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Kimberley Day 1 – Lacépède Islands

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Tuesday 13 August 2024 – Today was to be the first expedition from the ship, to cruise on Zodiacs around the Lacépède Islands. There were three activities in preparation for this, one of which was mandatory, and so all the passengers had to sign in to make sure that everyone had attended. The expedition leader, Dain, first introduced the rest of the expedition team, a very diverse set of people and relevant skills, but all with clear enthusiasm for the job of making sure we punters got the best out of the time spent off the boat.

The next bit was the mandatory bit, which was a lesson on how to get on and off the Zodiacs safely. This was familiar territory for us, since the procedures were pretty much exactly what we’d learned and observed when we were in Antarctica. That had been a well-organised setup and it was reassuring to note that APT, who were running this cruise, took it every bit as seriously.

The final part was information about the destination for today’s expedition – the Lacépède Islands. The name was conferred in 1801 by the French explorer Nicolas Baudin during his expedition around Australia, in honour of French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède, who described several Australian fish species. He dubbed the three islands Napoleon, Grant and Victoria. Then (we were told) the Brits came along, and renamed them West, Middle and East. Whatever, the islands have been identified by Birdlife International as an Important Bird Area, and are now an A-class reserve managed by Western Australia’s Department of Environment and Conservation. Rats (introduced accidentally during the guano mining carried out on the Lacépèdes as well as numerous other islands off the western Australian coast during the 19th century) were eradicated in 1986, allowing the recolonisation of the islands by nesting seabirds, prime among which are Brown Boobies; the islands are home to 18,000 nesting pairs. They are also Western Australia’s most important breeding habitat for green sea turtles.

No confusion about what wildlife we might expect to see, then.

It wasn’t a long journey to get there, so the skipper took it nice and gently, even temporarily altering course in order to get a slightly closer look at some humpback whales which were cavorting not too far away.

We could even see the occasional breaching by humpbacks in the distance, and some tail-slapping, too. One of the naturalists also spotted a sea snake swimming by.

The Lacépède Islands are noted for the variety of bird life there, and so we had a lecture from one of the guides to help us identify the birds that we might be able to catch sight of on our Zodiac cruise. Then, after a swift bite of lunch, it was time to man the Zodiacs. Since there weren’t enough to accommodate all the punters at once, we had been split into four groups, denoted by different colours, in order to get everyone out on the water in an orderly fashion.

Jane and I are in yellow group, who went first; and Jane and I happened to be in the first Zodiac out.

It was not difficult to see the Brown Boobies. They are curious birds, and it wasn’t long before they spotted us and a delegation came out to welcome us and check us out.

They are adept fliers (their name comes from the Spanish “bobo”, meaning a clown or a clumsy person, because they’re not elegant at all on land) and so presented a few challenges to capture photos of them as they whizzed around us.  But the trusty Nikon was up to the job, I’m glad to say, despite the difficulties I faced of accurately aiming a heavy lens at a distant moving object whilst seated on a boat which is rocking unpredictably.

They are slightly odd-looking birds at the best of times; then they stare at you directly, at which point

you see their very scary dementor faces.

There were quite a few crowded colonies of the birds visible as we cruised past, but they tended to be on rocks, which meant it was difficult to pick them out against the background,

but occasionally we could get a decent angle to show them as they rested and nested.

Our ship, Le Laperouse, in the background

We even caught sight of a couple of chicks.

No problem to see Brown Boobies, then.  It was also quite easy to spot this salt-water crocodile,

which was something in the order of three metres long. Xander, our guide and Zodiac driver, was assiduous in making sure we were seated as we passed by; crocodiles can move very quickly indeed, and this one might have made for the Zodiac with the intention of causing trouble.  If Xander had then suddenly and swiftly accelerated swiftly away in response, anyone standing might have then fallen overboard, which would likely cause a lot of paperwork. So we remained seated until we were sure it was just chilling [thermo-regulating, actually – Ed].

