Friday, June 21, 2024

Reefs - Depictions of and the Disappearing/Reappearing kind

 After breakfast in the room today, there were two excursions. This morning we landed at Freshwater Cove in Wijingarra butt butt.  After a Welcome to country ceremony from the local indigenous people, I hiked up to see the rock paintings in one of the caves. Yams, fish, birds, but also a cyclone and a depiction of a naughty boy who went off fishing on his own and got stuck on Montgomery Reef. His mother went looking for him and realized he had perished and cried a river of tears causing the tidal phenomenon that is the second part of the reef story.



The real Montgomery Reef is underwater at high tide but as the tide goes out (up to 8 meters difference) the massive reef system “emerges” from the water. Shore birds come over to feed on the exposed sea life. Turtles will get (hopefully) temporarily trapped on the reef. And the water flowing off of the reef creates quite the spectacle of torrents of river and cascading falls of flowing water.  My little video won’t do it justice. And I don’t have adequate internet to even watch a drone video to find one for you, but you can click on one in an instant, I imagine. 


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