Ponant Kimberley Cruise – Day 7 - Careening Bay
SUNDAY 28 APRIL
PONANT LE LAPEROUSE DAY 5 – CAREENING BAY
Careening Bay was named by Lt Philip Parker King after his ship, the HMC Mermaid, was careened there during his third voyage of discovery in 1820. King surveyed the western coast to complete the map initiated by Flinders 20 years earlier. The Mermaid had been leaking badly and he needed to find a shallow sandy bay where he could careen his boat to undertake repairs. At high tide one warm September afternoon this is what he did. For 10 days the crew worked hard on repairs before refloating the vessel. The ship’s carpenter carved the name of the vessel and year into a conspicuous Boab Tree that is now 3mt wide and National Heritage listed. A reminder of the bygone era of exploration.
We both had a little sleep in today, not waking until nearly 8am – a solid 10.5hrs sleep – heaven on earth! I chose to get up and head to the stretch class at 8am while Steve showered and dressed, then when I got back at 8.30, we headed to breakfast. Ordered off the menu today – smoked salmon and cream cheese on a bagel, and Eggs Florentine for Steve, and by the time we finished that it was after 9am and the buffet section was packed away – however all it took was a request to the waiter and he disappeared to the kitchen and returned with a bowl of fresh pineapple and bowl of red and green grapes for us to finish with some fruit. That’s service with a smile – thanks Gary!
There are some things I am still learning about small ships – the dining room is not always “peaceful and serene” as on the larger ships as the kitchen is right there beside you, so especially if you are sitting near the entry, you see and hear the waiters in and out of the kitchen with cutlery and crockery noises and the noise of the kitchen working, HOWEVER its quite clever – when the doors open (there are doors on the LHS and RHS of the wall dividing the two rooms) all you can see is down a corridor and you can see partitions which across the room, and its in between these partitions where the action is obviously happening, so you cannot actually see the cook or see the chefs working – they still have a workspace away from prying eyes. A nice design.
We are not due to go ashore with our group until 2.45pm today so had a free morning. We decided to skip the Kimberley History talk by Lorena and instead had a look at some of the photos that the professional photographers have been taking on the trip. You can choose a package of their favourite shots (up to around 200 of their choice of the best) or you can order the shots individually of just the ones you want, in either print or digital format. Choosing your photos is not a cheap exercise (EUR7 per digital shot) however the content and quality of the images is superb, and the images that they capture of you that are candid and enjoying the stunning locations we visit are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. And yes – at the end we bought the “Top 200+” selected by the photographic team, plus the video of our journey. It was mentioned occasionally throughout the cruise, but I LOVED that it was not a high-pressure sales pitch.
We did choose go and listen to BGF (Big Friendly Guide) – the very tall young Australian Expedition Team member Kyle give a talk on crocodiles, cleverly titled “How to survive a crocodile attack” to lure us in – basically don’t be where you should not as once they have you in their grip, there is no surviving ? The talk was very interesting though, about how the animals have survived so long, how they are equipped for the environment they live in, and lifestyle they lead and Kyle presented brilliantly – I have managed to nod off in most of the lectures so far for a few minutes (sitting down and listening especially after a meal or mid-afternoon was never my forte) but this one held my interest and was done SO well you could not help but want to know what he was going to say next.
Then we decided it was time to have a little chill – back to the room to grab our books, order a coffee and grab a cookie and settle in for a read on the aft Observation Lounge. Watched and heard the anchor being dropped, watch the zodiacs being put into the water for the reconnaissance trip and the first group that was going out, then headed to lunch. Had the special of the day (Tuna Tartare) with a side of the buffet special (feta and spinach in a flaky pastry Greek style) and a mango/broccoli/cous cous salad. Some Sparkling Water, and that was lunch. Oh OK – there was a chocolate tart on the dessert bar – last slice all alone and wanting to be eaten – so I obliged and shared it with Steve – the toasted and sugar crusted pecan/pistachio/almond nuts on top made it super nice. OK OK - so you know me - I ate it all!
It was nice to have some time to let lunch go down before we hopped the zodiac to Careening Bay. While we were waiting, the eagle eyes guests spotted a shark circling around the zodiacs. It was a short easy (calm) ride of about 5mins across to the bay. The Ponant tent was waiting for us with a place to hang our jackets as usual. We took a short walk to see the famous Boab Tree where the "HMC Mermaid 1820" is carved into the trunk, and heard Lorena tell the story of Philip Parker King’s adventure and stay in the bay to repair his ship. Here we saw the only obvious man-made thing that we have seen ashore all trip – a metal boardwalk around the tree. This was done so that the footsteps of visitors do not impact on the root structure of the boab tree. We spent some time here and also discussed how the boab tree even made it to the Kimberley, when its closest relative is the Boab tree of Africa, rather than Madagascar which is closer. There are many theories as to how the trees arrived here, but no one really knows for sure. This was presented by our French naturalist, also a bird lover/specialist, Alex.
Then we went for a wander along the dry creek bed, saw a load of hermit crabs zipping around, past a few rock pools and ended up back on the beach along to where there was a good planting of cycads. Some of them had flowers in the centre, but they were all beautiful. We had a good chat to Francesca about how she got her job on Ponant. Immediately post covid there were a few openings and it was a combination of passion, degree qualifications and multi skilling is important. Many of the expedition teams have boat licences, and qualifications and experience in more than one discipline. The staff onboard are, without exception, excellent.
Todays photo is one that I took of a Bowerbird nest - so very clever!
We decided to skip the dance class in favour of some sundowners on the back pool deck with friends we have met. Another stunning sunset. And very cool to watch how the marina off the back of the boat folds up and packs away at the end of the day. The main deck is like the lid of a toy box that opens, then the marina platform lifts up, slides down to cover the stair case that folds flat as it elevates, and it all slides into the ship and the lid comes down. Very cool.
We dined again on the Deck 4 Restaurant Nautilus. The starters were nice, the lamb loin was OK but not as tender as I expected and desert was …. Different. Not my favourite meal so far but we did discover that the Argentinian red wine was quite delicious and after a couple of cosmopolitans earlier, and a few wines with dinner, hangover free! We dined with Greg and Tabitha – they are just so nice and as Steve said, “we have found our people for this cruise” and “The Ladies” – Roz and Ali from Melbourne and they were also so much fun.
After dinner the program listed a “Name That Tune” quiz which sounded good, but it was not quite that – it was a series of Frank Sinatra songs performed in their entirety and then a question about the song, often relating to an old movie it was featured in or some other more obscure reference. We lasted 5 questions then headed to bed, but our team won with a winning score of 6 so we gave them a good start!