The other key wildlife member was much more challenging even to see clearly, far less to photograph. There were many green sea turtles around, but they were not at all obliging when it came to be ready for their close-up.  The best one could expect was, if lucky, to catch a shot of a head popping out of the water as a turtle took a breath, but one had to be very lucky to catch it.

I was not one of the lucky ones.

The best I could do was to get an image of something vaguely turtle shaped under the surface.  I hope this video gives some idea of how a typical encounter with a turtle ran.

Our time was up and so we headed back to the ship so that someone else could have a go on our Zodiac and, via some nice chocolate accompaniment to afternoon tea, had a bit of a rest before the evening briefing.  Similar, again, to our Antarctic experience, Dain, the expedition leader, ran a session which added a bit of background to today’s expedition (Xander telling us more about the life cycle of the green sea turtle), followed by a briefing of what was due for the morrow. Various options were on offer, some involving scrambling over rocks and some not. We opted for the scrambling over rocks version, which I hope was not an error of judgement on our part.

After the briefing came the a drinks reception, at which the captain introduced the senior crew members,

followed by a Gala Dinner, which was probably, judging from the quality of the meals we’ve had so far on the cruise, a sumptuous feast.  However, neither Jane nor I had the stomach for stuffing ourselves, and so we opted to stay downstairs and have a light buffet supper. Our original plan, which was just to eat à deux, unravelled when sociability and good manners led us to invite another couple, who had also decided against the more formal option, to join us.  So Jane had an enjoyable conversation with the engaging husband, which I would have been delighted to be a part of were it not for his wife’s annoying inability to refrain from injecting her own distracting, and not very interesting, converse in my direction. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to engineer a decently swift escape without being ruder than even I might consider acceptable.

One of the guides hosted a star-gazing session on the roof of the boat, which sounded interesting, so we went along. Unfortunately, the moon, although only half full, was bright and clear, which buggers up the chance of seeing all the lovely stars, and so I lost interest quite swiftly. I did, however, learn that the Perseids, through which the Earth is currently ploughing, should give rise to shooting stars here in the southern hemisphere, so I might try my luck later on in the cruise to watch out for them on another evening.

Tomorrow is set to offer two excursions, one on Zodiacs to view a particular phenomenon at Montgomery Reef, and the other one on land, to stumble along the rocky path we have signed up for and see what may be seen.  Keep your eye on these pages to see exactly what is was that we ended up seeing.

 

Moving on from Broome

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Monday 12 August 2024 – The time has come to leave Broome, which was actually just a staging post (albeit one not without interest) to the next major segment of our trip, which is a cruise. For ten days, we will be the guests of APT cruises on Le Laperouse as we explore the Kimberley coast, sailing from Broome to Darwin.

As is normal for these things, the cruise didn’t depart until the afternoon, but the hotel checkout time was 10am, so we’ve had a decent amount of the day in Broome to amuse ourselves. I popped to the nearest ATM to get a few more Australian dollars, which gave me an opportunity to see how a church is done in the cyclone-proof architectural style of the region.

This is the Broome Anglican Church; notice that the bell tower is (a) skeletal, so that wind blows through it rather than at it and (b) further reinforced with guy ropes (or more likely cables).

We had a fair bit of time in our favourite location at the Mangrove hotel, which is on the deck overlooking the mangroves and the water, and keeping an eye out for bird life.  Our Rainbow Bee Eater was, as ever, tirelessly plucking insects out of the air in missions from its normal base station, and I managed to harness my brand-new Nikon Z6iii to get some images of it in flight, which I was quite pleased with.

Also, the bird which we had originally thought was an Osprey came by again. It perched a way away beside another, and it looks like they may have had a barney, as one flew off in a marked manner.

One or other of these then flew somewhat nearer, making it worth getting a couple of shots.

It was then clear that it wasn’t an Osprey, but a Brahminy Kite, also known as the Red-backed Sea Eagle.

