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I Test Out Expedition Cruising The Kimberley Australia
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Oct 8, 2024
I spent 10 days on an adventure which I thought going in would be unusual to the Kimberley in Australia on Seabourn Pursuit expedition cruise ship. It turned out to have many more twists and turns and falls as you will discover. So, join me as I take you to one of the most remote places in the world on a truly incredible experience and trip and share the highs and the lows. For bonus & exclusive content (including videos, articles, eBooks and more) become a channel member or patron: --------------------------------------------------- * Patreon Patron: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers * YouTube Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join Check out my cruise-themed T-shirts and products: --------------------------------------------------- * T-Shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore * Mugs, notebooks, hoodies etc: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/tipsfortravellers?ref_id=22354 My social media: --------------------------------------------------- * Blog: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com * Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge * Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers * Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/garybembridge * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bembridge
View Video Transcript
0:00
10 days ago I embarked on Seaburne Pursuit which is moored out in the bay behind me
0:05
On an adventure which I thought would be kind of unexpected and unusual to the Kimberley in Australia
0:11
It turned out to have many more twists and turns and falls as you will discover
0:17
So join me as I take you to one of the most remote places in the world on a truly incredible experience and trip
0:26
I'm here in Darwin. Behind me is the city of Darwin. So I have just literally boarded Seaborn Pursuit
0:32
People are still boarding very easy because it's like a 200-something passenger ship
0:38
I'm going to go and explore my cabin and then we will start exploring the Kimberley
0:44
Well, it's a good morning from King George River, which is the first stop here on Kimberley
0:49
So what's so interesting about the river is no one really realized there was a river there. So many people would call into the bay and the interest of the river is quite hidden
0:56
So no one ever kind of went in there until 19. 11 and it's about 10 nautical miles it's about 7.5 kind of land miles in and at the end is the
1:06
tallest twin waterfalls in Australia. So we headed in as we hit into the mouth it was really
1:11
interesting because we saw the first of the saltwater crocodiles, this massive sort of five
1:15
six meter male crocodile which was just incredible to see. We then zoomed our way through
1:21
It was two and half hours altogether and the beautiful red sandstone cliffs got high and higher
1:28
from about 25 metres up to about 80 meters by the time we got to the actual waterfalls
1:32
Waterfalls were pretty spectacular. Being the dry season, they weren't like gushing. The Zodiacs we went kind of close up to them, got a bit sprayed
1:40
Then there was a little surprise because around one of the corners, so they had one of the Zodiacs which had Prosecco and ginger ale and drinks and stuff
1:46
We did get to see some other wildlife. We did see some stingrays, some leopard stingrays. We saw this like little reptile, which has apparently really vicious claws just by the waterfall
1:54
We were told like, make sure it doesn't jump on you because it will basically rip you to shreds. We saw some turtles, but it was a really incredible experience
2:01
We're here at a place called JAR Island. So this is now the third day
2:05
Probably behind me there you can probably just see the Zodiacs heading out for the first of today's excursions
2:11
So I'm on Jarl Island. Now Jarl Island is just in part of a bay which is called Vancetat Bay
2:19
The reason that we've come to Jarl Island is really it's very much around the rock paintings
2:24
So the Aboriginal population used song as stories and, obviously, rock art to keep the history live and tell the whole story of culture
2:38
There are actually two key types of art. So the reason we come to John Island is there's what's known as the Guion, Guion Art, which dates back at least 25,000 years, probably even longer
2:48
And behind that there's a kind of a belief that they were created by a mythical bird
2:53
And the mythical bird was, like, would pack away at the sandstone until its beak bled
3:01
Then with the blood, with its feathers, it would paint these characters. Now, the characters almost look like aliens
3:06
So there was also belief, you know, where they're painted by aliens, because actually there's a second type of art, which is called Wulanger art, which is much more recent
