FLOATING THROUGH THE WILDERNESS
Floating Through The Wilderness - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Floating Through The Wilderness | |||||
| By: Timothy Morrell, Issue 40 – Spring 2009 | |||||
| (North Star Cruises, the Kimberley – Western Australia, Australia) | |||||
| A LUXURIOUS CRUISE BOAT AND HELICOPTER HAVE TAMED THE MOST REMOTE CORNER OF AUSTRALIA FOR TRAVELLERS WHO WANT TO SEE THE KIMBERLEY’S SENSATIONAL SIGHTS IN STYLE. | |||||
| It takes five hours to fly from Sydney to Broome, by which time you’re starting to feel that you should be in a foreign country. You won’t be disappointed. Most Australians encounter the Kimberley as if they really were foreign travellers. The far Northwest may be regarded as the quintessential Australia by the rest of the world (especially since Baz Luhrmann’s recent movie), but to urbanites living in the Southeast it’s completely alien. The landscape is stark, spectacular and brutally inhospitable. It’s not the kind of place where you expect to be sumptuously pampered and have everything done for you, but that’s precisely what happens on the North Star Kimberley Wilderness Cruise. | |||||
| By rights, anyone lucky enough to witness the harsh splendour of this part of the world ought to pay for the privilege with the injuries, aches, blisters and dietary privations that go with trekking and camping. Instead, North Star Cruises take passengers to inaccessible, rarely seen locations in the Kimberley country with a combination of high-tech equipment and relaxed luxury. The company’s 50 metre vessel True North is regarded as pre-eminent among the several boats offering cruises of this coast. The custom designed flat hull allows you to penetrate the region’s shallow rivers, cocktail in hand. | |||||
| At first sight, the True North looks to be pure James Bond super-yacht, complete with helicopter, but life on board is unexpectedly low-key. The simple interiors are invitingly comfortable. The first thing you do on embarkation is take off your shoes. This is not to protect the polished blond wood floors (although it enables you to enjoy the silky sensation of walking on them). Co-director of the company Mark Stothard describes going barefoot as a great leveller. It’s normal for one of the company’s two owner-directors to travel with each cruise, adding a personal level of hospitality. The passengers are interesting and accomplished people, almost entirely couples, who are socially adept and automatically generate the easy atmosphere of a successful house party. Life on board is in fact very similar to staying at the generously appointed beach house of close friends whose charming kids are happy to do everything for you. The young-to-youngish crew of the True North are perhaps the company’s best asset. Sleek luxury yachts are rather generic, but the people taking care of you on this one belong in a class of their own. With a maximum of 36 passengers and a crew of 20, the staff is always ready to help. They understand the need for meticulous attention to detail and a respectful manner toward their guests, but never allow this to interfere with larrikin humour. The nightly entertainments they organise are endearing, verging on daggy. | |||||
| North Star has very astutely identified how to cater to the upper end of the Australian travel market, where service staff without genuine personality tend to be viewed as mechanical functionaries. Of all the pleasures that make this cruise uniquely Australian, the friendly informality is the most subtle. Like the scenery, it’s something that European, Asian or American cruise lines are not able to provide. This relaxed easygoing approach does not extend to the ship’s galley. The True North offers serious food, strictly maintaining the standards of a good restaurant. Guests choose where they want to sit at the long, highly sociable tables, and the same elegant meal is served to everyone, as at a private dinner. Dishes are devised to allow maximum appreciation of the freshness and flavour of the ingredients (which may have been swimming about nearby only a matter of hours earlier). Presentation is stylish without being over the top. | |||||
| Various activities are offered to keep passengers occupied, unless they prefer to do absolutely nothing except enjoy the food, the view and the fact that nobody can reach them on their phone (telephone communication can easily be arranged if that’s what you really want). Small excursion boats are winched down every morning from the stern and passengers usually have a choice of fishing, photography or sightseeing. After a while one mangrove-covered mud bank does look eerily similar to another, but there is always a well-informed crewmember leading the expedition and explaining matters animal mineral and vegetable. Despite the sense that all discomfort and effort have been discreetly eliminated from this wilderness adventure, passengers will return with one or two anecdotes that might make them feel at least slightly intrepid. Not being designed for the open ocean, the boat rocks a bit on the rare occasions when the coastal waters aren’t flat calm, making some passengers feel unwell if they haven’t yet got their sea legs. On shore, those who choose to can take brisk uphill walks over rocky terrain, or plunge from cliffs into spring-fed pools. Most are happy just to sit under a waterfall and be soothingly pummelled by the cascade. Helicopter excursions are by special arrangement and shouldn’t be missed. Aside from the decadent sense of alighting comfortably in places that others would have sweated blood to reach, the aerial view of this mottled fluorescent orange and green landscape is unforgettable. The helicopter also makes it possible to be among the handful of people who will ever have the opportunity to view caves of rock painting that can be included with the great art of the world. North Star’s Kimberley Wilderness Cruise is in two parts. Passengers not taking the full itinerary join or leave at the half way point, an hour by light plane from Kununurra. Unlike other simple outback towns, here you have the option of visiting the Kimberley Fine Diamonds showroom and viewing a fortune in the celebrated pink gems from the nearby Argyle mine. | |||||
| The Kimberley’s most astonishing natural wonder is also close by. Flying over the Bungle Bungle ranges, which resemble a vast and mysterious ruined city of banded domes, should be enough to convince anyone of the otherworldly beauty of the Australian landscape. Coming back to earth is difficult after all this. A night or two at the Cable Beach Club Resort in Broome provides the kind of exquisite tranquillity you need to reflect on the extraordinary adventure you’ve just experienced. | |||||
| Details: | |||||
| North Star Cruises | |||||
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