We started our day on Doubtful Sound an early start!
The Explorers were left at 7am. 
We cruised around Ngumbree (Raft Point)
and Steep Island 
and had a beach landing on the mainland at Umburi Beach, Raft Point. 
We had breakfast on the cruise, a breakfast roll and a cuppa. The beach was very steep and apparently, like everywhere up here, was frequented by crocodiles. None today!
On the beach we saw lots of bleached coral within the tidal zone sand, and up above the tidal zone was an old turtle shell, a lower jaw band & other bones. It looked like the turtle may have met its death via a crocodile.
We got back to the boat at about 9:15am and back onboard around 9:30am.
Not long after we got back we had a photography talk by Luke, a keen amateur photographer who is part of the crew. It was an interesting talk with lots of hints for holiday photography.
That was almost immediately followed by a talk by Ian. On the geology of the Kimberly.
We decided to have lunch in our cabin.
The assistant purser brought it up to us, a Mexican Poke Bowl with chocolate brownie for dessert.
The afternoon started for us with a ships tour of the Engine Room. It’s always interesting to see how things are done behind the scenes, from the ships drive train (motor, gear box, propulsion and steering system- the ship has no rudder!), water desalinisation system, yep, sewage treatment system, air-conditioning, ballast, etc).
Later in the afternoon, about 3:50pm, we boarded one of the Explorers and headed out to Wiyjura (Montgomery Reef), arriving out there as the tide was falling. We saw a couple of dolphins swimming around near the reef on our way. While we waited for the tide to fall and reef to become exposed, we were told a story of the traditional people of the area and how about 300 of them eventually settled on the High Cliffy Islands adjacent to the reef. Gathering and harvesting food of all marine types from the reef and surrounding waters. The story finished with them disappearing without a trace in the early 1900’s. What happened to them is still a mystery.
The reef itself was formed about 6000 years ago, and sits on top of an ancient mesa. It is made up of what is called Coralline Algae. It forms dark red colour balls, Rhodoliths which move around until they get wedged and become part of the reef and more build on top of them. The reef is now about 25km long x 13km wide. It requires at least a 4.2m low tide for it to become exposed.Todays low tide was 2.21m at 5:19pm. Lucky us!
We explored the reef in an area of a wide channel, with reef either side of us.
As the reef became exposed the water began cascading off it.
As this started the zodiacs pulled alongside our Explorer and about half the people got onto them and went out for a closer look at the reef. We held back for the second round of zodiac rides, hoping there would be more reef exposed and a bit more action.
We spent around 30mins cruising around various parts of the reef looking at the water running off it and looking for wildlife in the water and up on the reef itself. We saw a couple of turtles and a black tip shark in the water near the reef and a few birds (Egrets). It was amazing watching the water flow off the reef, there were rivers and curtains of water flowing everwhere. 
The amount of water and the strength of the streams was incredible. While we were there I estimated that the height of the reef exposed was just under 2m. 
An amazing spectacle.
We left the reef at around 6:10pm, Sundowners were served just before we left, a nice way to finish the days sightseeing. We were back onboard the boat at about 6:25pm.
We were both over people for the day, so decided to have dinner in our room. A peaceful way to dine.
I went and saw a short film titled “The Vanished Tribe of the High Cliffy Islands”, interesting.
Another early start tomorrow.
Number of Views :360