All this ornithologising, and a spot of lunch, took us to 2pm, when we needed to join the process of getting on to the boat.  The Mangrove hotel was being used as the gathering point, so all the (160-odd) passengers assembled in an upstairs room in the hotel, where the cruise staff were waiting to process us.

The processing was slightly complex, because everyone had to provide a completed health declaration and passports, collect a lanyard with their cabin key attached to it, and be allocated a bus to join to get to the port.

It was done this slightly labyrinthine way in order that people didn’t have to stand about in the direct sunshine at the port, where there is no shade. It all worked reasonably well, and we shuffled on board around 4pm – to find Jane’s case safely in our cabin but no sign of mine.

Bugger.

Luckily our cabin girl, Verona, popped in to introduce herself; she went off on an ultimately successful mission to find it (delivered to cabin 527 rather than 524 due to sloppy labelling) which left us with just enough time to get largely unpacked before we went for the welcome briefing, with the captain and the cruise director, Margie,

who introduced us to other key people, in charge (right to left) of the spa, the shop, the cruise videos and photos and the wine.

There was, of course, the mandatory life jacket practice,

and then we departed as the sun set,

with drinks

and live music.

This is an expedition cruise, similar in principle to (but far removed, I suspect, in practice from) our Antarctic cruise. The boats have pretty much the same passenger capacity, but there is a little more emphasis on luxury on Le Laperouse: there’s a lift between levels; the boat features a spa, a fitness room and a shop; and drinks are by and large at no extra cost unless you’re after some ritzy cocktail or wine. However, the idea for both is the same: to get people off the boat on Zodiacs to explore the area as we go along. The weather here will be somewhat different, of course; wind was the enemy in Antarctica, whereas we’ll have to be cognisant of the power of the sun on this cruise. Looking at the assembled passengers, I also wonder whether some of them will struggle to get on and off Zodiacs; but maybe I’m being overly pessimistic. Time will tell.

For now, the G&Ts are available at no extra charge and there is Earl Grey Tea and a kettle in our cabin, so, as we leave Broome behind us,

I think we can look forward to 10 days of getting educated about the Kimberley coast while being looked after very well.

New: Broome

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Saturday 10 August 2024 – All the general admin associated with getting from Mantarays to Exmouth Airport to Perth Airport to the QT hotel to dinner to overnight to Perth Airport to our next destination went perfectly smoothly, and so here we are at said next destination, having traveled some 2,800km. We have got only as far as Broome, about 950km from Exmouth as the Australian raven flies, but time pressures and airline schedules governed the choice of route.

We arrived at the Mangrove Hotel slightly before our room was ready for us, so there was nothing for it but to deal with the housekeeping’s laxity by going to the bar.

Jane’s preparatory research about Things To Do, and the look and feel of the place that hit us as we took our places and our beers, is that there is a very different, and quite relaxed, vibe about Broome. For example, the main restaurant here is called Johnny Sausage, which carries a set of implicit brand values rather different from what we experienced in Perth.  The temperature, according to the nice man who drove our aeroplane, is 34°C, which in England would likely be intolerably hot; certainly when we had temperatures like that in Spain or Grenada, it was not comfortable.  Here, it’s absolutely delightful, from which I infer that the humidity is very low. The sun is stinging hot, but in the shade, accompanied by a glass of something cold, one feels one could sit and relax forever.

Helping the general pleasantness is the view.

It is easy to see why this is called the Mangrove Hotel.

The colour of the water is simply wonderful. In North America, this would be result of glacial flow; here, it’s due to shallow water, sand and blue skies.

There’s a lot of birdlife to watch, as well.  Inevitably, there are gulls,

in this case Hartlaub’s Gulls, once considered a subspecies of the Silver Gulls we saw in such profusion in Perth, and there are flocking loads of them, all looking to pirate food from the restaurant tables.

