Tuesday 29th July A Jaw-dropping Journey, comes to an end!

It was a little sad this morning, saying farewell to the wonderful crew and many passengers who we had spent time with. There were 109 passengers on board the Coral Adventurer and over the 10 days and nights, we had spent time sharing meals or talking to nearly all of them. Surprisingly, it seemed that for once a greater number were from Adelaide, rather than Melbourne or Sydney. There were many from country areas in Australia, some from Perth and Hobart and about six or so women from New Zealand. We were taken from the ship to our hotel by a coach. We arrived there around 10:30am and left our luggage and then headed out to explore a little of Darwin. We decided to visit the Museum and Art Gallery of the NT. We had visited this museum 25 years ago and remembered that it had an excellent display about cyclone Tracy. This has been improved and upgraded especially since the 50^th year anniversary of the disaster. The museum was excellent and the cyclone Tracy upgraded exhibition was very good as were all the other displays. Currently there is also a fantastic exhibition on for the 2025 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Inlander Art Awards. There were many large and impressive pieces of art works on show and we enjoyed viewing them. From here we took an Uber to The Underground WW11 Oil Storage Tunnels. This was a very interesting place to visit and we learnt much about the tunnels and the Japanese attack on Darwin’s harbour and airfields. We watched a short video at the end of one of the tunnels which was very informative. Following this, we walked up to the Survivors Lookout which gave us excellent views over the Darwin Harbour and more information boards about the destruction caused by the Japanese during the second World War. We wandered back to our hotel and checked in. We then went out to a nearby pub and had a lovely dinner with our friends from Perth before saying farewell to them. Tomorrow we will head to the Darwin airport for the flight home after what has been a most memorable holiday.  

Monday 28th July Incredible Interludes

With breakfast at 6am., we were off in the Explorer boats just after 7am. We cruised down the majestic King George River as the sun was rising, providing us with the most spectacular views of the iconic Kimberley landscapes. The colours were extraordinary. Once we had reached our destination of the Twin Falls, we were offered the opportunity to transfer to zodiacs to take either a “dry” or “wet”, closer look at the falls. We had come prepared to do the “wet” run and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. To be under the falls with the water pouring over you and looking up, so close to the wall of the falls, was a magical experience. Our zodiac was also able to take us in really close to other spots to view interesting caves, fish in the water and even a magnificent small, narrow micro-climate in the cliffs that provided the right conditions for beautiful ferns to grow and flourish. This excursion was our final one for the trip and a magnificent way to end this wonderful trip. Returning to the ship, we attended a “Futures Presentation” promoting more itineraries offered by Coral Expeditions. Following lunch we enjoyed a fun Kimberley Quiz. We teamed up with our friends from WA and another Adelaide couple we met in Broome soon after landing. We didn’t do too badly but we think we had the most fun. One of our questions was about a fact about the size of a barnacle’s penis! We had remembered this fact that it was seven times the length of the barnacle…hmmm funny what sticks in your mind. J Later in the afternoon we had a wrap up of the trip with a photo slideshow showcasing some of the brilliant photos taken by the expedition team, throughout our journey. This was followed by Captain Georges’ Farewell drinks, and a fun time was had by all. We are currently heading to Darwin in almost perfect conditions with glassy seas.

Sunday 27th July Highlights and Hunting

This morning we awoke to another beautiful sunrise in Vansittart Bay. Our morning excursion on the Explorers took us to a nearby beach on the Anjo Peninsula. From here we walked about 1km to visit the historic C35 plane wreck. Our guide, Sandra explained that this plane crash-landed here in 1942 on its way to Broome. At the time, the town of Broome had been under attack from the Japanese and so had turned most of the lights off at night. The pilot of the aircraft missed Broome due to it being in darkness and with fuel running low, crashed landed at this remote site. There were six people on board, and all survived with very minor injuries and were later rescued. The pilot had been aiming for a nearby salt pan but the plane had skidded off and landed in the bush. We spent time investigating the wreck as well as listening to another guide, Greg explaining more about the boab tree and other native vegetation. In the afternoon we departed the ship once again on the Explorer to view the stunning Jandal art sites. This is one of the Kimberley’s most iconic sites. We landed on a rocky ledge to disembark and walked about 500 metres into the bush to view the art. We have seen rock art in several places but this was by far the most impressive. Indigenous ancient art by the Gwlon Gwlon and Wandijina groups were on show in these beautiful rocky galleries. After viewing these wonderful, indigenous art styles we walked back to the spot where we were to meet the Explorer boat to take us back to the ship. It had been nearly flat calm when we cruised over but the wind had really picked up and the young woman driving the Explorer found it quite difficult to find a safe spot to come into to collect us all. It was a bit tricky and required some rock scrambling to safely board the boat but with the help of the fantastic expedition team members and a few other able-bodied people we all made it safely back on board.

Saturday 26th July Grand, Great, Gushing Mitchell Falls

We were very excited this morning as we were booked to visit the Mitchell Falls. This was an optional tour and an add on. Our group was not departing until 11:00 am so we spent the morning soaking up the beautiful scenery from the deck at the stern of the ship. There were about 40 of us who taken the option of going to Mithcell Falls so the rest of the group were heading out in the Explorers on excursions. Once they had left, we watched some dolphins swimming together just off from the ship. I was busy watching the dolphins when a large crocodile suddenly appeared from the depths of the sea, only a couple of metres from the ship! It stayed up for about 30 seconds before making a dive. From then on, I was on crocodile watch and the croc obliged with a few more appearances. Soon it was time for our group to board the zodiac that was to take us to a nearby beach, where we were to be picked up by two helicopters. I was a little concerned that the crocodile might still be hanging around, but we felt quite safe climbing into the zodiacs from the landing at the back of the ship. We landed safely on the beach and then walked to our helicopter, boarded and took off heading to Mitchell Falls. The flight took about twenty minutes and we flew over incredible scenery. I’ll let the photos do the talking. Rob was sitting in the front seat next to the pilot and I was directly behind him. There is no “door or window” for the rear seats in this helicopter. Once you have your seatbelt on, you get to enjoy the views and fresh air!  Once we had landed and disembarked from the helicopters, we walked to the two lookouts to observe the magnificent Mitchell Falls and they did not disappoint. Due to extra rain in April and June they were still flowing at a good rate with a large volume of water coming over the falls. Following our walks Rob and I had a swim in the large water pool. This was very refreshing as it was quite warm. As we were away from the ship for lunch, we had been provided with a packed lunch. We enjoyed sitting in the shade and eating our lunch while waiting for our helicopter to come and take us on the return trip. Everyone swapped seats for the return journey and once again our pilot gave us a wonderful view of this incredible landscape. We landed back on the beach just in time for one of the Explorer boats to come and pick us up from the beach, to take us on an afternoon scenic cruise around the waterways of Wollaston Bay, passing Palm Island. We enjoyed watching for more wild-life and the visually impressive Kimberley coast. Returning to the ship, we had just enough time for a quick shower and then we hopped back on the Explorer again this time for beach drinks and canapes on Veranda Beach. The crew had set up seating, and a bar and it was a very special way to complete the day, watching the sunset over Wollaston Bay.