A Kimberley coast crawl

JohnM

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Tomorrow it’s on the bird PER-BME to board a 12-pax/5-crew 67ft catamaran for a two-week voyage along the Kimberley coast to Wyndham, where we disembark for a land transfer to Kununurra to fly KNX-xBME-PER.

Here’s the itinerary:

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The voyage is timed to coincide with the end of the wet season and with that the opportunity to see the many waterfalls flowing. For that, there is generally a fairly narrow window with the Kimberley voyaging season opening in mid to late March after the wet and cyclone season is normally finished (errr… the weather forecast indicates that I may be speaking too soon on that 😟), to May by which time the dry season has set in and waterfalls are much diminished.

We are on the second voyage of the season for this vessel; the first was Wyndham-Broome 28 March-10 April. We were scheduled to overnight in Broome on Saturday and depart Sunday afternoon, but on Tuesday the operators contacted all pax to see how they were placed to leave Saturday afternoon. Fortunately, all were available, so we’ll be straight off the bird and onto the boat for an extra night and get clear of open water off Dampier Peninsula.

Going on a small vessel gives enormous flexibility to get well up rivers to reach less-accessible sites and do such things as directly nosing under waterfalls, while few pax means much more flexibility for sightseeing activities, without the impost on time of shuffling larger numbers of people about. Importantly, both aspects allow much more scope for more immersive activities such as fishing, mud-crabbing and oyster-gathering that are impractical for larger-complement vessels.

I did something similar back in 2012 (Awesome Kimberley coast cruise) and PJM and I did a Coral Expeditions voyage (120 pax vessel) Darwin-Broome, including extending offshore to Ashmore Reef and Rowley Shoals, during the dry season in 2023 (A Kimberley coast and offshore reefs kaleidoscope).

This trip will allow PJM to see the wet season contrast, as well as take in the small-boat experience. As a kid, her family had a launch that they used for summer holidays at their Rottnest Island mooring, so it should bring back good memories.

In my view, the Kimberley coast needs to be travelled in both seasons to really appreciate it and doing it in different size vessels makes the total life-experience greater than the sum of the two parts.
 
Would love to hear how this goes, and see some photos! My Kimberley cruise was in July. The wearher was great…but I would have loved to do it earlier in the season with more water flowing.
 
Would love to hear how this goes, and see some photos! My Kimberley cruise was in July. The wearher was great…but I would have loved to do it earlier in the season with more water flowing.

As I said, it needs to be done just after the wet season ends and in the dry season to fully appreciate it. I will follow up with plenty of photos, but generally I complete my TRs upon return. If they have Starlink on the boat, it may be possible to post a few pics en route, otherwise we'll be incommunicado for the duration.
 
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Sounds like you might be going to do a similiar weather trick to my Abrolhos cruise. Cyclone may be forming off the north Kimberley Cosast in the next couple of days then head down the coast. Hope it is even a bigger fizzer than Albert was for us.

 
So looks like clothing optional for the blokes and PJM bringing the average age down ;)

Look forward to hearing you regale stories upon your return
 
So looks like clothing optional for the blokes and PJM bringing the average age down ;)

Look forward to hearing you regale stories upon your return


😎😎

Still pretty warm up here and a bit of monsoon cloud this afternoon.

Just finished several burns through Horizontal Falls. Now heading to overnight near Montgomery Reef to hit that in the morning.

Chef is sensational. Aus/French and has worked in Michelin starred and hatted restaurants in Europe and Melbourne.

Off to a flying start. 🥳
 
We arrived back in PER on Saturday afternoon. Now resuming transmission and back-tracking a little.

Lobbing into BME, coming in over Cable Beach.

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Picked up after we hit the deck and whisked off to Gantheaume Beach at the S end of Cable Beach near Gantheaume Point (where there are dinosaur footprints) to board the boat.

Originally, we were having a night in Broome before boarding the boat the next day, but the approach of Tropical Cyclone Errol had the company calling all pax to see if departure a day early was possible, which it was. Cancelled rental car and dinner booking at no cost but had to forfeit the night’s accommodation. Small price to pay – and an extra night on the boat!

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By this time, it was getting towards 1700h, so the usual sunset watching/drinking crowd was gathering in large numbers.

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Our dinghy taxi to the boat in the background. PJM, still in her air traveling dress, negotiating the killer surf.

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Let’s boogie!

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You've seen the home for the next two weeks, so moving right along.

And we are soon hauling out of Broome, with the first of many drinks in hand.

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Going past Cable Beach proper as the sun sets. PJM now in boat, not aeroplane, attire. Followed by the full moon rising.

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Righto, I’ll now throw in the map of the whole voyage at this point to show what’s ahead. The plot (blue line) shows the track of the boat. I didn’t have my tablet recording on the first night, so I have interpolated the long overnight track to get from Broome into the Kimberley proper with a dotted line.

Broome, while being a main jumping-off point to the Kimberley is actually not in the Kimberley; rather it is in the norther Pilbara.

A bit further north my tablet briefly became disconnected, and I missed a sector that again I have interpolated with a dotted line.

The red lines are previous land and ocean journeys, notably our Coral Expeditions voyage Darwin-Broome via Ashmore Reef, Rowley Shoals and The Lacipedes in 2023 which, on the coast, took in the classic Kimberly highlights of King George Falls, Horizontal Falls and Montgomery Reef – in the dry season (A Kimberley coast and offshore reefs kaleidoscope)

The track is only of the main vessel. What should be evident is that how going in a smaller vessel enables access by the main vessel well up estuaries and rivers that is simply not possible on ‘cruise ships’.

On top of that, the tender dinghies took us a lot further into the nether regions to swimming holes, out fishing along mangrove flats, oyster gathering on the rocks, mud-crabbing in narrow tributaries into the mangroves and on sightseeing journeys to such places as difficult to access rock art sites that vessels with large numbers of pax just can’t do.

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OK, let’s roll into the day-by-day details.
 

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