We also saw several Black Kites

many White Ibises,

and a Rainbow Bee Eater

which was sometimes being followed by another one

which was presumably a Ga Amma.

We took an early evening meal and the opportunity for a reasonably early night, as we had to be up and at ’em quite promptly the next morning.

Sunday 11 August 2024 – dawned and, having a day at leisure, we went for a walk. Obviously.

But first, we caught the bus. We were out of the hotel by 0728, as this was the time for the First Bus of the day. Broome is really quite spread out and so walking between the various points of interest being not really a sensible choice, we opted to catch the Broome Explorer bus, and buy a hop-on, hop-off pass. The reason we caught the very first bus is that this is the only one that goes to Gantheaume Point, something that we were interested to see and to use as a starting point for a walk back to Broome, which we had been told would be about 5km.

Because the bus goes round the houses before driving out to the point, it was 8am as we started our walk towards the point, which is about 500m from the bus stop, with a Straw-Necked Ibis overseeing us as we went.

Our interest was, in principle, two-fold. Firstly, there are outcrops of sandstone, which make for striking rock formations. Some of these were deposited in shallow water in the Early Cretaceous period, about 130 million years ago, Secondly, footprints from dinosaurs of that time and plant fossils are preserved in the sandstone. At very low tide, dinosaur footprints can apparently be seen about 30 metres out to sea. We weren’t expecting to see these footprints, but were interested in the rock formations.

As you approach, the outlook is not all that promising. There’s a skeletal lighthouse

(not suitable for Skeletal Lamping, which is from a different country)  and a few rocks visible.

Then you get close and

it’s very striking indeed. My favourite formation was this one.

It was, apparently, possible to see what one chap swears were dinosaur footprints, and people were out scouting the area he was indicating

but neither Jane nor I were up for scrambling down to take a look (and then having to scramble back up again).  There was a representation of dinosaur footprints up where we were,

which we think were made with a plaster cast of the real thing. But we’re not sure.

Our plan was to walk back to the (“world-famous” according to the audio commentary in the bus) Cable Beach area of Broome, starting from the beach near the bus stop

and aiming for the Divers Tavern, near Cable Beach, where we would seek breakfast. Or, at least, a beer.

It’s possible to do the walk entirely along the beach, but a sign indicated that there were other trails available through dunes and bush as well, which we thought we would aim for. The trouble was that there didn’t appear to be any signage for the trails.

We walked along the beach for quite a way, on sand which was quite firm in places and somewhat hard work in others. We kept an eye out for possible trails leading away from the beach but seemed to be covering a lot of distance without seeing anything.

We crossed a patch of very damp sand with a strange covering

(here it is in close-up)

which might be the excavations of a crab or other creature?  Again, we’re not sure.

Eventually, we saw a trail marker which led away from the beach, and decided to take it, on the basis that we were fed up with walking on sand in what had become very hot sunshine. A certain amount of robust debate ensued as to whether this track was a good idea, and bits of it involved crashing through overgrowth, which was not particularly rewarding.  But eventually we came across a path through the bush

which led us to a road close to the Divers Tavern, by which time (about 1045) we  had covered a total of about 10km, were very hot, quite tired and ready for a glass of something cold.

The Divers Tavern doesn’t open until 11am.

Bugger.

In the end, since a Broome Explorer bus was due before the pub opened, we decided to head back to the hotel and find some kind of sustenance there, which meant we broke our fast with burger and pizza. The accompanying beer was very welcome, though.  At a neighbouring table, there was a striking vignette of a lady who was talking to her mate on her phone, but couldn’t tear herself away from the lunch she was eating at the same time.

We saw what we thought was an Osprey, but it was too far away for a clear photo. The Rainbow Bee-eater was still on duty, too. It’s so pretty, I can’t resist sharing another photo.

After a bit of a siesta, we made use of our bus passes to do a further expedition, to look at Downtown Broome and then go to Cable Beach to see a particular sunset sight.

