Day 3 - Rothsay Waters to Prince Regent River – 13 June

The day started early when Matt, the Skipper, started the boat at six o’clock to take it from Rothsay Waters through St George’s Basin to Prince Regent River. The first two hours of the ride was quite a bumpy one with all of us struggling to remain upright whilst we walked around the decks. Breakfast was a continental one at seven o’clock followed mid-morning with pumpkin scones and jam and cream. We are all going to be putting on weight!
The Prince Regent River is the eroded remains of the longest single straight lineament in Australia. It runs 240kms SW into the King Leopold sandstone plateau. On the way to Prince Regent River we passed Mt Waterloo and Mt Trafalgar in St George’s Basin with their unusually flat tops which are made of hard remnant sandstone. The boat motored quite a way into the river before we reached King’s Cascade which is a very beautiful waterfall. The “Odyssey” slowly manoeuvred its way between mangroves to come alongside the fifty metre waterfall and we all moved to the front of the boat. The brave ones stood under the falling water. It was quite cold with quite a force so none of us could stay under it for long. However, we stayed long enough to have our photos taken to prove we had stood under a waterfall!
After “Odyssey” moved back into the river we all hopped aboard the tender, “Homer”, and motored for a further half hour down the river to reach the Cathedral Waterfall. It was a very pretty one tucked away in a side creek amongst dense mangroves. On our way back we came close to a very large three metre crocodile which was basking in the sun. It didn’t move but kept a watchful eye on us. Matt also pulled alongside a cliff which he climbed and retrieved a flower called the “Kimberley Rose” which is a pretty clump of reddish flowers that grows on a rather sparse, dead looking tree.
After a wonderful salad lunch about fifteen, including Henk, went back onto the Homer and went rock climbing in search of Aboriginal art known as Bradshaw artwork. This is named after the grazier who discovered the artwork in the 1890’s. The artwork belongs to the Gwion Gwion people.
Once the party returned to the “Odyssey” it was decided that we had enough time for about a half hour of fishing. Those interested jumped aboard Homer and we soon had our lines in the water only a short distance from the “Odyssey”. Harry almost caught a very large fish but the line broke. It was very exciting while he and Mark, one of the crew, tried to bring it in. Only two fish were caught and these were added to the two previous day’s catch and we had these for dinner with mushroom risotto. It was a delicious meal.
It was another excellent day in Paradise!