To Montgomery Reef ... Kind Of

Monday, 24 July, 2023: To Montgomery Reef ... Kind Of

Once we’d left the whales last night and sat in the dining room having another delicious dinner, Simon set our course for Montgomery Reef, a long way out in the Indian Ocean. The plan was to be there early tomorrow morning following a long sail across from the mainland. I was very excited about visiting this – to see the waterfalls coming off the reef as the tide dropped would be amazing.

As we ate and enjoyed the evening, we noticed the boat increasingly moving around – and with lights on inside and darkness outside, there was no horizon to watch. As a result, I was in bed at around 7:30pm, looking forward to seeing the Reef tomorrow – one of the reasons I came on this journey.

The seas became uncomfortable and it felt like we were in a washing machine – moving forwards, sideways, up and down. Oh for a keel and a rudder or two!

Then at around 1am we stopped and I heard the anchor being dropped – the “washing machine” reduced markedly. At 5:30am I woke to the sound of the anchor being raised – and raised, and raised. We were in very deep water, and that seemed good because I knew that this meant we were close to the Reef. The intention was for us to arrive there at around 6:30am so that we could get into the tenders and be positioned in or near the Reef when the tide starts to drop at around 7:15am.

Feeling a little “fragile”, I took a Phenergan as a precaution, and at 6:30am, Simon came onto the PA system: “unfortunately we are heading back to the mainland. It is just too rough and too dangerous to deploy the tenders”. There was not even an option for us to be positioned to view the spectacular sight from Reef Prince rather than the tenders.

We later learned that we had come as close as 2 kms from the Reef. Our crew had seen a large ship, Coral Expeditions, much closer and running into a potentially very nasty situation as they dragged their anchor. True North had also turned back to the mainland 20 minutes after leaving their safe anchorage.

I was bitterly disappointed, but that’s what can happen – now I need to find another time and way to get there.

We were soon close to the mainland, and in the early afternoon, I tried my hand at fishing. This time the bait that came out of the water looked much the same as the bait that went down, although a little water-logged. It was time to take some photos!

As I grabbed my camera, a glorious white bellied eagle flew over us eyeing our bait. Someone tossed a small morsel into the air and it flew towards us, turning to catch the bait. The result was this photo – a little soft, but fascinating.

Further along we saw an osprey’s nest, way up high on a rocky promontory.

Then it was time to visit Ruby Falls, where some of the more intrepid climbers would use ropes to help them up the steep face in order to reach the rock pool up high. We dropped them at the base, and waited to see them start getting organised.

It was clearly very steep, and I was only too happy to go for a ride through the mangroves, in and out of the small inlets that ran off the main waterway. We saw small birds as well as crocs, one large one hoping that a bird it had eyed, would not see it. The bird was safe.

Later we made our way amongst islands of rock and bush that glowed brightly in the evening light as we made our way to our next location.

Tuesday, 25 July 2023: Horizontal Falls & Mini Montgomery Reef

From the bow early this morning, I saw that we were in a large open bay surrounded by high ridges of rocks forward of us and to each side. The ridge ahead and to our left was covered in green bush, while the one to our right was a mix of dirt and low scrubby bushes and trees due to controlled burning.

Further to the right and back, was the floating hotel and infrastructure for those that want to see and experience Horizontal Falls, named by Sir David Attenborough because of the way the water “falls” horizontally from the high side of a narrow opening to the low side.

Sea-planes were landing at 7:30am, and boats were taking people to and from the Falls every 15 – 30 minutes. It’s certainly a fascinating tidal phenomenon, and the whirlpools and currents that form on the “low side” are very impressive. I watched as boats, including our tender with twin engines, made their way through the narrow opening and back again.

Once back on the tenders we sailed between ridges and along waterways away from the Falls, watching birds soaring high above us and bushes of Kimberley Rose. Brook also pointed out seams of rocks containing blueish minerals and metals that geologists use for dating (the calendar kind).

Back on Reef Prince, Brook said that Simon was aware of a reef in the area that he thought was similar to Montgomery Falls, although very much smaller. After lunch, and with the tide low and rising, we were in the tenders and on a search to find this … although without Simon. Someone has to stay with the boat!

I could see a brown area that was just above the waterline; it covered almost the width of the inlet and went way off into the distance – a boat was on the other side. Coming closer it looked like clumps of mud and soil rising maybe 50 cm out of the water, with other parts below us. Brook explained that this reef, apparently very much like Montgomery Reef, is made up of millions of organisms that clump together with a muddy consistency, totally unlike coral.

They are very fragile and cannot be walked on. Although I wanted to touch them, aside from the Kimberley rule of “no hands in the water”, who knows what these are made of. Looking down into the water, I could see different sizes and shapes of the structures. Some looked like small bowls with thick rims, others were non-specific in shape. Amazing.

We motored across to an area of mangroves – some very, very old and others new. Birds were flying in and out of this beautiful place, their songs filling the area. I realised that we hadn’t seen many birds at all – just the occasional hawk, eagle or osprey, as well as individual cranes and egrets. This was another beautiful and surprising place.

We were coming to the end of the trip, and this evening, dinner was on the bow under the magnificent southern sky.

The crew had put tables and chairs out there, with sparkly lights attached to various structures. As we came further south, the evenings and early mornings were noticeably cooler, and this evening, we were soon rugging up with long sleeved jackets as we sat outside with newly-made friends, under the stars and the almost half-moon..

GG had prepared a delicious 3-course dinner (we really didn’t need more food, but it was our second-last night) – a perfect time to thank the crew for all that they’d done for us.