark.
I got up early and dropped the dinghy, then set it up. I
refuelled the dinghy and then checked my remaining petrol supplies. I still
have about 55 litres of petrol for both the dinghy and generator as well as the
25 litres of fuel already in the dinghy, so we should be fine till Darwin.
After a coffee and a quick bite, I motored over to say hello
to Ian and his wife from Holly Rose and we chatted for about 40 minutes. They
were heading off on the high tide very shortly for Darwin and couldn’t wait around
much longer.
I then headed over to have a chat with Bruce to formulate a
plan of attack for crossing the sandbar and where we would anchor for the night.
Then I headed over to say hello to the couple on the small catamaran. They were
a lovely couple but were also just about to head off on the high tide.
We then headed off to work our way through the sandbar at
the mouth of the Berkeley River. I went first so I could warn Bruce if I got
stuck or was in shallow water. (Lizard is a deep keel boat)
The crossing was strait forward and uneventful and once in
the river, we cruised upstream passing five other yachts and power boats
anchored waiting to exit on the high tide. We headed for Casuarina creek
several miles upstream on the starboard side, then carefully cruised up the
creak to the waterfall at the head of the creek.
The creek gets quite shallow at low tide, but there is a
twenty-metre-deep hole under the falls (that were still flowing) and we
anchored both boats in this hole, rafted up and then ran a stern line across to
a ring bolted into the wall at the waterfall and pulled ourselves into position.
It was an awesome place, rafted up in the high wall amphitheatre
with the sound of the waterfall flowing only ten meters behind us.
Bruce and I decided to go for a walk and headed off in the
dinghy. We tied the dinghy to a mangrove tree and climbed up the steep wall of
the gorge, and then walked around to the top of the waterfall where we had a
magnificent view down the gorge with Sirocco & Lizard rafted together under
the falls.
After some photos, we walked up stream until we came across
the first large deep pond and we both went for a swim. It was really beautiful
with pandanus palms on one side, crystal clear water and water lilies floating
on top.
After we cooled down, we made the long walk back to the
dinghy. Our timing was perfect, as another fifteen minutes would have seen the
dinghy high and dry and we would have been stranded for the next six hours.
Once back on Sirocco, I wasted no time and got prepared to
go fishing. I headed out into the main river and caught a lot of fish but still
no barramundi. I caught jacks, barracouta, trevally and cod, bringing some back
to eat.
That night Bruce and Luke joined us for a meal that Luke
prepared. It was lovely listening to the waterfall all night as we chatted and
then later on while sleeping. The mozzies and bugs were quite bad here, but I
guess that’s a small price to pay for such a stunning anchorage.
Track Sirocco’s
progress
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