And so the cruise ends. What a fantastic 10 days on Silver Discoverer covering a total of 1528 nautical miles. Highly recommended.
We farewelled our new friends and our friendly crew. The other passengers were mainly Australian — all states except South Australia and quite a few from Melbourne. The crew represented 27 different countries, but were mostly from the Philippines and were truly wonderful. The ship is registered in the Bahamas but the officers are mostly Italian as is the Silversea company.
A chartered bus took us to Cable Beach Resort for a day by the pool, cocktails by the beach to watch the famed sunset across the ocean, and then a fabulous Japanese meal at the small resort restaurant Zensai. An aside here: Trip Advisor, never to be totally relied on, translates 前菜 as “small dainty things” — well, maybe at a stretch, but it more accurately translates as appetiser. And our five courses could almost be described as Japanese tapas.
Sensational! Not the cheapest meal we’ve had but one of the best and a must if you have paid out good dollars for the resort, what’s a few extra to savour these delights? It would be criminal not to book a table. Zensai is owned by a Tasmanian couple who relocated to Broome about seven years ago. The chef is Japanese. Only downside was Mr Grumpy the owner but fortunately we were served by his wife who is bubbly, enthusiastic and quite delightful.
Earlier, we were intrigued by this signpost. Closer here to Singapore than to Melbourne and surprisingly not that far from Tokyo.
Back to Melbourne tomorrow, May 6. And so ends the Kimberley blog.
The last full day of our amazing Kimberley cruise. We skipped an early morning (6 am departure!) zodiac trip to see more rock formations in favour of a sleep in before our exciting fast boat tour to experience the horizontal falls.
As the tour brochure says, this is one of the icons of the Kimberley coast. The falls are a pair of stunning breaks in the McLarty Range, about 300 metres apart. The sandstone, shale and dolomite range is 1.8 billion years old! The first of the gaps is about 25 metres wide and the second and more spectacular gap is just 12.5 metres.
With massive tidal differences of up to 10.8 metres, the horizontal falls — technically termed “pinch rapids” — are a natural phenomenon created as seawater builds up faster on one side of the gaps than the other, creating a waterfall up to 5 metres high on a king tide. With each change of tide, the direction of the fall reverses, creating vast tidal whirlpools on the outgoing side.
The ship sailed for Broome at lunch time and we had the most relaxing afternoon around the pool, cocktails while watching the sunset, and a great dinner with some of our new friends from the cruise.
It was also a chance to farewell our wonderful Expedition crew.
It keeps getting better! Today was definitely one to remember — a real OMG experience.
First though was the morning expedition to see examples of Wandjina rock art at Raft Point in Talbot Bay. This is quite different in style to the Gwion Gwion art we saw a couple of days ago and “conforms” more closely with photos we’d seen before of Indigenous painting.
It was quite a strenuous walk up a rocky path to reach the gallery but well worth the effort (and good exercise, too, after all the food we’ve been devouring). Pam decided to stay on the Silver Discoverer, which was a wise move.
Neil, a representative of the traditional owners, was on hand to welcome us to country and explain the meaning of the art (the origin of life). You can see from my pic above that some of the art has been retouched — this was done about 8 years ago — and while it may sound pity for this to happen, it is something that has been done every now and then over millennia.
Neil, second from right, explaining the art. Great bloke — avid Bombers supporter!
During lunch the ship relocated to where we were embarked in convoy on the six zodiacs for a trip to Montgomery Reef — the 8th natural wonder of the world, according to David Attenborough. Covering an area of 400 square kilometres and about 80 km long, the reef is subject to unusual tidal movements of up to 10 metres.
When the tide is out, vast lagoons, sandstone islets and a central mangrove island are revealed. The outward movement of the tide forms a torrent of water, creating a river cutting through the reef and hundreds of cascading waterfalls.
The lagoon in the middle of the reef can’t be seen from the river, which is where our zodiacs took us, but it is never completely emptied by the outgoing tide. Migratory birds have a feast as the receding water reveals a mass of small fish and little crabs. Turtles were everywhere but they just pop their heads above the water for a few seconds and are impossible to photograph. Black tipped reef sharks and dugongs live here too but we didn’t see them.
