The red line denotes our Darwin-Broome route and just a few of the off-ship excursions we made on a flat-bottom tender and in Zodiac inflatable runabouts during our 10-day, 1,000 nautical-mile cruise along the Kimberley coast. Most days we made two or more excursions from the ship into salt water rivers and estuaries in the small boars, viewing beautiful gorges and waterfalls and photographing wildlife, including salt water crocodiles, or “salties” in the waterways. The blue line marks a one-day road trip we made from Broome to Derby, a quintessential outback town where the dirt Gibb River Road begins and runs to Kununurra and beyond.

The Oceanic Discoverer at sea during our Kimberley trip, taken from tender. Our stateroom was on the Promenade deck (middle deck with railing and blue line) second window from the bow. The ship (more like a large yacht) has 36 roomy staterooms, 2 bars and a dining room. The excursion tender, filled with passengers, is lifted along stern rails to the 3 decks for easy loading. The vessel has stabilizers for smooth sailing.

Exploring One of the World’s Last Pristine Wildernesses—Australia’s Kimberley Ranges

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             (Last updated May 29, 2008)

  The far northwestern corner of Australia is home to the 421,000-square-kilometer Kimberley Ranges, a rugged, sparsely-inhabited and gloriously beautiful outback that we had heard much about during our seven years in Melbourne but had been a bit wary of visiting because most people access it by driving for many tortuous days over the washboard-like Gibb River Road in a 4-wheel drive and sleep for many nights on the ground with the sand flies, dingoes, snakes and all sorts of critters with whom we’d just as soon not make our acquaintance. No thanks. I’ll take comfortable beds, air-conditioning, ensuite baths and a well-stocked bar, if you don’t mind. I’ve done it rough a few times in my misspent youth, believe it or not, and this time we were both looking for something a bit more comfortable.

Fortunately, we came across the “Oceanic Discover,” a 63-meter vessel that can only be described as something between a small cruise ship and a big yacht. Big cruise ships with their shuffleboards on the promenade deck, escalators that take you to bad restaurants, glitzy Las Vegas showgirls beyond their use-by date on stage, and a bunch of old crones clipping their dividend coupons and eating iceberg lettuce at the salad bar are not particularly our scene. However, this boat, which operates what essentially is an eco-cruise, or naturalist excursion, along the Kimberley coast from Darwin to Broome definitely is our scene and we were thrilled by what we got for the fairly hefty (for us) price of admission. What we got was 10 days of glorious exploration (May 9-19, 2008) of the Kimberley coastline, with twice daily excursions off of the “mother ship” in either a flat-bottom aluminum punt with two 225-horsepower engines or on a six-seat Zodiac inflatable runabout, both of which took the passengers into numerous saltwater rivers and estuaries along the coast to view the Kimberley’s unique geology, flora, wildlife and just plain rugged beauty of the kind that takes your breath away.  

     The first aborigines came to the Kimberley 40,000 to 60,000 years ago over a land bridge running through what is now the Indonesian archipelago, and during that time they left evidence of their culture that remains intact to this day simply because of the remoteness and inaccessibility of the region. The Kimberley is truly one of the world’s few remaining pristine wildernesses and it is hard for me to adequately describe the thrill of viewing ancient rock art galleries in the wild—far from the beaten tourist track—or stone fish traps constructed centuries ago; or the remnants of aboriginal initiation sites where boys were circumcised and taught to hunt and fish like men. Because we were accompanied by three guides who happened to be veteran naturalists with degrees in scientific disciplines such as marine biology, geology and ornithology, this trip was a continuous learning experience.  As we looked at 1.9 billion-year-old rock formations we learned of their violent origins from a geologist; as we crept up on sleeping saltwater crocodiles we heard from a marine biologist, and as we tracked sea eagles to their nests with our binoculars we listened to a bird expert.

