Background
I planned to go to Sydney in August to celebrate the birthday of Alan, my elder brother. By chance, I was able to add three side trips including a brief visit to Melaka, Malaysia on my way to Darwin, an expedition to the iconic Kimberley coast on Le Soleal (Darwin-Darwin), and a journey on The Ghan from Darwin to Adelaide.
July 18 – August 18 Australia
July 18-21 Darwin (to add)
July 22 – 31, 2025 Australia’s Iconic Kimberley onboard Le Soleal
Day 1 (22/7) Darwin Boarding at 4pm
We were assigned stateroom 325. As a Grand Amiral member, I am entitled to seek an upgrade depending on room availability. I did and was pleased to move to stateroom 528 which has a better configuration. All passengers were greeted by Captain Antoine Paquet and Giuseppe, Cruise Director. We had a mandatory life boat drill before dinner. We were tired and had a nice sleep.
Day 2 (23/7) Sea Day
I joined aquagym at 8:30am. The pool of Le Soleal is small and not user-friendly as compared with those in Silver Wind. I attended two lectures namely “Pearling in the Kimberley” and “Introduction to the Kimberley”. We had a welcome gala cocktail by the pool. Captain Paquet introduced his senior officers while we watched sunset. We were honoured to be invited to have dinner with the Captain tonight. After dinner, we went to the theatre to watch a show “Beatle Mania”.
Day 3 (24/7) Jar Island Vansittart Bay
Jar Island is home to the ancient Gwion Gwion-style rock art galleries unique to the Kimberley region. Estimated to be over 17,000 years old, these paintings some of which are highly ornamented human figures, are considered the oldest known detailed representations of human figures in Australia. Our group (Blue Group) was the first group to depart at 7:40 am. We spent over an hour appreciating these paintings at two different locations. Once we were back on the boat, we watched a documentary “Riddle of the bradshaws”which examines the mystery and intrigue of the Bradshaw rock art paintings in the Kimberley region. I found this documentary informative and thought-provocative. At 2pm, we had zodiac cruising for an hour and saw a few species of birds including a shrike, two oystercatchers and two ospreys. We were kept busy and attended a lecture “Welcome to Crocodile Country”. This evening, the entertainers paid tribute to ABBA at the main lounge inviting guests to sing and dance. I was too tired and stayed only for five minutes.
Day 4 (25/7) Hunter River
Prince Frederick Harbour and the Hunter River are lined with ancient rainforest pockets, pristine mangroves and mosaic cliffs. The mangrove forests contain up to 18 different species supporting a rich and diverse fauna including the iconic saltwater crocodile.
We got up early in order to watch scenic navigation of this iconic coastline at sunrise. We had two zodiac cruises today: a 2-hour zodiac cruise along the Hunter River in the morning and an afternoon cruise in the Porosus Creek. During the morning cruise, we saw more wildlife including a Jaburi, an osprey, crabs, and several crocodiles. In between the two cruises, I attended a lecture on ‘Ecology of Mangroves” which enhances our knowledge about the importance of mangroves in the ecosystem. The sunset in Kimberley is iconic and the cruise director arranged a show “Goldenswing” and Sunset on Deck 6.
Day 5 (26/7) Talbot Bay Horizontal Fall
We had a coastal scenic navigation at sunrise. Talbot Bay is known for its large tidal range especially the Horizontal Falls which are a result of the extreme tides. Today we had spring tides i.e. higher high tides and lower low tides, as the new moon occurred around July 20. We had two hours of zodiac cruise in the Talbot Bay where we learned more about the amazing geology of the region.
The highlight was to watch water flowing towards the sea through the narrow channel at the end of the Talbot Bay. In order to better appreciate the forces of the tides, we returned to the same spot after 4:30pm for half an hour to watch the reverse tidal flow i.e. totally calm water flowing inland. As many as 56 passengers took a 20-minute scenic flight on a seaplane to see the Horizontal Falls. Unfortunately owing to the smoke coming from burning some found the viewing affected by the smoke.
Day 6 (27/7) Collier Bay Montgomery Reef
Collier Bay which landscape have been shaped by massive tidal movements is renowned for an unique phenomena occurring nowhere else in the world. Montgomery Reef is the world’s largest inshore reef system covering an estimated area of some 400 sq km. We had a zodiac cruise to watch turbulent “rivers” and mini waterfalls and were treated with a cocktail on a sandy island that would be under water during high tide!
Once back on the boat, I watched a documentary “Master of Poe Rava” who is associated with the development of cultured Black Pearl of Tahiti. In the afternoon, I joined a short walk in Freshwater Cove to see local fora and fauna (I decided not to take a 3.7km – walk to see rock art in this location). At the Officers’ Dinner tonight, Kylie and I joined the table hosted by Guiseppe, the Cruise Director who has spent 14 years in cruise business. He is funny and knowledgeable and does a great job.
