Author: ericgomberg

After 40 hours of travel, we landed in Perth and embarked on the ship on the 25th of August for a 75-day cruise around Australia and across the Pacific.

I hope you enjoy what I have posted. While most of the photographs are mine, a few were supplied by the expedition team.

Massive tidal changes, migrating humpback whales, native birds, unique sandstone cliffs, mangrove forests, ancient Aboriginal rock art, “salties” (crocodiles), hot weather and rough seas dominate this portion of Australia. The rough seas made for some exciting rides on the inflatable boats (Zodiacs) and even prevented a few excursions to local islands.

The Abrolhos Islands – Pearls, Crayfish

Our first destination was a small island called Post Office island, which is home to the Liddon Family. They have been on Post Office Island for four generations and run a number of operations including pearl farming and crayfishing. There are just five family members plus a number of staff who live in temporary housing on the island.

They hosted a nice lunch of locally caught fish and explained the difficult business of pearl farming where it takes up to 6 years to grow a proper pearl.

The next destination was Beacon island, which is completely covered in washed-up dead coral. The island is known for the nearby wreck of the Dutch ship Batavia in 1629 and the horror that goes with it. As the story goes, the ship broke apart after hitting a reef and most of the passengers and crew initially survived on this island.

However, after the captain left with some of the crew to try to seek help, the second-in-command committed a murderous mutiny by stealing all the riches aboard and killing over 120 of the survivors, in order to “preserve resources” until they could be rescued. The captain and his crew eventually returned with a rescue ship and immediately executed the leader and his accomplices. A small memorial stands on the abandoned island.

Whales, whales and more whales !

This time of the year is when over 30,000 humpbacks migrate from their wintering in Antarctica to the warmer waters off the coast to breed, teach their young and just chill. We saw whales doing their acrobatics from Day 3 all the way through Day 10 of the voyage. Here are a few of the photos from our whale-watching.

Cape Peron, Shark Bay – Beautiful bay and nice hike

This island and the surrounding waters are truly beautiful. We hiked from where our zodiacs landed to the edge of the cliff you see in the distance, which is known as Skipjack Point. The entire island is covered in the soft red sand. Sharks, rays and turtles swim within 50 feet of the beach and are visible from the island.

Montobello Islands – Radioactive

We were supposed to spend a day at North Murion Island where there apparently is some really nice snorkeling but the wind and the swells dissuaded us from going out in the morning and then the expedition leader decided to head north a day early to these islands, which are primarily known for their bird life and for the fact that they were the home for British nuclear tests in the 1950s.

The Australian Government advises visitors to not spend more than one hour on the island and not dig up any sand so our hikes were short.

Given that the prevailing winds blow towards Perth, it seemed to us like an odd location to choose for a nuclear test, but what do we know.

Mangroves are a key characteristic of the waters here and most of our tours did include them. Mangrove forests are essential for the life of the rivers and lagoons here. Note in the below photo both how high the tides get (this is low tide) and how the upper leaves are white from the salt they absorb from the water.

Lacepede and Adele Islands – A lot of birds and the start of crocodile country

Not to give these islands a bad reputation, but there is not much unique about them given the rest of the islands. I will however share some photos taken in the waters in and around the islands. Remember, this is Australia.

Talbot Bay – Pure beauty, huge tides

We entered this bay around sunset and were treated to a slow cruise to our anchor point. The scenery was simply stunning and the sunset was beautiful.

This area is when we really began to see the effects of the major tidal swings, which can raise or lower water levels over 35 feet in a matter of a few hours. There is a famous spot here called Horizontal Falls where the rushing water tries to enter or leave through a small opening creating this tremendous horizontal rush of water.

This is a sacred site for the local Aborigines so we were not allowed to go through the passage. A company uses high-powered boats to take about 20-30 people through the falls currently, but once that contract expires in 2 years, there will be no boats allowed at all. The lower black area on the rocks gives a sense of the height of the tides, as it shows only about half of the changing water level.

Freshwater Cove – Aboriginal rock Art

Freshwater Cove is the home to several islands that house ancient Aboriginal Rock Art. Estimates of the age vary significantly since the art cannot be easily dated but most seem to agree it is in the tens of thousands of years old. The art was made using ochre, which exists naturally on the islands. Additional sites were visited a couple of days later in Swift Bay.

The history of how the native Aborigines were treated by the Government is not a good one as they were forcibly moved a number of times, did not get to vote for a long time, as well as other indignities. A recent referendum that was to give them more rights in Australia failed by a 60-40% margin. The similarities to other countries such as the United States and the American Indians cannot be ignored.

Montgomery Reef – Amazing tidal phenomenon

It is nearly impossible to describe what happens here four times a day. This reef is nearly 300 square kilometers in size and undergoes an amazing tidal change. The land on either side of the channel is submerged under probably 10-15 feet of water at high tide and then the outgoing tide creates a massive phenomenon of whitewater rapids and cascading waterfalls and the huge reef appears as it rises out of the ocean.

We were in the middle of this in our Zodiac being tossed around in the conflicting currents as the tide rushed out watching the water rush down over the land and into the channel gradually exposing the reef and watching the birds land to catch what became exposed. At sunset, we all gathered on the water and were served champagne by the officers of the ship. This place was one of the highlights for sure.

The following day we we visited a place near Indonesian waters called Ashmore Reef where we did a snorkel. Very beautiful coral but not a lot of fish.

Hunter River/Koolama Bay – Massive sandstone cliffs

This area is the heart of the Kimberley region, known for its towering sandstone cliffs. The cliffs are a geologist’s dream with the different formations and the layers of rock formed over millions of years. Earlier in the trip we had witnessed layers of rock that had been pressed down into different angles and curves from the pressure of two tectonic plates that come together here.

Koolama Bay houses King George Falls at the end of a narrow channel with sandstone cliffs over 250 feet high on either side. These are twin falls and they are active only during the wet season but the scenery is still spectacular. The first photo shows the black area where one of the falls would be. The second photo shows how large hunks of fallen sandstone are found everywhere in all different shapes and sizes.

The final day of this itinerary was spent doing a cruise of the Ord River in an area that was created by a major dam project. We were told that the river contains the largest concentration of fresh water crocodiles in the country. Apparently you can swim in an area with fresh water crocs as they won’t bother you but we had no intention of testing that theory.

Photos of Birds (of course)

I end this post with a random selection of a few bird photos.

Please ignore the section below. Can’t seem to get rid of it.