Journeys Magazine - Issue 1

7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1

1/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 1

JourneysI n s p I ratI on al v oyag e s f or today s re s p on s I ble trav e lle r

Top Travel wriTers

and phoTographers

share Their advenTures

Man oThe Jungle

up close and

inTensely personal

rozenin TiMe

100 years oausTralian

anTarcTic

exploraTion relived

KiMberleyKaleidoscopeausTralias ancienT

TapesTry o wonder

cruisinggoes wild

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or an auThenTic experience

exoTic isles oog and vodKa

- unlocKing The secreTs o

russias Kuril islands

I S S U E 1 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 3

W o R l d E d I t I o n



fm h fu

Journeys 3

W

elcome to the rst edition o Journeys,

an e-magazine about Orions expeditions

and destinations eaturing articles by well

known travel writers rom around the

world.

I know people choose expedition cruising or many dierent

reasons and some o you reading this may be yet to stick that rst

nervous toe in the water. Perhaps youre not sure what expedition

cruising is all about and why its such a completely dierent type

o travel.

For those who have travelled aboard expedition ships already,

these lively tales will help you relive the enjoyment and ascinating

experiences one more time and maybe share them with riends

and amily, helping spread the word about this exciting orm otravel.

For those o you already experienced in expedition cruising,

I hope this e-magazine will enlighten you to Orions unique

oerings and why we believe you should consider our journeys

in your travel plans.

While I pay special attention to Orion guests eedback, I am just as excited to

read what the proessionals think. So we at Orion thought you might like to read

their own very personal experiences. Much as you may enjoy perusing brochures

and seeing alluring advertisements, a colourul and third party account provides

an important independent perspective.

You will be relieved to know there is no hard-sell in this magazine; just

selected stories and refections by highly respected writers who have travelled,

both independently and with a variety o tour operators, to many destinations.

Their experienced and incisive opinions are as valuable as they are enjoyable to

read.

My thanks go to all the contributors or their time travelling with us in the

rst place, the generous editorial space provided and, invariably, avourable

comments. Now, also, or allowing us to reproduce their articles in their entirety

(with the exception o some actual details that may have changed since the

publication date such as voyage departure dates and pricing). No story editing

has been done.

I hope this collection o travel experiences whets your travel appetite and that

you choose to take your journey with Orion.

Kindest regards,

Jureys Maazie is pubise

by ori Epeii Cruises

Fuer a Maai direcr:

Sarina Bratton

Eiria criar: Roderick Eime

www.travography.com

desi a ayu: Mark Brewster

Criburs: John Borthwick,

Roderick Eime, Stephen Scoureld,

Louise Southerden, Amy Watkins

Cer P: Camp Leakey, Tanjung

Puting Reserve (Kalimantan Tengah)

by Nick Rains

(www.nickrains.com)

www.orangutan.org

Australia 1300 361 012New Zealand 0800 44 44 62North America 1877 674 6687UK 020 7399 7620Japan 181 3 5695 1647Germany 040 30 97 98 40Singapore 800 101 2524Other Reservations +61 2 9033 8777

Email [email protected] www.orionexpeditions.com

For more inormation visit your travel agent.

Saria Bra

Founder & Managing Director

Orion Expedition Cruises



36

20Louise Southerden is one o Australias most awarded travel writers,having won the ASTW Travel Writer o the Year award three times,most recently this year, as well as awards or Best Journey or Adventurestory and Best Responsible Tourism story. She has been writing travel

or publications in Australia and overseas or more than 17 years, is

the author o two books Surs Up: The Girls Guide to Surng and

Japan: a working holiday guide and is based in Sydney. When not on

deadline and not travelling, she can be ound in the sur on Sydneys

northern beaches.

Louise travelled to Antarctica aboard Orion on the Mawsons

Antarctica itinerary in December 2010 visiting Commonwealth Bay,

Cape Denison, Macquarie Island and Campbell Island.

John Borthwick is a multi-award winning reelance writer/photographer

and the author, he concedes, o probably too many eature articles on

travel. He acknowledges that its a mugs game but, as a mug, he still loves

being AWOL rom domesticity and other responsibilities. His stories appearin The Weekend Australian, The West Australian and other publications.