My photography can’t truly do justice to this natural phenomenon but take it from me, we were all just gobsmacked at this previously unknown world wonder. A real highlight of the 10 day cruise.
A fantastic day — rivers, bird life, crocodiles, mangroves, helicopters, waterfalls. And all before lunch (which was at 3.30 pm).
We started early in our zodiacs for a cruise down the Hunter River and Porosus Creek, aptly named for the saltwater crocodile species that inhabits the area.
Only a baby — about 2 metres long — but exciting to see it up close and personal. Less threatening was the bird life:
It truly was a wonderful way to spend the early hours of the morning, puttering up the creek in among the mangroves. Very peaceful. We killed the motors on the zodiacs and spent time just listening to the sounds of the environment. Magic.
Back to the Silver Discovererbriefly before heading back by zodiac to a nearby sandy beach for a helicopter ride to the Mitchell Falls. A somewhat scary 25 minute ride as the passenger section of the helicopter has no doors. Great for sightseeing but you need to be securely strapped in!
This is the Porosus Creek from the helicopter. The haze is from purposeful back burning in the area. Here’s another shot of waterfalls taken by hanging out the door of the helicopter!
We landed near the Mitchell Falls and spent an hour photographing and admiring the stunning views:
Back to our ship for a very late lunch, a snooze, the daily informative lecture from the Expedition team, cocktails, dinner, wine, music from our resident Filipino pianist and finally bed.
Today was mainly about art. Our trusty ship cruised into Vansittart Bay overnight (yes, I know, these place names are ones I’d never heard of before either).
This morning we were transferred by zodiacs to Jar Island for a hike up the hill to view the mysterious Gwion Gwion rock paintings. They are often referred to as the Bradshaw paintings because they were first discovered (by non-Indigenous Australians) by Joseph Bradshaw in 1891, when he stumbled upon them while lost on a Kimberley exploration.
There is some controversy about their origins although experts believe them to be at least 17,000 years old! Some scholars believe they were made by visitors from the near north, when the Australian continent was joined by a land bridge to New Guinea and present day Indonesia.
The elongated hands and fingers of these paintings evoke similarities to art forms found more commonly in those countries, but who knows?
I had to lie on a rock and point my camera up to get this fish painting, which is one of the best preserved as it is totally protected from sunlight. Amazing stuff! Remember, this was done more than 10,000 years before the pyramids!
Pam at the Gwion Gwion gallery with one of the expedition leaders, Greg (the crocodile expert from North Queensland).
This is being posted well after April 30, as I haven’t had much luck uploading any photos of our wonderful adventures. Strangely, we can both post to Facebook (yeah!) but not to the blog (boo!).
Before I begin the King George Falls story, I forgot to mention yesterday about two other interesting stories from the Wyndham stopover. First, the diamond mine: the Argyle mine produces more diamonds (20 million carats per year) than anywhere else in the world. It’s worth Googling the history of the mine and the subterfuge that went on to mask the discovery and the story of the security chief who stole $50 million worth of diamonds hidden in his toothpaste tube!
The other trivial pursuit factoid is about Airbus. Where in the world has Airbus invested millions of dollars in their HAPS (high altitude pseudo satellites)? Yes, it’s in Wyndham where Airbus opened the world’s first of these solar powered super drones (or mini satellites) in December 2018 at little old Wyndham airport.
These HAPS are solar powered and stay aloft at altitudes of 21 km for months before returning for a recharge and perform similar services to those of regular satellites at a fraction of the cost. They’re being used initially by Facebook — which might explain why I can upload pics to FB but not to my blog!
Who knew? OK, don’t answer. But I didn’t, and I find it fascinating.
Now for Koolama Bay — I bet you haven’t heard of this place either. It’s important because it’s the mouth of the King George River and is named for the vessel sunk by the Japanese during WWII.
This was our first real exposure to the fantastic sandstone rocks that typify the Kimberley. Just stunning and our three hour zodiac tour along the river to the King George Falls was definitely the highlight so far of our holiday cruise.
