The Kimberley is calling
How will you explore Australia’s rugged North West: by land, water or both?
See it by land
Walking the Kimberley with an expert guide, you’ll hear amazing stories about its First Peoples and how this ancient land was formed and transformed. Hiking a 60,000-year-old trail, you’ll enter Echidna Chasm, a mystical gorge carved by wind and rain over millions of years, and hear your voice echo off its walls and down through the ages. Or explore the Bungle Bungle Range and the natural amphitheatre of Cathedral Gorge in World Heritage-listed Purnululu National Park, a stunning landscape “discovered” from the air by a film crew in 1983 – its domes of oxidised iron ignite like neon as you swoop overhead. On foot, or from the comfort of APT’s spacious Mercedes-Benz 4WD tourer, an experienced guide will lead you on daytrips or week-long odysseys into the true heart of Australia. Down the iconic Gibb River Road from Kununurra you’ll go, red kangaroos winking as you pass, into El Questro – more than 283,000 hectares of wilderness park teeming with birds, reptiles, marsupials and animals of all kinds. Perhaps your easy stroll through a prehistoric palm forest will end with a dip in the soothing thermal pools and waterfalls of Zebedee Springs. At night, after feasting your eyes on the Kimberley’s incredible flora and fauna, fill your belly with five-star catering under a rising moon and a diamond trail of stars, set to a soundtrack of clinking wineglasses and calls of the wild. Finally, you’ll retire to a comfortable tented cabin before the next leg of your epic journey, either to Geraldton on the Coral Coast or into Arnhem Land.
Discover it by water
The beautiful and bountiful Kimberley coastline offers rich histories and deep mysteries, with reefs, mangroves, waterfalls, bays, beaches and surprises around every bend. Flying into Broome, where the streets were once paved in shimmering pearl shells, you’ll shack up and relax at Cable Beach Club Resort & Spa as you prepare to set sail and experience natural wonders accessible only by sea. Only APT explores by land and water. Its expedition ships – MS Caledonian Sky and Island Sky – are purpose-built, with just 57 large luxury cabins for ultimate passenger comfort and crewed by specialists in nature, history, art, botany and geology. Island-hop the Buccaneer Archipelago, named after a long-gone pirate and now a haven for rare seabirds; stand in awe before the King George Falls, the highest single-drop cascade in Western Australia; and visit the ancient rock-art galleries of the Wunambal and Wandjina peoples on Bigge Island and at Raft Point. Along the way, encounter modern history, including the inlets and harbours Charles Darwin sailed on the Beagle that sparked his On the Origin of Species thesis and changed humankind forever; and the boab tree at Careening Bay, where – 200 years ago – early explorer Phillip Parker King was forced to beach the damaged HMC Mermaid in 1820. To get you up close with these marvels, each Sky ship has a fleet of inflatable Zodiacs to transport you deep within the narrow coves and inlets that hold the Kimberley’s cast of creatures: crocodiles, dugongs, turtles, dolphins, sea eagles and more. As the extreme tides ebb and flow, the water reveals its secrets and the old and new worlds meld into one another. Watch it all on deck at sunset, cocktail in hand, soaking up the spectacle and breathing it in.