L’Austral glides into Doubtful Bay at 6am and drops anchor off Raft Point, which is likely much to the chagrin of the small yacht MV Oceanic already in this small bay of islands. It doesn’t linger long and departs with the hour. Raft Point is named after the aboriginal rafts that were discovered here.
L’Austral however is here for the morning, for a 40 minute ascent to a Wandjina rock art gallery. Even though we depart at 7:40am, the heat is stifling, and it is a hot and sweaty climb up a natural watercourse, followed by a bit of scrambling to get up into the gallery itself. As with all of the galleries so far, commercial use of the images or publication on social media is forbidden, so it’s a description only of the images of the Wandjina. The ‘moon man’ painted in red and white ochre tells the story of when to access Montgomery Reef – a quarter moon is the time to go. Other images depict fish, crocodiles, and the ‘black magic’ man whose testicles apparently have magical powers to create thunder and lightning if banged together. There is also a recently (2012) refreshed image of the god Namarali, his white headdress depicting the number of spears used to kill him. The gallery is spectacular, but the hike up and back thins the passengers out by 80% – it requires some fitness and it is very hot.
In the afternoon, L’Austral repositions a short distance to the edge of Montgomery Reef to catch the outgoing tide. A spectacular natural tidal phenomenon occurs twice per day, exposing the 400km square reef, and in the process causing long, uninterrupted cascades of water. It is a feast for the local bird population, who fly across from the local islands to feed as fish and other small sea creatures are pulled out over the cascades by the receding tide, or are trapped in the lagoons that remain.
The emerging reef also creates the optical illusion that L’Austral is aground on the reef, despite being in 8 metres of water at the far edge of the reef.
We are still at anchor at Montgomery Reef, in shallow water, which makes photographing the full moon easier – just as well as it is a spectacular moon tonight, and a decent sunset.
