Picto Diary - 12 June 2026 (A) - Helo to Mitchell Falls

Above: Swift Bay, Kimberly, Australia. 12 June 2026.
Seeking the Kimberly.
Seabourn Pursuit.

Helo to Mitchell Falls.

Mitchell Falls. A dramatic four-tiered waterfall cascading over towering, layered red sandstone cliffs, amidst lush pockets of vegetation, into deep rock pools. It holds deep cultural and spiritual significance for the Traditional Owners, the Wunambal people.

Our Seabourn adventure staff in describing our land forays, always pay obeisance to Traditional Owners (aborigines). This same phenomenon also exists in Canada where the indigenous peoples who preceded Western colonization are called First Nations. In Canada this virtue signaling obeisance occurs to a fault where in radically liberal areas, land owned by descendants of immigrant Canadians are sequestered by the government and turned over to "First Nations tribes. In Australia, "Traditional Owners" have great sway over use of historical lands. For example, they have banned tourists from climbing Uluru (formerly Ayer's Rock" which TIMDT and Mwah (sic) climbed in 1992. The US is not immune to virtue signaling to its own indigenous peoples. Navajo Mountain, on the Navajo Reservation in southern Utah is off limits to gringos. Reminds of this controversy: Mt. McKinley or Denali?

Above: Mitchell Falls, Australia. 12 June 2026.
Seeking the Kimberly
Seabourn Pursuit.

Image taken by Mwah (sic) from helo.

Above: Mitchell Falls, Australia. 12 June 2026.
Seeking the Kimberly
Seabourn Pursuit.

Four swimmers. Drums, two German guys and a Romanian member of the adventure staff. No crocs above the falls... apparently. Mwah (sic) captured the image from a ledge above. The water here was deep enough to be over the swimmers' heads.

Above: Swift Bay, Australia. 12 June 2026
Seeking The Kimberly.
Seabourn Pursuit.

Caviar Do.
Hard to ignore the incongruity of a caviar cocktail event in one of the most remote, inaccessible parts of the world. Seabourn is up to the mark.

Above: Swift Bay, Australia. 12 June 2026
Seeking The Kimberly.
Seabourn Pursuit.

Grandson and Grandpa contemplate The Kimberly.

Above: Swift Bay, Australia. 12 June 2026
Seeking The Kimberly.
Seabourn Pursuit.

Night Sky Southern Hemisphere.
Image: The Two Pointers and The Southern Cross.
Trolling the female night sky lecturer, I asked her where the North Star was. Some surrounding guys gave the expected laugh, but she took my question very seriously and told me firmly that I would not see the North Star in the Southern sky. That being said, she gave a very good presentation of the Southern Hemisphere night sky. There is a formula to determine due south by drawing lines between and betwixt The Two Pointers and the Southern Cross. We also saw Jupiter and Saturn in close alignment. Saw the Big Dipper which is visible in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

Addendum:

I love the view from your room on the boat!!
Elayne,
Bountiful, UT

Margaret and Steve.
Unas maravillosas fotografías lindos lugares. En verdad que bonita es la naturaleza creado por Dios 🙏.
Cuídense mucho.
Adrien,
Peurto Vallarta, Mexico

12 Jun 2026

Picto Diary