3:14
But recent being like 6,000 years old, which is very different. And we'll see there another place, which is much more reminiscent of artwork
3:21
You see today with the dots, etc. I'll explain more once we look at that artwork
3:25
They're also known as the Bradshaw art for a period of time
3:29
because in the late 1890s, a man called Bradshaw kind of really came across these
3:34
and started to document them and the whole storytelling of them. And over time it's realized that these are reflecting still kind of traditional dress
3:41
that people wear today. Now, one of the interesting things when you come on land from the zodiacs
3:46
because this was a wet landing. So we had to wear shoes that we didn't mind getting wet
3:50
but you have to get off the zodiac pretty promptly and stay at least five meters away from the edge of the water because of the risk of saltwater crocodiles
4:01
So today is Friday and it's now actually 2 o'clock in the afternoon
4:06
It's a beautiful sunny day, not crazy hot, it's about 26 degrees Celsius or so
4:12
And we are in a very remote part of the world which is called Ashmoor Reef which you may or may not be able to see there behind me So there two key excursions you could do here one of which was a Zodiac tour which would take you to go around the sort of the reefs and the sort of island and take a look at the bird
4:31
life. It's quite active from a bird perspective here. Or the other alternative, which is the one
4:37
that I did, was to go out snorkeling. So the snorkeling was absolutely phenomenal, a beautiful
4:43
reefs, very healthy looking reefs, loads of big fish. little fish multicoled fish really was quite remarkable. Behind me you will hear the sound of a helicopter
4:51
We're actually at Hunter River and I will shortly be taking you on a helicopter ride as we head
4:58
up onto Mitchell Plain and the Mitchell Falls. I want to talk a little bit about falls
5:04
You know one of the things that when I'm traveling by myself it's kind of difficult and challenging
5:10
to get shots of me doing stuff so that's why I have that 360 camera where I get those shots
5:15
But one of the expedition team yesterday offered to film me getting onto the Zodiacs
5:19
Now I've been on Zodiacs gazillions of times, Galapagos, Antarctica, Arctic and so on
5:24
But of course the very one time that someone films me doing it, this is what happened
5:32
Here I am at Mitchell Falls. So we got off the ship headed by Zodiac across to a naturalist island
5:41
I was getting, no, I was get confused to nature as to naturalist. Naturalist is the right one
5:45
As we arrived, three of the helicopters are arriving, bringing people back, and we were then allocated on helicopters
5:52
There was four people in a helicopter. We then flew here. It was about a 20 minute or so flight incredibly scenic up the Hunter River, then over sort of land, just stretching land for ages, until we got to the Mitchell Falls, which just down there
6:09
So the helicopters land, and we then hiked to the forest. Now, it's a little bit rocky terrain
6:13
and in my usual bumbling self, I kind of slipped and grazed my legs a bit
6:19
Partly my fault because I'm always holding kind of cameras and stuff, so that's a little lesson for me there
6:24
The falls themselves are magnificent, of course, being towards the end of the, you know, sort of midway through the dry season now
6:30
so there's not a huge amount of water cascading of it, but still very beautiful falls
6:34
Now, the helicopter itself was really expensive. The excursion was $795 US
6:40
So I'm now hiking back, and I'm going to head around to over the day
6:43
there which is the top of the falls and hopefully I have time to do that before I have to go back and meet with the helicopter
6:48
We've got about an hour here. Now just behind me you're about to see the malloc plane taking off so it's very kind of noisy
7:09
you can see it's coming behind me and taking off. So I just went on one of the excursions on one of those mallards
7:23
So the mallards were, there were 59 of them built and they were built between the mid-1940s
7:28
up to 1951. They obviously are, as you've just seen, their boat planes so they can land on water
7:36
They can also land on land. They have wheels that come down. So actually the pulp has the Pell Company, which operates here
7:43
out of Kiribay and other purling sites. They operate those to carry I guess the pearls but also
7:50
to take their workers to and from Darwin so it takes about 2045 minutes in those not sure I'd want
7:55
to go for 2045 minutes so we caught a zodiac out to the boat plane clambered on so you have to
8:02
be little bit agile to get in obviously they've been updated and modified since the 1940s
8:07
but does wreak of aviation fuel quite noisy see it away kind of ear phones things so we took
8:13
