Then, over the next 90 minutes or so, as the water level continued to drop with the tide, the trickle became a torrent.

So, yesterday we did a remarkable zodiac ride. Montgomery reef is a largely circular reef of coralline algae. Late afternoon, we took the zodiacs into the interior area (by way of channel, lower right), and the reef itself was barely visible as a different color, just barely below the surface. As the tide went out, the water rushed from outside the reef, over it, and gave the illusion of the reef rising out of the ocean. I’ve been fortunate enough to spend a *lot* of time in and around oceans, and I’ve never seen anything remotely like it. First there is just a few inches of visible reef, and the water began to trickle over it.

As mentioned at the beginning, we’ll first sail the Kimberley coast of northwest Australia, between Broome and Darwin. It’s a bit of a well-kept secret, amazing topography, but the secret is starting to be discovered. After that, we’ll stop at ports in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.

We’ve now switched from train to ship. Variation of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”. And it’s almost as if they knew we were coming, below:

Before arriving at Darwin, the train stopped a few hours in Katherine. We attended a demonstration of some of the challenges of cattle mustering, mostly training the horses and dogs for their specific duties. We’ve all seen video of sheep dogs of course - mostly border collies who just absolutely adore working the herds for hours and hours. These were the same, they think their job is the most fun, ever. Some still pics below - after the show kids (of all ages) were allowed to get up close and personal to some of the animals. I have some good video but limited bandwidth makes things tricky, I’ll keep working on it.

….and then the Holy grail, Uluru, and some cave paintings at its base. Hard to describe the massive size. My father climbed to the top of this, many many decades ago when people were allowed to do so. He remembered being struck by the woman also doing so, in high heels. Probably not ideal.

Kata Tjuṯa, from various viewpoints

Uluru is the most famous and visited site in the outback, used to be called Ayer’s Rock, before the recent trend toward recognizing indigenous names. Here’s its sister Kata Tjuṯa, with Uluru off in the distance.

At one of our stops along the way, we learn of Bruce the Aussie-named donkey (ask any Monty Python fan). He was brought up with camels, and thinks he is one. (In the 19th century, Afghan-immigrant camel drivers were among the more intrepid folks living and working in the outback). Bruce thinks he’s a camel, and loves his family. A little too much, we’re told, as he is apparently a little too fond of the lady camels. If your sound is turned up you can hear him braying, although it’s nearly drowned out by the sound of the helicopter taking off in the background. We’re told that there are some 2 million wild camels these days, roaming the outback.

Ahhh, the joys of traveling.

The Reptile Center

Wildflowers are everywhere, but we understand that the spring months (Sept-Oct) are the most colorful.

Have surely walked more in the last 5 days than in the previous 5 months.

WiFi has been spotty in the Uluru/Kata Tjuta area, especially for posting any pix/vid, so I’ll wait until we’re back in Alice Springs tonight, and then hopefully catch up.

There was the option to do the Rim Walk, but….600+ steep rock steps up and then a strenuous 3-4 hour walk. Maybe 40 years ago.

We’re off the train and are in Alice springs for 6 days. Today we traveled down to Kings Canyon, took two long walks. The red soil underfoot and the majestic rocks soaring up - pretty spectacular.