CRUISING THE KIMBERLEYS

Phil shares his experience aboard the Heritage cruise ship, as he took in the sights, wildlife and culture of the Kimberleys!

I have just recently returned from an amazing 10 day cruise along the Kimberley’s. Our ship Heritage Adventure can take up to 140 passengers and has all the facilities of a luxury cruise ship offers.

We headed off from Broome, with our first visit at Lacepede Island where we explored the incredible wildlife and birding paradise. You will find thousands of Brown boobies, Australian pelicans, Silver Gulls and many more species; if you are lucky you will also come across Green Turtles and crocks sunbathing on the beaches. While you cannot land on the island, we enjoyed viewing the wildlife from our Zodiacs.

Our next 2 days we enjoyed exploring the Eastern end of the Buccaneer Archipelago, only accessible by sea. First stop was at Talbot Bay where we experienced the region’s massive tidal movements which has shaped the landscape, most famously at the world’s only Horizontal Falls. We had the not to be missed opportunity to cruise close to the falls in our Zodiacs to experience the magnitude of the tidal forces!

Afterwards we headed to Montgomery Reef, another tidal spectacular experience! Montgomery Reef  is the world’s largest inshore reef system, that evening we captured the magic of observing this enormous reef “rise” from the ocean as the tide falls creating torrents and waterfalls up to 3-metres high. Spectacular!

Day 6 started with entering into Careening Bay where we explored the site of the historic Mermaid Boab Tree. This tree bears the name of the HMC Mermaid, which was carved into it while the ship was beached undergoing repairs during Philip Parker King’s third voyage of discovery of the region in 1820. Again this area is only accessible by boat. We also visited Prince Regent National Pard, one of Australia’s most remote and beautiful places as well as being a national biodiversity hotspot. At Hanover Bay we enjoyed a Zodiac cruise of St George basin, with its spectacular scenery and stunning backdrop of the flat-tapped Mt Trafalgar and Mt Waterloo, and on to the majestic King’s Cascade Falls, where American model Ginger Meadows was fatally attached by a crocodile in 1987.

During our next exploration of the Hunter River it quickly become apparent why this winding 30-kilometre stretch of water is one of the highlights of the Kimberly Coast. Tucked into the North-East corner of Prince Fredick Harbour, an enormous bay which puts the Kimberley’s epic scale into perspective, this scenic wonderland is dotted with islands and flanked with wild-filled mangrove-lined rivers, savanna woodlands and patches of lush monsoon rainforest. While out cruising in our Zodiacs we spotted an amazing verity of birdlife, fiddler crabs and the occasional salt water crocodile.

The next day saw us navigating the scattered islands, known as the Bonaparte Archipelago, stretching almost 150 Kilometres along the dramatic coastline. Our destination today is the remote and unspoiled inlet at T-shape Swift Bay with its sandy beaches, ominous sea-worn caves and mangroves. While on land we viewed a number of rock art gallies display the unique Wandjiina and Gwion Gwion styles on a large scale, denoting the culture importance of the area.

From here we had the opportunity to take a helicopter flight over the Mitchell falls, I gave this a miss this time as I have seen the falls from a previous overland Kimberley experience. Best to share this experience around.

This day we sailed through Vansittart Bay, which offers beautiful Islands, pristine white beaches lapped by turquoise waters, secluded coves, and stunning scenery. It is also the location of a historical World War II site – the final resting place of the preserved skeleton of a WWII Douglas-3 Aircraft which crash landed onto a saltpan after running out of fuel during a mercy mission to evacuate 4 Dutch citizens from Java. On Jar island we had the opportunity to visit an outdoor ancient Aboriginal Gwion Gwion art galleries set among fascinating caves and rock formations.

Our final day before heading to Darwin –  a definite highlight of the Cruise was approaching King George River where we experienced the towering 2000 million year-old Warton sandstone cliffs that dwarfed our vessel. Back out on our Zodiacs to cruise through King George River gorge, passing the ever-changing eroded rock faces as we cruised deeper into the gorge. At the end of the gorge nothing will prepare you for the grand scale spectacle of the Kimberley’s highest single-drop falls as the King George River plummets 80 meters over the edge of towering ancient red sandstone cliffs into tidal waters.

Our cruise came to an end the next day when we docked at the Darwin Wharf – a bittersweet moment but one filled with incredible memories of the past few days. I would thoroughly recommend anyone who is interested in the natural beaUty of the Kimberley coastline and wildlife to consider this cruise. The crew were very knowledgeable on all the wildlife and history of the coast and it was not hard to be drawn in with their enthusiasm and their passion with the wildlife and desire to pass on their experience to us.