like that one just did, did a circuit around this area. It's absolutely stunningly
8:19
beautiful. I mean the most incredible colors, reefs, it was just magnificent. We could also
8:23
see from the air the strings and the lines that they sort of grow and build the
8:28
pearls on. So that was quite amazing to see. So the whole experience was just fantastic. It was pretty costly, $410 but it was just an incredible experience. So
8:37
this afternoon I then going to be heading off on the walking tour to discover a little bit more about the bay and also how the whole purling thing works I be able to explain that a little bit better So I did it hit across and came on the walk and it was much more interesting than I thought it would be in realities
8:51
But it was very interesting discovering just how important the pearl industry has been
8:56
Originally way back in the 1800s it was collecting the mother of pearls
9:00
They were interested in the actual inside of the shell. Then when plastic came along and mother of pearl sort of went out of fashion, the company sort of flipped and they worked with a Japanese
9:08
company to create cultured pearls because the same thing that creates the mother of
9:13
pearl you can create a pearl so what used to happen is if a bit of sand or
9:17
something got on that the shells couldn't get rid of and the muscles couldn't get rid
9:22
of it would basically coat it and create a pearl so what they now do is they
9:26
send divers out and they collect all these shells off the seabed then they
9:34
pries them open they put a little bit of irritant in I get
9:38
and then the shells create the pearls. So it takes two years to do that
9:43
So what they do is they put them in these sort of like cage things
9:48
They kept it like two to three meters below the water. After two years they'd been brought out, opened up a little bit
9:54
and of course only then to discover if they've got high quality pearls or not
9:59
Mother of Pearl apparently is back in fashion so they can sell those. They also sell the mussels
10:03
It was actually kind of interesting. There was some very beautiful views. It was very hot because I was
10:08
here at one o'clock so it is a very hot kind of tool now time to head back to the ship
10:14
So I'm actually in a place called Talbot Bay but more on that later because I actually
10:19
want to dial back and talk about yesterday because yesterday we went to two different sites
10:24
and in the morning we went to one of the most famous and significant natural phenomena
10:31
in the Kimberleet, the other one the second we're actually doing today so more on that later
10:36
So Montgomery Reef was originally named back. in 1818. Now what's really significant about this is originally back millennia ago. It was basically
10:44
mountains and it covers an area of 400 square kilometers, about 269 square miles. So these were
10:52
mountains originally over the millennia the sea levels rose to eventually it covers these mountains
10:58
What happened is coral started to kind of cover the mountains as coral and kind of bacteria
11:03
covered it. And so what happens is it has a massive tidal flow up to 10
11:08
meters and so as the tide goes out the top of these mountains gets exposed and the lake
11:16
forms at the top and then all these waterfalls cascade down and we just saw these fabulous
11:20
waterfalls up to three four meters high so it's great for the birds the birds basically
11:24
just plunk themselves the top of these waterfalls because it's very easy to catch fish loads of
11:28
turtles we saw about 12 turtles swimming around they didn't get any pictures of them because they just
11:32
pop up and disappear so that was a bit frustrating not getting any pictures of them but it is an
11:36
incredible experience. Really interesting things, so for example, the coral, because it gets exposed when the tide
11:41
goes out, it's created its own sort of SPF, its own sun protection, which is apparently
11:46
very high SPF, to protect it from the heat and the sun
11:50
And so this like foamy stuff appears, which is kind of it being washed off
11:54
So that was an incredible experience. In the afternoon, we headed off to Fresh Water Cove
12:01
The reason we went to visit Freshwater Cove is because it had the second type of
12:06
rock paintings that I spoke about before. So this is the one Jira artwork. So we had the
12:12
Giongian at the other place. We had to go on a 30-minute, quite challenging climb across rocks and
12:19
stuff to what was known as a family cave. And they appear to have sort of separate caves for men
12:26
and women at various times. So in here we had representations of the art and Neil, who was a local
12:32
Aboriginal, explained the artwork. But we were told very specifically that, We couldn't video, we couldn't take pictures or we could eventually then we were told we could take pictures of the paintings but we were not allowed to post them on any sort of social media