Some of our more adventurous fellow passengers decided to disembark the zodiacs and clamber up the rock face to the top of the falls for both a swim (no crocodiles) and a view. But Pam and I didn’t think our old knees would survive so we stayed on the rubber duckies.
The twin falls are over 80 metres high and although this is now a month after the end of the wet (and it was a dry wet this season), there was still an impressive flow of water. Our driver, Greg (Mr Crocodile) took our zodiac right under the spray to refresh us (i.e., soak us to the bone) but with the 35 deg heat, we were all dry again in about 10 minutes.
The afternoon was spent on deck where I sipped a martini and Pam swam in the ship’s saltwater pool. Dinner at the captain’s table topped a fabulous day.
It’s been a while! Difficult to connect to the Internet when we’re away from civilization so hence no blog posts for a little while.
It is now May 1 and we’re sailing from Vansittart Bay to the Hunter River where tomorrow we’ll be taking a helicopter ride over the Mitchell Falls. But to recap…
We arrived back in Australia (April 29) for a welcome from Border Force (having spent 2 hrs in Indonesia!) before taking in the sights of Wyndham, this tiny speck of a township at the tip of the Cambridge Gulf, established in 1886 with the Halls Creek gold rush. Once home to several thousand people, it now houses about 600, all of whom — save one — were indoors sheltering from the 38 deg heat. Although Marble Bar has the highest recorded temperatures in Australia, Wyndham holds the record as the country’s hottest place and we can vouch for that.
But today was not about Wyndham, it was about the Bungle Bungle Ranges. Wow! We took off from little Wyndham airport at 9 am in a Cessna for a two hour flight over the Argyle Dam, diamond mine, Ord River and the Bungles, which non-Indigenous Australians hadn’t discovered until the 1980s!
These beehive shaped sandstone domes were formed over 360 million years ago. Each of the bands is a few metres thick. The black bands are algae and the orange ones contain iron oxide. Our visit was near the end of the wet (only two seasons up here —wet and dry), so there was still a lot of greenery.
Equally amazing is the Argyle Dam, opened in 1972. The stats are mind-boggling: when filled to 92 metres above sea level, it contains 21 Sydney Harbours but that’s only 30% of its potential. At maximum capacity, it would hold the equivalent of 40 times the volume in Sydney Harbour, or 35 million mega litres! The dam wall is 98.5 metres high and is made from soil, sand, gravel and stones but no concrete to hold back all that water. Astounding!
These are some of the islands in the dam, indicating it’s not at full capacity.
After landing in Kununurra, a more modern and more populated town near the NT border and 100 kms from Wyndham, we lunched at the pub and then were bused back to the ship by Keith, a local legend, who by his own admission can talk under water. We learnt more than we ever wanted to know about the area from this former pharmacist turned bus driver.
Now for the great-grandfather story. This is about my paternal grandmother’s father, a Frenchman called Adhemar Jean Constant de Raeve, who after the death of two wives in Brisbane and divorcing a third in Sydney, made his way to WA in the 1920s, employed as an industrial chemist in Wyndham. And it was here that he died in September 1929 from cirrhosis of the liver and, according to the death certificate, is buried in “Wyndham Cemetery.”
Who was to know that there are no less than three cemeteries in this tiny town. I chose to explore the one closest to the ship (about a 1500 metre stroll) called Gully Cemetery, but no luck in finding Great-Grandpa. I did however meet the only local I’d seen on the Wyndham streets, a one-armed elderly lady whose right forearm was devoured by a crocodile some years back while she was walking across a small bridge over a creek! He mustn’t have liked her smile!
Keith, the loquacious bus driver, has kindly offered to check out the other cemeteries for me and email me a picture if he finds the de Raeve grave (they were a good 5 km away from our ship, so too far to walk). I suspect however that he lies in an unmarked grave like the many I saw in the Gully Cemetery.
Fabulous day which ended, like all the days on board, with fascinating lectures from our Expedition leaders. On to Koolama Bay tomorrow (April 30) and the King George Falls.
This is Pam relaxing on board the Silver Discoverer as we sail through the Timor Sea separating northern Australia and Indonesia. And sailing is pretty much all we have done since leaving Darwin on Thursday evening.