Johns books include Summer In Siam, Chasing Gauguins Ghost and The

Circumerence o the Knowable World, his photography is eatured in Getty

Images library, he holds a PhD in travel literature and has swum at the North

Pole.

John travelled aboard Orion II on Natural Treasures o the Russian Far East

in July 2011, visiting Otaru, Korsakov, Sakhalin, Kuril Islands, Petropavlovsk,

Kamchatka, Tyuleny Island and Sakhalin.

British cruise journalist Amy Watkins loves lie at sea and has explored

all corners o the globe rom the northern rozen waters o Canada

and Greenlands Arctic to rounding the legendary Cape Horn in South

America on expeditions. Her cruise adventures have taken her rom

the heart o Asia - in the wilds o Borneo and the mighty Mekong - to

the remote northern coast o Australias Kimberley region. Amy writes

cruise news, reviews and eatures or UK newspapers, magazines and

websites and is happiest when she is looking out at the horizon over

an expanse o sea.

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Roderick Eime seems to live a lie o constant adventure. A specialist

writer and photographer or expedition cruising, he is regularly

published locally and around the world, spending several months each

year aboard the worlds adventure feet. He has received several awards

or his stories and photography and is an unabashed an o Papua New

Guinea, a destination he says is tailor-made or small ship itineraries.He is also the editor o the Adventure Cruise Guide, about to publish

its th edition.

Rod has made numerous trips to PNG but wrote this story ater

his journey aboard MV Orion in September 2008 visiting Milne Bay,

Samarai Island, Kwato Island, Fergusson Island, Tu, Tami Islands,

Madang and the Sepik (Watam village) enroute or Rabaul.

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Stephen Scoureld is Travel Editor o The West Australian the author o

11 books. He has twice been named Australias Best Travel Writer. His

novel Other Country, set in the Kimberley, won the WA Premier ction

award and was shortlisted or the Commonwealth Writers Prize. His

next novel, As the River Runs is also set in the Kimberley, and will be

published in February 2013 by UWA Publishing. It is a sequel to Other

Country, a third edition o which is being republished alongside As the

River Runs. He won the International Cruise Council Australasia Media

Award 2009 with a story on an Orion voyage.

Stephen has travelled several times aboard Orion and wrote this

story ater his Kimberley Expedition in June 2010.

KiMberley

papuanewguinea



When it comes to

expedition cruising,

Orion is about as

good as it gets.

Consistently ranked among the top

handul o serious expedition vessels by

the global arbiter o all things cruising,

the Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising

& Cruise Ships awarded Orion 1612

points and 4.5 stars.

As expedition cruising grows in

global popularity, many cruise lines

are pressing vessels into service that

were never meant or the rigours o

the worlds wild oceans. Orion, on

the other hand, was built to exactingspecications with a maximum ice

rating and a degree o structural

integrity normally only ound in ships

destined or the toughest conditions.

For Orion to sail into the screaming

sixties o the Southern Ocean is o no

concern to her.

Expedition cruising does not mean

doing it tough and going without

the comorts o big ship cruising. In

act, Orions status as a boutique ship

means not only does she compete with

the worlds most luxurious and exclusive

vessels in the Berlitz ratings, she also

has the ability to venture to lands where

these other pampered passengers

would never dream o.A maximum o 50 couples enjoy the

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attention o 75 careully selected crew

members. Gourmet a la carte dining

takes place in a single, unassigned

session, either in the classically elegant

Constellation restaurant or the more

relaxed atmosphere outside on the

open deck.

All staterooms and suites aboard

Orion have ocean views, fat screen TVs,

DVD/CD players, marble bathrooms

and mini-rerigerators. In the public

spaces, theres a state-o-the-art 90-

seat lecture theatre and Vega Health

Spa incorporating massage and beauty

treatments as well as a gymnasium,

sauna and Jacuzzi spa.Orion oers a range o included

and optional shore side expeditions

designed to enhance the destination

experience. There are ten heavy-duty

Zodiac rigid infatable boats (RIBs) and

ten sea kayaks to enjoy when anchored

in any o the calm bays.

So, i you thought expedition

cruising was all about retired oreign

naval ships and repurposed erries,

Orion would love to help change your

perception. Why not call the oce and

ask or a brochure.

