Coasting along the red rock cliffs and blue bays of the Kimberley, our impressions are set in a context of time. Ancient ways of life set among ancient sandstones draw our thoughts into contemplation of the past, centuries and then millennia ticking by like seconds.
Our day began, after our usual delicious breakfast, with a visit by Zodiac to Montgomery Reef. This remarkable formation, slowly built up by tiny algae, is a platform that extends for over four hundred square kilometers, yet it is one of the youngest features of the Kimberley coast. As sea level rose following the last ice age, only about fifteen thousand years ago, small drifting bundles of algae grounded on a shallow sandstone bank and accumulated to form the reef. Like the coral animals that create more familiar reefs, these algae reinforce their tissues with calcium carbonate, so as they live and die their skeletons add minerals to the growing reef and the structure they provide creates a home and a hunting ground for many other species.
The extreme tides of the Kimberley add another exciting element to the nature of this unusual reef. As the tide falls, several meters each hour, the water pours off the flat upper surface in hundreds of cascades and waterfalls that stream down over the edges, just where our Zodiacs were passing. Eastern reef egrets and many other birds were gathered to feed on the bounty of marine life that was exposed and numbers of green sea turtles were swimming through the channels where we cruised, also looking for an easy meal.
Leaving the reef behind us, we thought that our morning excursion was over until we made a surprise landing on a beautiful sandbar, where the hotel crew served us a wonderful brunch of sausage rolls and bloody Mary’s!
Not long after that it was time for lunch – hunger has not been a problem on this expedition – and then another trip out, this time to a stunning red sandstone headland which is the site of Umbre, an important Wandjina rock art gallery. Landing on a rocky beach we met the traditional owners of the site who welcomed us, told us of their people’s special connection to the stories of their land, and daubed us with ochre to prepare us for the visit to the sacred art.
The way led us up a steep rocky trail to a blocky cliff where a series of ledges rose beneath a shelving overhang. The roof of rock itself and all the nearby vertical sections of the cliff were gorgeously decorated with the images of the Wandjina, the ancestor spirits who had wandered through the landscape in the dreamtime and then settled at this place to rest after their travels.
Our hosts told us more of the stories and traditions that their culture weaves around these sacred sites, answered our questions about the place and their lives and gave us the special opportunity to photograph the paintings. As a final special note, we saw in the surface of the sandstone ledges the clear impressions of ripples in the sand, a record of a beach washed by waves more than a billion years ago.
Ancient culture and ancient stones wove a spell of Kimberley magic that filled our thoughts as we made our way back down the trail in the beautiful light of a desert sunset.
