Just like a Biggles story - a trek across a desolate salt flat, and a crashed WWII plane.

The Kimberley coast is full of surprises.   Our latest landfall on the Oceanic Discoverer cruise at Van Sittart Bay, produced another startling discovery.  An old aircraft wreck to explore !

 Here's what happened.  Back in 1942, an American DC-3 went missing on a flight from Perth to Darwin. It overshot Broome in the dark, and crash-landed on the coast at isolated Van Sittart Bay. Miraculously all six men on board survived in a soft landing.
They were marooned for two days until a rescue aircraft ( believed to be a Qantas Corinthian flying boat) arrived. Only a few days later, the Japanese bombed Darwin.

Ingeniously, the survivors managed to use pipes off the aircraft to distil fresh water from seawater.

Well over seventy years later, we trekked across a sandy flat to approach the aircraft.  The barren scene was reminiscent of a lunar landscape.  Weird rocks on a desolate salt pan. Then a hike through recently fire burnt scrub to reach the DC-3.   I expected to see Biggles and his crew pop out from the fuselage.

You can see the wreckage of this aircraft on Google Earth. Just go to 14° 7.692'S, 126° 18.564'E.
There are many stories in the Kimberley Coast area.  This is just one of them. I particularly enjoy an adventure story, especially when as in this case it had a happy ending for the brave crew. An interesting diversion to our Kimberley cruise holiday.

First day at sea - is that a ghost ship off the port bow in the Kimberleys ?

It's sunset and the light is fading fast.  I'm standing on the deck of the ultra modern, hi tech Oceanic Discoverer. We have just left tropical Broome on the West Coast of Australia on a ten day cruise. Is it my imagination, or do I see a ghost ship off the port bow ?
Perhaps I had a welcome drink too many when boarding.  Yet I do recall that the famous explorer and adventurer Phillip Parker King travelled this way in 1821.  His vessel was the HMS Mermaid.  Only 18 metres in length, the brave captain and crew must have endured primitive conditions in their single masted rigged cutter.
Compare this with the OD, or Coral Discoverer as it is now known in 2015.  Equipped with every conceivable modern navigational device, it carries 72  passengers on four decks of luxury. An efficient crew of 25 are helping make our voyage as comfortable as possible.
In the next few days, we will follow in the steps of the intrepid Parker King. I'm looking forward to seeing the locations he discovered.