Call 1300 361 012 (Australia),

+61 2 9033 8700 (International),

visit www.orionexpeditions.com orsee your travel agent.

Specications:Length: 103m

Beam: 14.25m

Drat: 3.82m

Hull: Ice-reinorced or voyages in the Arctic

and Antarctic

Gross Tonnage: 4,000

Engine: Mak; 8M25; 3,265HP

Speed: 15 knots. Cruise speed: 13 knots.

Stabilisers: Blohm & Voss, retractable n

stabilisers

Maneuverability: Bow and stern thrusters

Built: 2003

Delivery Date: November 2003

Builder: Cassens Shipyard-Emden, Germany

Staterooms and Suites: 53

Guest Capacity: 106 (twin occupancy)

Crew: 75

Elevator: Yes

Classication: Lloyds Register alt100 A5 E3

Passenger Ship alt MC E3 AUT

Regulations: Orion is built according to

the latest international saety regulations,

including those o the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S.

Public Health, and those governing shipping

to the Antarctic and Arctic regions. Orion

ully meets the stringent regulations required

to operate in Australia and New Zealand

coastal waters.

Additional Crat: 10 Zodiac Heavy Duty MK5,

10 Kayaks, 2x12 passenger tenders

Communications:Direct-dial satellite

telephones; ax; e-mail; Internet access;

internal telephone system.

Registry: Bahamas


8/40FEBRUARY 20138 Journeys

ExPEdItIon CRUISIng hAS ItS RootS dEEP In thE

hUMAn PSYChE. It StEMS FRoM oUR InnAtE dESIRE to

InqUIRE, ExPloRE And ExPAnd thE BoUndARIES oF oUR

EnvIRonMEnt And knoWlEdgE. onE CoUld lISt gREAt

nAvIgAtoRS SUCh AS MAgEllAn, Cook, lA PERoUSE And

ColUMBUS AS SoME oF thE PIonEER ExPEdItIon CRUISERS.

The 21st-century expedition cruiser, however, is transported in vastly dierent

vessels to those great explorers. Gone are the days o deprivation, scurvy and mythical

sea monsters. Today you sail with state-o-the-art satellite navigation, rst-rate

medical acilities, gourmet cuisine and supremely comortable accommodations.

Just as the more amiliar cruise travel on the big ships is enjoying a healthy

resurgence, expedition cruising, or adventure cruising as it is also called, is booming.

Recent studies by travel industry researchers indicate travellers are in search o

experience-driven travel more than ever beore. Intelligent, sophisticated travellers

are looking or a break rom the mundane oerings, the contrived packaged tours

and the plain old been-there-done-that.

More oten than not, experienced expeditioners have seldom, i ever, been

aboard the massive ocean-going behemoths. They are driven by a desire to explore

new and wild places only accessible by smaller vessels where there may not even

whaT isexpediTion

cruising?


9/40FEBRUARY 2013 9Journeys

be a whar or jetty. Its common, even expected, that many shore excursions will

see passengers disembarking their sturdy Zodiac tenders in gumboots to wade the

ew metres to shore on a remote island or pebbly beach somewhere only thesespecialised vessels can access. Instead o a fag waving guide with a bullhorn

herding guests onto coaches, inquisitive penguins will squawk a greeting or local

villagers in colourul traditional costume will dance and chant to the rhythm o

crude skin drums.

Generally you can tell an expedition cruise rom a regular one by any one or all

o these characteristics:

Products driven by the destination and experience.

Fewer passengers, typically less than 200, but oten as ew as a dozen. This

enables operators to better deliver a more personal and enriching experience.

Smaller vessels capable o navigating narrow and shallow waterwaysinaccessible to regular cruise ships.

Flexible and adjustable itineraries to take into account changing conditions and

opportunities.

An extensive shore excursion program, oten with a choice o several

disembarkations per day.

Destinations oten have little or no tourism inrastructure and ocus instead on

natural, cultural and ecological attractions.

Expedition team includes lecturers drawn rom academia and science who are

able to impart an enriching interpretation during the voyage.

Go ashore in rugged Zodiac infatable ast tenders instead o lumbering

enclosed lieboats.


