At Careening Bay visit the site of a large boab tree with an inscription “H.M.C. Mermaid – 1820” still clearly visible. The Mermaid was a British Navy hydrographic survey ship under the command of Lt. Philip Parke King, who stayed at the bay for six weeks while repairing his ship. The site is very important botanically. The boab tree is a close relative of the African and Madagascar baobabs. It is believed that baobab fruit drifted on flotsam from Madagascar about 75 million years ago and took root on Australia’s northwest coast where, largely confined, it grew both singly and in immense forests.