The Sunday Times - UK (2022-05-29)

Cruise Luxury special

Cool off in a creek, keep watch for kingfishers and look out from the top of King George Falls

Western Australia, while the

Brits, keeping a safe distance

from the lapping ocean, raise

a toast of cold sparkling wine:

to spending the kids’

inheritance on the trip

of a lifetime.

Laura Whateley was a guest of

Tourism Western Australia

(westernaustralia.com) and

True North. The Kimberley

Snapshot runs during the dry

season, from April to August.

Seven nights’ full board from

£9,948pp, including activities

but excluding most alcoholic

drinks (truenorth.com.au).

Fly to Perth

of wasps’ nests

built over the

images, that

they are at least

17,500 years

old. Some

historians reckon

they are over

30,000 years old.

On our final night we

all pitch up at another

picture-perfect beach for

dinner of freshly caught mud

crabs dipped in homemade

chilli sauce. As the horizon

turns hot pink, the east coast

Aussies on the trip declare,

grudgingly, that maybe it is

true, sunsets are better in

The onboard naturalist

leads river trips pointing out

tawny nurse sharks and crocs

and, if you’re lucky, river

dugongs, sea eagles,

kingfishers and

red-headed

honeyeaters.

My favourites,

though, are the

cartoonish neon-

coloured fiddler

crabs that speckle

muddy river banks.

There are turtles,

too, which we spot one

morning on a dawn

trip along

Montgomery

Reef, which

covers 400 sq

km and rises

fully out of the

ocean when the

tide drops. The

reef is best viewed

from the sky, however,

where you can see the

shadows of rays and turtles in

the marbled turquoise waters,

and enormous crocodiles

sunbathing on sandbanks.

Helicopter tours are available

as a package, or as individual

trips, from £187pp.

We hunt for history, too, to

see if we can find some new

art: “new” meaning not yet

discovered. There are

thousands of secret outdoor

galleries in the Kimberley, the

most inaccessible in the world,

we’re told, under shelves of

rock. We shimmy into caves

and lie on our backs to take in

early Wandjina figures — pretty

recent, as it goes, painted

between 3,000 and 5,000

years ago.

The simpler Bradshaw,

or Gwion Gwion,

figures appear

at first duller in colour

until I learn that

it’s estimated,

based on

carbon

dating

,sea eagles,

ers and

ed

ters.

rites,

are the

sh neon-

fiddler

at speckle

iver banks.

are turtles,

ch we spot one

on a dawn

g

and lie on our backs to take

early Wandjina figures — pre

recent, as it goes, painted

between 3,000 and 5, 000

years ago.

The simpler Bradsh

or Gwion Gwio

figures appe

at first duller in colo

until I learn that

it’s estimated

based on

carbon

dating

The onboard

naturalist

points out tawny

nurse sharks

and crocs

rock cod, and a baby shark. We

throw them back, guiltily, but

having never fished before I

can’t deny that I love the

bloodthirsty thrill of a

quivering line, the sun on the

back of my neck, and the

silence of our boat bobbing

on the glassy water.

The most successful fisher

of the day receives the honour

of getting to wear the novelty

fish hat over our lively,

communal dinners. We

quickly get to know each

other on such an intimate

boat, in the middle of such

vast empty landscapes.

gas, and the ground is rich

with minerals. Digging with

my hands I find what looks

like the corner of some

smooth clear glass, to reveal

a clear, sparkling crystal the

size of my fist.

If searching for fish is more

your thing there’s a chance

to go out every day. My fellow

guests reel in some whoppers,

posing for photos with

arm-span length tuna and

queenfish, which are carved

up at the back of the boat and

cooked for lunch.

I manage an ugly bug-eyed

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AUSCAPE INTERNATIONAL/ALAMY; GRAEME SNOW/GETTY IMAGES