As a foreign-flag vessel, we cannot just sail around Australia, hence the long detour to our northern neighbour, in this case, the small island of Matakus. After sailing all day on Friday, we were greeted by Indonesian immigration officials after breakfast on Saturday and then offered the option of a short trip over to the island in a Zodiac.
Pam opted to stay on board (see above) while I chose to go swimming in the gloriously warm waters that lap a pure white unpolluted beach.
That’s our ship in the background. Here’s a zoom pic of it, which also shows the Zodiacs ferrying our group to the island:
Before the swim, the locals welcomed us with a dance, dressed in crazy hats. Not sure what that was all about but everyone was smiling and happy:
About two hours of swimming (for me) while most of the group opted for a 1km walk (in 35 deg heat — crazy!) to see the village, which everyone said was charming and extremely clean. And also Roman Catholic — accounting for 90% of the population apparently, which was a surprise.
Back on board for lunch and trivial pursuit and a snooze in our suite:
All while we set sail again — back to Australia. Left the island about midday Saturday and won’t arrive in Wyndham, WA, until 7 am tomorrow, Monday.
So guess what we did today? Ate, drank, napped, read and played trivial pursuit. Very relaxing. Actually, there was more than that: we have had numerous lectures each day from members of the expedition crew about everything from evolution to geology to history to sea grass. Riveting stuff. Honestly.
Sailing has been mostly fairly calm but a bit rough on Friday afternoon and evening before we arrived in Matakus. From tomorrow on, we’ll be in the Kimberley and hugging the coast as we explore this ancient and fascinating land.
More to share tomorrow night after our flight over the Bungle Bungles and our visit to Great-Grandpa de Raeve’s grave in Wyndham — all will be explained in the next blog!
We are underway on the Silver Discovereren route to the Indonesian island of Matakus. Finally.
We’ve been on the boat since midday, but sailing didn’t happen until 8.30 pm and we’re headed for a different destination to the one on our itinerary.
Not that this really matters because we’ve signed up for a Kimberley cruise, not an Indonesian one. Seems that foreign cruise lines like our Silversea aren’t permitted to cruise around one country only — they have to visit at least one other nation. Hence the detour to Matakus, which apparently is nicer than Saumlaki, the one on the itinerary.
Left Melbourne on Wednesday and were upgraded on Qantas so a pleasant 4+hr flight to Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory and popularly known as the nation’s Top End. A population of 150,000, it looks as if it was built yesterday — and to some extent it was, as the city had pretty much been totally destroyed by Cyclone Tracey in 1974.
An odd city. In many respects it resembles a Queensland beach resort except muggier. It is really hot here. Temperatures around 37 all day but humidity in the mid 90s makes it feel extremely uncomfortable.
After checking into the Hilton (excellent accommodation) we invested $70 for a 90 minute hop-on/hop-off bus tour of Darwin — well worthwhile and gave us a good overview of the city. Some amazing houses and apartment blocks and great views over the Arafura Sea, which one does not swim in unless you are keen to be a crocodile’s next meal.
Dinner was at an Italian restaurant, Il Piatto, at the SkyCity casino. Right on the water and perfect for cocktails while we watched the sun set.
Great seafood meal and excellent wine. So ended Wednesday.
Now for today, Thursday, Anzac Day, April 25. Missed the Dawn Service and the chance to hear Bill Shorten address the crowd but we did make it to the parade through the city.
Cheered on by the local crowd:
Then on to the Silversea ship. Quite a different feel to the previous two cruise ships we’ve been on as this one is part of the “expedition” fleet — smaller and more compact (and sadly the suites are not sound proof).
We’re on Deck 4 (of 7) and the room (sorry, suite — must use their terminology) is compact but very comfortable and the champagne on ice to welcome us was appreciated while I frustratingly watched the Essendon-Magpies game streamed from Melbourne (we – Essendon- lost by 4 points!)
Met a few of our fellow travelers over dinner (superb) — seems most are Australian with a smattering of Americans. We were introduced to all the guides who are going to teach us all about the Kimberley.
One is Brazilian, who announced he was from a town no one would know of called Ubatuba! We used to have a beach house there when we lived in São Paulo, so of course we talked to him afterwards to “matar saudades.”