12:44
So here we are in Talbot Bay and just round about over there
12:49
Probably you won be able to see it is the entrance to what known as horizontal falls this is one of the key reasons that people will book a Kimberly cruise because it is such a hyped well attraction however It did actually disappoint many people including people on my zodiac who pretty much complained about it although I don think it was an amazing experience What exactly is the horizontal falls Well first of all it not a fall at falls at all
13:13
which is probably where part of the problem is. So basically it's, what happens is there's
13:17
massive tides, as you know, through the Kimberley, and here they can be up to 10 meters high
13:23
And so what happens is this sort of little inlet area, and there's a very narrow gap between
13:28
sort of the more open ocean and the sort of catchment area. So what happens is water gets
13:34
forced through this narrow channel into an area behind that sort of a lagoon, I guess, if that's
13:41
the right word for it, but it can't really go anywhere. So it kind of builds up and then as the
13:45
tide goes out, it takes a while for the water to get through. So it creates effectively the
13:49
sort of angle, which can be up to four meters high as the water kind of comes out as the tide
13:54
goes out but it does create lots of ripples and whirlpools and stuff so it's not really a falls
14:01
as such and you don't really see a massive difference in the actual water level depending on what time
14:07
you go so we did i did see a bit the water is a little bit higher the other side but people were
14:11
kind of disappointed they felt it should be more dramatic and we should come at different times
14:14
or whatever so but i think it's probably a little case of the marketing is greater than the
14:18
reality but it was pretty incredible experience now up until 2022 pretty much every
14:24
could go through the falls if they wanted to but there was a terrible accident in may 22 a
14:29
little pleasure craft carrying 28 people went through and with the really strong currents it got it hit
14:37
the wall and it was they had to eventually deploy six flying doctors planes here they eventually had
14:43
evacuate 18 people many to Perth with broken bones head injuries and so on so pretty much only one
14:50
group is allowed to go through the falls now and it's you won't be able to see it
14:54
there's a little sort of what they call it a hotel but there's a company that will go through a speedboat but in 2026 from then onwards no one's going to be allowed to go
15:01
through the falls at all so if you ever wanted to go through the falls that's your only
15:06
option up until 2026 so it was probably for many people underwhelming now there is another
15:11
place that we're going to be going to this afternoon and zedics are getting ready
15:15
which is called cyclone creek which is also where during cyclones there
15:20
They move many of the barges and the pearl, you know, boats and stuff that I heard about in there
15:25
I'm just back from Cyclone Creek and although it's not as dramatic going into it as it is with the horizontal falls
15:34
there's still a relatively small gap. So as we went through, there was a bit of sort of like rapid kind of stuff heading in
15:42
The reason we go and visit it on this trip is, first of all, it's convenient. But also, it is very dramatic geology
15:50
So what looks like slats of the sandstone is actually sandstone that built up originally in layers
15:58
But as the continental drift has happened, it's been pushed up. So now it kind of looks like these slats
16:05
And then there's also some which are physically kind of a bent. So that's really interesting
16:10
And we also got a chance to go into the mangroves, certainly because the tide was rising
16:14
so we're able to get into the mangroves. It was pretty interesting, particularly if you're interested in geology
16:20
Was it the highlight? I'm not sure if it was a highlight but it was pretty interesting
16:25
So here we are in a place called Nears Point which is the last stop on our particular trip
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So we moored out there in the base. This area is we come here because of the incredible geology and these kind of twisted rocks
16:38
a little bit like we saw in the last few places but also this is kind of sobering because
16:43
you also saw where the landscape had pretty much been devastated through iron ore mining
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so you just realize how humans can kind of ruin spaces. We've come to a little picnic on the beach here
16:54
and not picnic, little drinks stop at the beach here, and then we all be heading to Broome later this afternoon and the end of the trip
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