Day 7 (28/7) Lacepede Islands
The Lacepede Islands, a group of four low-lying islands (West Island, Middle Island, Sandy Island and East Island) lying 120 km from Broome, are Western Australia’s most important breeding habitat for Green Turtles and recognised as an Important Bird Area with possibly the world’s largest breeding colony of Brown Boobies. Up to 20,000 Roseate Terns have also been recorded here. Other birds breeding here include Masked Boobies, Australian Pelicans, Lesser Frigatebirds, Eastern Reef Egrets, Silver Gulls, Crested Bridled and Lesser Crested Terns, Common Noddies, Pied and Sooty Oystercatchers.
In the morning, I attended a workshop on “Bird Identification” and watched a documentary “Penguin Baywatch Antarctica”. We all set off in zodiac after lunch cruising over two hours around the West and Middle Islands and in the calm water of the lagoon. I had the best bird watching of this expedition.
Once onboard, I attended another lecture “Sea Turtles Dinosaurs Fighting for a Future”. Before dinner, we had caviar in the main lounge while watching sunset! After dinner, we all went to the theatre to enjoy a talent show with seven performances including two by guests! The best three performance was by two Filipino staff, and Laura and Arron from the Expedition Team.
Day 8 (29/7) Careening Bay
As usual, I started the day by watching a Kimberley sunrise. I attended an interesting talk by Zac on “50 Shades of Nature”. Kylie and I along with a few passengers had the rare chance to watch the Captain and his officers sailing through a very shallow and not fully chartered channel around midday. The shallowest part was just 6-7 meters. The name Careening Bay was a result of a historic event: Lieutenant Philip Parker King sailing his ship HMC Mermaid was careened here during his third voyage of discovery in 1820. King surveyed the western coast to complete the map initiated by Flinders 20 years earlier. The Mermaid had been leaking badly and the shallow sandy bay where he could careen the boat to undertake repairs. After ten days’s work, the boat crew refloated the vessel. Here they left a carving on a boab tree which is estimated to be about 500 years old.
The Le Jacques Cartier a sister ship of Le Soleal, was already anchored in the bay when we arrived. Their captain came over in a zodiac to greet our boat. In return, Captain Paquet went over to meet its crew. After lunch, our group went ashore to see the boab tree with carved wording of HMC Mermaid 1820, a bower nest, and other fauna. I saw a bower nest for the first time in Indonesia. After Le Jacques Cartier departed, another ship arrived. We finished the day with a sunset zodiac cruise for an hour. When I sailed close to the other boat, I discovered it was Heritage Adventurer that I had sailed from Bali to Vanuatu!
Tonight, we had a fun White Evening at 9:15 pm with music and dance and some guests stayed on dancing under the star till 11 pm. I was tired and returned to my room before 10 pm!
Day 9 (30/7) Swift Bay Bonaparte Archipelago
This archipelago is a stunningly rugged maze of islands stretching almost 150km along the remote Kimberley coast. Philip Parker King named “Swift’s bay” after Jonathon Swift (1667-1745) who wrote Gulliver’s travels. We had a wonderful zodiac cruise after breakfast when it was still nice and cool.
At noon, the blue group went ashore to view Wandjina and Gwion Gwion style rock art estimated to be about 4,000 years old. We could see wonderful and remarkable red/white figures, birds, crocodile, hands, turtles, etc in two galleries. Back on the boat, we had a lecture on rock art titled “the Oldest Science in the World: Place Based Knowledge”. Very appropriate! We then had a fun Runaway Fashion Show (showing the items of shorts, shirts, dress, bags, sunglasses etc on sale in the boutique), Captain’s Farewell followed by a Gala Dinner with 6 course!
Day 10 (31/7) King George River
Today’s highlight was a 3-hour zodiac cruise on the King George river which is 112km in length. We had an early breakfast and set off at 7:30am travelling some 12 km upriver from its mouth to see the Twin Falls, Western Australia’s highest twin waterfalls at an elevation of 85m above sea level. The river is of high cultural significance to the Balanggarra people who regard the falls as the male and female Wunkurr (Rainbow Serpents).
We had a good start and soon spotted a short-eared rock wallaby. We spent over 15 minutes watching its movements! It was the first rock wallaby I encountered during this expedition. We were amazed by the spectacular sandstone cliffs, the beautiful hanging garden, the lust mangroves, and watched ripples on the river surface hoping to see a dugong or a shark or a crocodile. We did not see any of them. But we saw plenty of garfish (needlefish) jumping out of the water.
We all had a busy afternoon getting ready for disembarkation the following morning. Still the expedition team was keen to ensure we learned something about the history of exploration. I attended the lecture on the “European Explorers” getting to know the exploration by the Dutch, James Cook (1728-1779), Nicolas Baudin (1754-1803), Matthew Flinders (1774-1814), and Philip Parker King (1791-1856). The expedition team invited passengers to take part in a photo competition. I submitted a few photos and was taken by surprise when my photo taken at sunrise won the landscape category. Kylie and I had a casual dinner at deck 6 before finishing our packing. All passengers were advised to leave their luggage outside their door that night.
The journey came to an end when Le Soleal reached the pier in Darwin before sunrise on August 1. All passengers had to vacate their room before 8 am. As Kylie and I were not in a rush, we were the last batch of passengers to disembark at 9am. END of EXPEDITION!