Kimberley Cat - Day 1

Wednesday 1st July 2009
Another early start to the day as we were picked up before 7am and delivered to the airport for a flight in a Cessna Caravan float plane to Talbot Bay which is about 80km NE of Derby. I was lucky enough to get the co-pilots seat and got a pretty good view over the huge tidal mudflats outside Derby.
Talbot Bay is just outside the Horizontal Waterfalls and the pilot gave us a good close up view of the horizontal falls before a water landing on the bay. The seaplane pulled up to a pontoon and large houseboat setup on Talbot Bay and our luggage arrived shortly thereafter on another float plane called a Beaver.
An excellent breakfast was served on the houseboat before we transferred to a small launch which took us across to Kimberley Cat, a 60 foot luxury catamaran with 6 en suite cabins. The little launch was tied onto the back of the cat and we started our trip to a place called Silver Gull Creek. The trip through the Buccaneer Archipelago was fantastic. The scenery is spectacular and we had blue skies, 32°C and a 10 kt breeze. Lunch was served and the two crew, one of which owns the boat, have looked after us extremely well.
We went through a spot called "The Gutter" which would be impassable under normal tides but now, at neap tides, its quite OK to go through. It was amazing to see water flowing in all directions, eddies forming in front of our eyes and disappearing again and water coming up from below as if there was huge spring beneath.
Our track then took us past a mining operation called Koolan Island where one of the richest Iron ore deposits in the world is being mined. Apparently the whole island is almost pure iron.
After a spectacular trip we arrived at Silver Gull Creek at about 3pm, the big catamaran secured to a mooring and we went on the little launch for trip further up the river where a couple by the name of Phil and Marian live a fairly isolated life in a spot that comes very close to paradise.
Their little shack is perched on the top of the rock on the side of the creek were a permanent spring flows at a very high rate. Cruising yachts come in and fill up with fresh water and spend some time on anchor, if they come to the area.
Phil is 60 years old and he quit normal life when he was 46 and, as a yachtie, stayed in this rather remote but beautiful part of the Kimberley. Phil lives his live wearing nothing but a pair of jocks all year round. He welcomes all visitors (in his jocks) and invites them to have a swim in his water tank which is an open top concrete tank fed with a pipe from the spring where the water has a temperature of 30°C. The concrete tank has plastic chairs in it and there is plenty of room for a dozen people to sit in the water tank. The surrounding area is jungle like and there is a window cut out of the concrete tank where the water runs out. The view from the window is unbelievable as you look out over the turquoise waters and the steep red rocks in the background.
Phil is quite a character and he has two toilets, the one for the shy visitors consists of a bit of shade cloth, about 1.2mt high, on 2 sides, a rock wall on on side and open on the other. A standard ceramic bowl is concreted into the rock and pipe runs straight down into the water. A bucket and a large water container (spring fed) is used for flushing.
His primary toilet is to the right of there and has no cover around it but a million dollar view - no need to explain, just look at the picture on the right.
Marian, Phil's partner, is handcrafting jewelery which is for sale in a little shop next to the shack. The shop has water running through on the floor, the shack has no windows but fly wire and just a dirt floor in the single room. Amazingly Phil and Marian earn a living out here in the middle of nowhere and they certainly have a nice life but I wouldn't like to be in Kimberley during the wet season.
After our visit and swim in the water tank we took the launch back to the cat and had nibbles while watching the sunset. Dinner was served at 7:30pm and we enjoyed the rest of the night socializing with other 8 guests on board.
Another day in paradise has come to an end and we are already looking forward to our 2nd day on the Buccaneer Archipelago.