We especially learned about the huge tidal range in the Kimberley—up to nearly 13 meters high—which is second only to the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, Canada. The tidal waters move for kilometers over mud flats during each change. Long ago aboriginals rode crude rafts on the enormous tides for hundreds of miles as they sought new hunting grounds up and down the coast. Today, we visitors to the Kimberley marvel at the tidal races of places like the famous “Horizontal Falls,” where water races through narrow openings in the saltwater river gorges, creating white water and dangerous whirlpools and forget that the great tide races were important to aborigines as a mode of transportation. We watched rock wallabies scamper up the steep face of the “amphitheater” canyons of the Berkeley River; we drove up remote, narrow tributaries lined on both sides by thick mangroves, looking for “salties,” or saltwater crocs, and mudskippers, red crabs and other critters. We went on night excursions on the small boat viewing crocodiles caught in our powerful searchlights, and we visited spectacular waterfalls in Prince Regent River and in King George River. At King George we rode the Zodiacs through the waterfall for a good cooling down.

While not exploring in the flat-bottom punt, we were given lectures and slide shows by the three naturalists, Jamie, Aleks and Mike,  after which we had drinks in the lounge and then sat down to delicious dinners.  It was then up at 6:00 a.m. again the next day and out on the small boats for another exploration. Little wonder we fell exhausted into bed at night (or at least those nights we weren’t in the bar with new friends shouting “more grog!”).

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, so I’m going to let my photos tell the story. Also, I have put up a separate page of photos we took during the two days we spent in Darwin before the boat sailed and the week we had on Broome at the end of the voyage.  These are interesting places. Darwin was wiped out twice—once when bombed in 1942 by Japan in WW II and again leveled during Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Eve of 1974—and Broome is a fascinating world centre for the pearling industry. Check out those pictures at THIS LINK and view them on the slideshow at that site by clicking on the slideshow button. Then to get back to this web page just click a couple of times on your browser’s back arrow.

Alma’s intense interest in geology led her to different photo selections during our trip. She is also a more deliberate photographer than I am, and she has a better digital camera. So I thought it only fair to put up a gallery of her pictures, which you can view in slideshow format at THIS LINK .