10/40

Amy WAtkins encounterstempestuous storms,

tropical forests and

finally, the elusive man

of the jungle on an

expedition voyage along

the coast of sabah

Man

oThe

Jungle 10

This story rst appeared in Country& Town House magazine



Reconstruction o atraditional longhouse.

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SEAFood SUPPER UndER thE StARS hAd BEEn CAnCEllEd,

BUt thAnkS to BoRnEoS toRREntIAl tRoPICAl RAIn WE

CoUld BARElY hEAR thE AnnoUnCEMEnt.

Soggy barbecues were not our priority at that point, as we could

hardly see our expedition ship as we bobbed in the dinghy while lightning

ripped across the heavens. Crackles and rumbles rom the angry sky sent a shiver

through us as we waited to return on board ater an excursion into the Klias

Wetlands. Wed signed up or an adventurous nine-day expedition cruise aroundSabah, with Australian-owned Orion Expeditions, but storm-chasing was a new

addition to the itinerary.

You have to expect the unexpected when youre travelling to remote areas and

its essential to pack an adventurous spirit along with your sunglasses and camera.

Borneo is divided into the northern Malaysian states o Sarawak and Sabah, where

our ship sailed rom the city o Kota Kinabalu; the independent Sultanate o Brunei;

and the southern Indonesian part o the island. Borneo is most amous or its

gentle, endemic orangutans, but its also home to a diverse range o wildlie, rom

comical-looking proboscis monkeys, to the colourul hornbill birds and gigantic

monitor lizards.When we arrived, the air was ripe with the tang o sun-drying sh and at the

local market, elderly men uriously clacked away on vintage Singer sewing machines,

each with a cigarette clamped between his l ips.

aniMal encounTers

Our rst encounter with the local animals was on our rst excursion to the Klias

Wetlands. Orions infatable Zodiacs erried us to a jetty, where a bumpy bus ride

The Borneo rainorest is the oldest in the world



took us deep into the mangrove rainorest to catch a small speedboat into the heart

o the wetlands or some primate-spotting. Proboscis monkeys are not as amous as

orangutans, but they are as endangered and ater spotting the males with their

big bellies and droopy red noses as they gathered their harem o emales, it was

hard not to all in love with them.

It was heartening to see so many monkeys along the mangrove-entwined banks

o the river, calling to each other and hurling themselves through the mango and

hibiscus trees. Closer to the rivers edge, we saw huge monitor lizards sunning

themselves on branches and high above, red-beaked hornbills glided over our

heads. All these sightings made the subsequent storm-chase back to the ship more

than worthwhile especially when, dripping wet, we were welcomed back on

board with a vodka cocktail to calm our razzled nerves.

There was no need or nail-biting Zodiac rides at our next port when we docked

at Labuan Island, a ederal territory that takes its name rom the Malay word or

anchorage. Most o Orions passengers are Australian, so they were more amiliar

than us with the WW2 history o this island o the coast o Sabah. Labuan was

ceded to Britain in 1846 rom Brunei, beore being occupied by the Japanese during

the war and then liberated by the Australians on September 9, 1945. It was a

poignant tour or many o the Australians, as we visited the Commonwealth war

graves and wandered among the bird o paradise fowers in the Japanese peace

park.

Borneos history is a ascinating one and back on the main island we travelled

rom the town o Kudat to meet the indigenous Rungus people. They live in

Above: Wild jungles o Borneo (Mick Fogg). Below: Orang-utan. Bottom: Diverse Marine Lie



communal longhouses in northern Borneo and we saw a reconstructed one made

o palm leaves and bamboo stalks at Bavanggazo and in contrast, visited a modern

one in Tinagol made o MDF and iron.

Local people were also on hand to welcome us at the idyllic tropical island

o Pulau Mantanani. Traditional dancing, which involved jumping over moving

bamboo stalks and blowing darts, took place in a small sandy clearing near the

white beach. Children took us along a pebbly path to their village, where

Orion provides supplies to the school, and villagers watched over smoking

barbecues laden with squirrel sh as we met students rom the school. The

heat and humidity were intense, so a snorkel saari out to a nearby lagoon to

spot purple anemone was a welcome relie as was the barbecue and beach

bar. We were treated to another island stop later on in the voyage at the tiny

jungle-covered Pulau Lankayan, where the house ree that surrounds it is

home to rainbow-coloured parrot sh, blue starsh and even a baby black-

tipped shark. It was time to return to spotting our land-dwelling wildlie

and the city o Sandakan, site o a amous POW camp during WW2, was

our base or several days as we headed out into the heart o the jungle.

