Day 37 11/07/2013 King George Basin to Prince Regent River; King Cascades and Cathedral Waterfall.

Dave chose to relax on board this morning, and I chose to go fishing, with instructions not to catch anything bigger than the one he caught! Actually today was designated as a 'catch and release' day, because we have more than enough fresh fish at the moment.
The morning was beautiful, with calm waters and very warm temperatures.
There is something eerily scary about 'messing about in small boats' in croc-infested waters, particularly as our dinghy was being 'stalked' by one, then two crocodiles, as we fished. In the end Matt decided that we would find another spot!
Although we could see plenty of fish in the water, no-one had any luck catching anything worthwhile, but we had fun and the time passed very quickly. During our two hour plus excursion we spotted lots of birds, a few crocs, a shark cruising by and a large ray. After only having picked up a fishing rod and learning to cast a line two days ago, I was pretty pleased not to have needed any help at all this morning. By 10am we were back on the boat, the anchor was pulled up and we cruised up the Prince Regent River. During our cruise we caught a glimpse of an Australian snub-fin dolphin...... a shy sandy coloured dolphin which is quite rarely seen and endemic only to the Kimberley Coast.
Lunch was early today....and we had beautifully cooked barramundi.....freshly caught yesterday.....maybe it was even the one Dave caught!!!
Around 12.30pm Ben skilfully navigated the boat into King Cascades. This beautiful waterfall, is the site of a tragic croc death some 26 years ago. Ginger Meadows, a 24 year old American model was sitting on the lower rock ledges under a small cascade, when she was tragically taken. Amazingly we saw a couple of girls doing almost exactly the same thing as Ginger, up on a rock ledge barely a metre from the water, washing their hair under the 'shower' provided by a small waterfall! They had another person with them, sitting in a very small inflatable dinghy. Our chef Rhys, got into one of our tenders and went over to tell them how foolish we thought they were being and that if they climbed to the top of the falls, there was a safe swimming hole. Apparently they were unperturbed. Fortunately they finished their 'shower' and headed back to their boat. We were all dumbstruck by how low in the water their little rubber dinghy was.......Rhys called it a 'croc biscuit' !!
Our skipper Ben ably navigated our boat, remotely, from the helipad, and guided the bow of the boat right under the cascade. We all had a turn at getting a shower (safely) under the falls. Great fun! After that, the tenders ferried us a short 50m to a spot where we could get out and climb up to a swimming hole at the top. The climb was steep in sections over rocky scree, and we had a short rope climb at the end to drop to the deep swimming hole. As always, our helpful crew or other guests were there with a helping hand when necessary. We left all our gear on a rock ledge, and then swam about 30m across the pool to a flat rocky area with small waterfalls which provided a great back massage!
This was a great spot and as we climbed back down, we were treated to awesome views over the Cascade basin to the Prince Regent River.
We got back in the tenders and immediately headed off to Cathedral Falls. As the name suggests, the approach to these falls looks as though you might be entering a cathedral. Once again we had great fun going right under the falls....closer this time...and getting thoroughly soaked! We were dry by the time the tenders got back to the boat.
Once again there was a great sunset, convivial conversation and a delicious dinner.
After dinner, tomorrow's activities were planned, including an optional helicopter flight to a very special Wandjina Art site. The tides are allowing us to sleep in until 7am!!!