   And now to the Kimberley

Stepping ashore from the flat-bottom tender to view ancient aboriginal fishing traps designed to catch fish in stone-lined pools as tides recede.	The next step down during our coastal excursions was these Zodiac inflatable runabouts, which we used to explore gorges and waterfalls in shallow rivers. That’s Alma and me in front after we rode underneath a huge waterfall far up the King George River in a remote corner of the Kimberley region. (Photo by Jamie)
Salt-water crocs, or “salties” were abundant in estuaries along the coastline	Red rock gorges appeared along most of the saltwater rivers we explored
Rock strata revealed the timeline of the billions of years it took to create these spectacular gorges. One of our naturalist-guides was a geologist so we came away from this trip with a lot of knowledge about the rugged Kimberley.	The King George Falls up the King George River was just one of the stunning waterfalls we came across during out daily excursions of the Oceanic Discoverer
Cooling off  under a remote  waterfall in a Zodiac inflatable (Photo byJamie)	The view of the falls from the flat-bottom punt, the X-plorer
One of the many remote beaches we found but couldn’t use for swimming because of the danger of saltwater crocodiles and, in some cases, sharks	Exploring caves and viewing aboriginal art was a frequent pastime
Here’s one aboriginal art gallery we came across. Some of the rock art is thousands of years old (the oldest is an estimated 46,000 years old)	Passengers photographing one rock art gallery
Aborigines used ochre to paint their figures on walls of caves	“Contact art” depicts the early encounters between aborigines and whites
Primitive rock art galleries abounded in the vast Kimberley region	Dry desert climate has preserved rock art for thousands of years (Photo by Jamie)
An ancient aboriginal initiation site on Bigge Island, where boys became men	Every night, sunsets were spectacular, such as this one during a beach barbecue
Alma keeping cool on an excursion of the flat-bottom “Xplorer”	Bill taking it easy on the deck of the 63-meter “Oceanic Discoverer”
Alma and a new friend Vikki, a Melbourne veterinarian, at drinks on the deck	Excursion leader Jamie at Careening Bay, where explorer Phillip Parker King careened his vessel in 1820 to make repairs to the bottom. The crew carved the name, HMC Mermaid,  on this ancient boab tree
Some of the interesting rock formations we found whenever we went ashore	King Cascade Falls in Prince Regent River, where in 1987 an American girl who was crewing with a yacht that had been visiting at the America’s Cup in Freemantle was the victim of a saltwater crocodile. Needless to say we didn’t go swimming here, but we did explore the falls in one of our Zodiac runabouts.
Out little punt was able to navigate even the shallowest of creeks running off the many saltwater rivers which we explored during our daily excursions	Here’s a crocodile we stumbled across as we landed at a tiny cove in the Kimberley. Our guides didn’t notice it as we disembarked our flat-bottom punt, but this fellow seemed not to notice the intruders as he basked in the sun. (Photo by Alma)
Alma looking at mangrove trees as our naturalist guides discussed the flora Mangroves were everywhere as the vast tidal ranges flooded the mud flats	A hidden cave in the narrow tributary we explored off an estuary
We visited the spectacular Montgomery Reef, where water cascades off the edge as the tide recedes and allows us to explore the fascinating marine life there	One of the many critters we came across walking the offshore Montgomery reef
For some, using hiking poles on slippery rocks was a must       (Photo by Alma)	The ostensibly dead reef was teeming with tiny organic life, as well as with clams, crabs, fish, living coral and sponges and other marine species (Photo by Alma)
We were all fascinated by the little reef critters we discovered	Meanwhile, our yacht was always close by for creature comforts (Photo by Jamie)
Alma exploring a rocky outcrop on Rankin Island where ancient fish traps were used by the aborigines to catch their food as the tides receded	The famous “Horizontal Falls,” where a rush of tides with a range of  from one meter to nearly 14 meters  flow through narrow gaps in the gorge with incredible ferocity, creating treacherous whirlpools that occasionally drown people foolish enough to try to swim in them.                                              (Photo by Alma)
Bill takes off in Zodiac to run through the Horizontal Falls (Photo by Alma)	Bill took this photo before going through the Horizontal Falls in a Zodiac.
Alma hanging on for dear life as she rides the whitewater around the gap.	The dorky hats attest to the blazing hot sun of the Kimberley in winter.
The azure water of Beagle Bay, a remote Shangri-La we visited for a swim.	Alma waving her arms at Beagle Bay for some unknown reason.
At a barbecue one night on a deserted and very remote island   (Photo by Alma)	The backdrop to our picnic was a red sandstone cliff    (Photo by Alma )
“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!,” Bill seems to be saying as he visits the bridge of the Oceanic Discoverer. The ship had an “open bridge” policy in which passengers could visit the bridge anytime they wanted.	Alma in out roomy stateroom, with ensuite bath and great views of the ocean and the coastline as we cruised around the Kimberley.
One of the Oceanic Discoverer’s two bars that we visited now and then.	The flat-bottom tender getting ready to be lifted at the stern of the ship. The tender rests on the platform and is lifted to the three decks of the vessel.
Behind Bill is flat-bottom punt hoisted by elevator to the promenade level for fast loading of passengers going on off-ship excursion.     (Photo by Alma)	The “X-plorer” snaking through one-meter-deep waters and dense mangroves during a trip through estuaries and narrow tributaries     (photo by Alma)
Bill taking a breather during one of many nature walks with naturalist guides (Photo by Alma)	Our geologist guide explained how this unusual rock formation was formed by enormous ice-age pressures upward  by lower strata of stone. (Photo by Alma)
Is that Leonardo DiCaprio or just some lunatic posing for a silly photo op?	Alma hangs on during the only day we had anything amounting to a swell. There was nothing but dead calm seas during he rest of the 10-day cruise
Sadly, not all of the Kimberley is pristine. This open-face iron ore mine on Koolan Island illustrates the conflict between sustaining the environment and sustaining Australia’s mineral-based economy. It struck us as a shocking blight on the area. But more open-face mines are on the way in the Kimberley.	Elsewhere on the Iron Islands, the cliff faces that have not been mined glimmer with up to 95 per cent concentration of ferrous oxide, the highest iron density in Australia, which has found a lucrative market for iron ore in China. The question is: can this beauty stay unspoiled in the face of mineral exploitation?
I won’t end the photo gallery on such a depressing note as strip mining in the Kimberley, so here as two beautiful waterfalls photographed by Alma	Imagine on a hot day stumbling unexpectedly  across a waterfall like this.

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