Near Sandakan is Labuk Bay, a proboscis monkey reserve on a huge palm

plantation. Its a sad act that much o Borneos rainorest has been cleared to

make way or these plantations, which create palm oil or use in Western ood and

cosmetics. At Labuk Bay we saw our old riends the proboscis monkeys, double-

beaked hornbills and macaques who were trying to steal ood rom the eeding

platorms.

One o the highlights or many passengers was a visit to the Sepilok Orang

Utan Rehabilitation Centre to observe the orangutans at the eeding stations. Set

up in 1964, the largest orangutan rehab centre in the world works with orphaned

orangutans (the name comes rom the Malay, man o the orest) to teach them

how to eed, climb and play beore releasing them into the wild. It was a privilege

to watch them as they ate their lunch and the visit heightened our anticipation or

an overnight adventure down the Kinabatangan River.

Sunset over Kinabatangan River, Sabah.

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Top: Hornbills are regular visitors to thelodge. Above: Inant silver lea monkey,Labuk Bay (Roderick Eime).



sounds o The Jungle

A speedboat took us several hours inland up the cocoa-coloured river,

where jungleclad banks were home to white egrets and plenty o proboscis

monkeys straddling the branches. We reuelled at a riverside restaurant,

with a lunch prepared by local villagers, and sped on to our overnight

lodge. Beore bed an evening cruise rewarded us with more monkeys and

monitor lizards, as well as a saltwater crocodile the length o our little boat,

majestic crested serpent eagles and electric blue kingshers. We went to

sleep with the sounds o the jungle driting in through the slatted shutters;

hoots, calls and the gentle patter o rain. In exchange or an early start

the ollowing day we were rewarded with antastic wildlie spotting. First

a gibbon attracted our attention, then a big group o hornbills added a

splash o colour to the trees, while datar birds and brahminy kites few over

lakes clogged with purple water hyacinths.

But we were all holding our breath or an orangutan sighting. Wed

seen some orangutan nests the night beore, but no movement, so when our guide

pointed out a distinctive orange arm hanging rom a tree we were all ecstatic and

two more sightings o the gentle giants lled our hearts, and our memory cards,

with joy. There had been plenty o exciting adventures along the way, but this is

what wed all really wanted to see here. Borneos wildlie, alive and kicking, in the

heart o the jungle.

The sounds o the jungle drited in through the slatted shutters: hoots, calls and

the gentle patter o rain.

checK lisT:Orion Expedition Cruises operates two Camp Leakey voyages between Bali

and Singapore in October and November 2013.

Endangered Borneo pygmyelephants play in the river. (Mick Fogg)

Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, Sabah.



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O

UR CloSE nEIghBoUR, PAPUA nEW gUInEA, IS onE oF

thE lASt tRUlY WIld FRontIERS. to FUllY ExPERIEnCE

thIS vIvId And ExCItIng lAnd, AdvEntURE CRUISIngIS thE WAY to go.

Words And pictures by

roderick eime

gonecruisingwildin pngThis story rst published in Virtuoso Lie Magazine



Like feeting shadows in the undergrowth, they moved silently and stealthily,

occasionally stopping, hal-hidden, to check the progress o our canoes along the

narrow, mangrove-lined creek. Smeared head-to-toe with thick, dark volcanic mud

and just a tiara o mangrove leaves as camoufage, they were stalking us.

Through the silent swamp our mysterious ollowers continue to monitor our

journey like the abled masalei (orest spirits) o local legend. The heavily laden

canoes glide eortlessly along the still waters, just yards rom the densely wooded

embankments. Now our pursuers reveal themselves in spectacular ashion. Leaping

out rom behind huge trees, they bring our party to a halt with incomprehensible,

blood-curdling cries. From hidden vantage points within the undergrowth, saplings

are hurled at us and some bounce menacingly o the side o the canoes. Gasps o

alarm are clearly heard rom several passengers and mufed chatter comes rom

others as we try to interpret their apparently hostile intentions.

