An eerie encounter on picturesque Jar Island.

In the southern part of Van Sittart Bay, nestles tiny Jar Island.   A fantastic place to visit, with some secluded white sand coves, and bizarre rocky cliffs.  We made landfall at one such cove on our cruise.  Some very interesting Bradshaw aboriginal paintings here.

I wandered off to beachcomb, and take in the scenery, as it was a fascinating place. Whilst strolling down  to the other end of the beach, I became separated briefly from the main party who were still examining the aboriginal drawings.

It was an idyllic scene, a typically warm tropical Kimberley day.  Suddenly I had a sense that I was not alone.  You know that feeling you get - hard to describe - when you feel that someone or something is watching you. Very odd.
I turned around, and looked at the nearest cliff.  To my great astonishment, a giant face peered at me.
Soon realised it was a natural formation, eroded over the centuries into the surface of the sandstone rock.  Can you too, see this rather sad looking rocky figure in my photograph ?  As I am a cartoonist by profession, I felt it merited a small sketch. This is also shown here.

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.