Cruising around Northern Australia

secret WW II tunnels under Darwin

Darwin

You might remember that Jeff and I spent a couple of days in Darwin before our Kimberley Coast cruise and Darwin is on the small size.  We have decided to skip the couple of excursions the ship offered - nah we don't need to see more crocodiles and not dying to go on the WWII tour around town.  We docked in the middle of the afternoon so after we went through immigration we headed on a pedestrian passage to the other side of the harbor to a different dock where the Royal Flying Doctors and the Darwin WWII Museum is located.  We were told the museum was good from our earlier cruise's fellow passengers.  We also have a sunset cruise booked for the evening; thus, we had less time than ideal for the museum.  Having said that 1 1/2 hours would have been more than enough since it is not big.

Hunting Dragons

 

Our first port stop on this cruise is to Komodo Island, Indonesia as in the home of the Komodo Dragon.  This island is the only place in the world you will find them.  We booked an excursion with 18 other people that took us to see the dragons and then to the pink beach on the island.  This is a small place; there is a small town on the other side of the island, but most if not all of the island is a national park.  As such, entry is closely controlled and if you did not have a prebooked tour, you could not get off the ship!

Munduk, Bali, Indonesia

Floating Temple

 On the road to Munduk

We leave our resort by 7 in the morning to catch the ferry back to the island of Bali where we have a driver/guide waiting for us to drive us up in the mountains to Munduk and will stop at some tourist places along the way.  I should point out that driving through Denpasar, Benoa, Ubud and all the southeast parts of Bali is slow because of the traffic.  They cannot widen the roads due to so many family shrines right at the road and there is too much traffic for two lane roads.  Once we get out of the touristy areas and into the country traffic is much easier.

South Pacific Paradise - Bali & Lombok Indonesia

Ubud

We get in around 10pm after a trying flight experience, but we are here as is all of our luggage (gate agent in Broome messed up our luggage) and the screaming family is gone.  We are pleasantly surprised at the hotel and our room.  Our room has its own private patio with a small pool.  We unpack and hit the bed - we're tired

Kimberley Coast Cruise Part 2

Today we are visiting 2 places.  First up is Freshwater Cove followed by Montgomery Reef.  We are here in the morning.  We will be greeted by the Damibmangari traditional owners who will welcome us with a ceremony and then we will walk 1/2 a mile each way to see some rock art. Jeff and I were surprised to learn that they have a store so this might be a level of civilization - will let you know.  As the name implies freshwater is available year-round here.  This is the mainland with the reef nearby.  The reef is 154 square miles.  

Kimberley Coast Cruise of Australia, Part 1

 Our first day was a sea day so while we were busy and had fun, I will say no more.  Well I will point out to you that we will not visit a city or town until we get to Broome which is the end of the journey.  You cannot drive to any of the places we are going.  You can get relatively close to some of them, but never where we will be.  The next day was our first "port" day.  We went to the opening for King George River and its twin waterfalls.  

While it is remote, Seabourn keeps its reputation up and serves a glass of champagne when we get to the falls.

Kakadu National Park, "Top End" Australia

Lots of legs reveal Dad protecting these chicks, Comb Crested Jacana, aka Lotusbird

 It is easy to forget how big Australia is. Our flight from Sydney to Darwin will take around 5 hours so similiar to crossing the US from the East to the West Coasts.  Once we land, we get our stuff and our rental car and Jeff practices driving on the wrong side of the road for a minute and we are off.  We are ultimately heading for the Kakadu National Park, but want to pick up some provisions first so we are stopping at a shopping mall/center with a grocery store.  We are heading out to a big land of nothingness and it is hot like a southern US summer day so humid too.  The Aussies recommend 3 liters of water per person per day, we won't do that much but we do buy water and some fruit and granola bars for snacks.  Now we are off.  Off down a long straight 2 lane road for 3 hours till we hit the large thriving metropolis of Jabiru.