Broome‘s history has been dominated, since the 1880s, by the pearl industry, following the discovery of a very rich source of pearl shells. Japanese and Chinese people were skilled pearl divers and many of them set up ventures in the town. In consequence, it now has a significant China Town and a profusion of pearl emporia.  Mother of pearl was in great demand until the 1950s, when plastic became the main material for buttons; these days, the pearl industry in Broome focuses more on the production of cultured pearls.

We walked up to China Town and took a quick look in Willie Creek’s Pearl Luggers establishment. As well as selling all things pearl, they have a couple of old pearl lugger boats outside

one of which is the subject of a major restoration project.  Nearby is a reminder about what diving might have entailed.

China Town is mainly centred around Johnny Chi Lane

which was rather quiet, since today was Sunday and everything was closed. The whole place was practically deserted, which I suppose is not too surprising for 5pm on a Sunday.

The architecture is not particularly varied, and the audio track on the Broome Explorer explained that everything was built with steel and corrugated iron in order that it be robust enough to withstand a cyclone – in fact buildings had to be certified cyclone-proof.  This also explained why the buildings we’d seen in Exmouth were of similar construction.

We waited by Johnny Chi Lane for the next Broome Explorer, which gave us the chance for a (mercifully) brief encounter with a couple of the locals, who were shouting drunkenly at each other as they walked down the street, but stopped to have a chat as they passed the bus stop. On learning that we were Brits, one of them professed to be a major fan of Iron Maiden and Def Leppard. They were clearly somewhat out of it, something that is not uncommon with people of indigenous stock, and we were happy that they were quite genial and even happier that they moved on before continuing to shout at each other as they went on down the street.

Another bus stop conversation we had later that day shed a little light on a strange alcohol-related phenomenon we’d come across when ordering drinks at the bar; we couldn’t order a double gin-and-tonic. We were offered a G&T and, separately, a shot of gin, which seemed a bit strange. In the bus stop conversation, we were told that one could only buy a couple of bottles of wine at any one time, one had to show id whilst doing so, and the transaction was logged so that one couldn’t then go elsewhere and buy more wine. It would seem not unrelated with the difficulties that the indigenous population has had in dealing with the alcohol that colonisers brought with them.

Cable Beach was a popular place to be that Sunday afternoon; lots of picnickers

and a fair few people on the beach itself.

It seemed that people were there to enjoy the sunset. We were there, though, to check out a particular scene, which was sunset camel rides. Camels were brought over to Australia in great numbers as they were more robust to withstand the extreme weather conditions than other working animals such as horses; and Australia has the largest population of wild camels in the world.

Some tame ones are used to provide rides for punters at sunset every day here in Broome, and we wanted to see this phenomenon and I wanted to photograph it. Of course.

We originally stationed ourselves up on a walkway above the beach, but then I thought a better viewpoint be down at beach level, which was a good move because once we’d moved down, we caught sight of a caravan in the distance.

So we chased along to get a better view.

 

After the ride, the camels were lined up so that people could disembark in a dignified way;

I assume they embarked the same way; much easier than the usual way which (as I understand these things) involves clambering on to a lying camel and then clinging on for dear life as it stands up.

By this time, the sun was setting in very dramatic fashion

and so we headed back to the bus stop to catch the bus home, in itself a bit of an adventure as for some reason the audio system on the bus which announces each stop was not working and  the bus driver, it seemed, was approaching the end of his shift and so was yelling out the stops amidst other, largely incomprehensible, comments. Rather than trust him, we used Google Maps to make sure we got off at the right stop and retired to our room for a welcome cup of tea.

That was it for Broome, then. It seemed slightly strange to us – very dispersed and slightly eccentric. Its population is around 15,000, which triples in its peak season (May to October), and it is the largest town of the Kimberley area.

And it is to the Kimberley area that the next segment of our trip is dedicated. Exactly what that means, and how we will be exploring it, will become clear if you keep reading these pages.