The traditional challenge, thankully, is all part o the show put on or us today

by the Tu villagers. Once strangers would be challenged and encouraged to state

their purpose whether riendly or hostile. Our passivity assumed, we are welcomed

by Anthony, the local chie, dressed in the stunning costume that makes Tu one o

the most spectacular cultural experiences in Papua New Guinea. Set amid stunning

tropical jords, Tu is only accessible by air or sea and renowned or its diving,

trekking and rare orchids. For the next hour we are eted like visiting royalty, shown

the convoluted process o sago extraction, ritual tattooing and treated to local

ballads perormed by a tiny choir o children with the voices o angels.

This delightul scene sets the mood or our 11-night, seaborne exploration along

Papua New Guineas remote northern coast where well make numerous such visits

beore swinging back to New Britain or the volcanic nale.

Thank you or visiting our village, says Anthony as the experience comes to aclose, please come back again soon. Once upon a time, we would be so happy to

see you, wed make sure you stay we eat you up! And with that delivery he reels

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back in raucous laughter slapping his tummy, bright orange,

betel nut-stained teeth exaggerating his mirth.

Preserving and encouraging local tradition and culture are

important elements o modern adventure travel, but or now

Im content this once sacred ritual is discussed in the past tense.

Papua New Guinea is a rugged, untamed land with an equally

wild reputation. Largely devoid o roads and dotted with tiny

islands, small ship cruising is the ideal method o travel. With

less than one hundred passengers, some as ew as 36, these

perectly appointed cruise vessels can pop in to a remote village

somewhere and be gone again in a ew hours without leaving

a trace.

Within the course o the last century, rst contacts were

still being made with remote tribes and cannibals continued

to eat their dinner guests. Devastated by war and plundered

by unscrupulous miners and governments, Papua New Guinea

doesnt immediately strike one as somewhere to go or a holiday

until you meet the people. Their genuine hospitality and

warmth is dicult or suspicious, westernised visitors to interpret initially, but once

acclimatised, their powerul generosity o spirit is penetrating.

This is a land o magic and mysticism, exotic cultures and mind-boggling rituals

like the convoluted (to us) Kula trade where chattels and avours are exchanged

in secret and sensuous ceremonies. Just 100 miles north o the Commonwealth

o Australia, Tok Pisin (Pidgin English) is the only uniying dialect among the

700-something unique languages. Visitors will nd the true essence o the

Melanesians along the coastal ringe between Alotua in Milne Bay all the way to the

mouth o the Sepik River, PNGs longest, and across to volcano-ravaged Rabaul on

New Britain.

Long beore the disruptive intrusion o Europeans, the ancient Papuans plied

the waters o the Solomon and Bismarck Seas in large, ornate canoes, expanding

their infuence with trade and diplomacy. Likewise, we employ the most relevant

transport or our own exploration, German-built luxury expedition yacht, MV Orion,

carrying just 100 spoiled passengers in total comort.

This exclusivity, Im pleased to report, does not equate to haughty disregard

or the isolated communities o Papua New Guinea. While generally happy and

healthy thanks to an abundant diet o resh vegetables and seaood, there are the

privations o island lie to contend with. Expedition cruisers oten assist by bringing

educational materials, books, clothing, simple medicines and rst aid supplies in

their luggage and relling it again with exquisite art, carvings and souvenirs.

We bid a reluctant arewell to the villagers at Tu as the excited children scamper

along the old whar to get one more wave beore we disappear. Even though we

will soon be one our way, theres a eeling we will never really leave.

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Above: Headdress made o bird eathers,Tu. Top: Tu local covered in mud andcharcoal to strike ear into the enemy

checK lisT:

Orion Expedition Cruises operates two Papua New Guinea Cultural Highlightsexpeditions in March 2013. All these itineraries seamlessly incorporate an

optional charter fight direct between Cairns and Rabaul.



in

TiMerozen

On thE EvE oF thE CEntEnARY oF doUglAS

MAWSonS ExPEdItIon to EASt AntARCtICA,

loUISE SoUthERdEn voYAgES to thE ICE, FRoM

nEW ZEAlAnd, And BACk In tIME.

Words And pictures

Louise southerdenThis story rst published in

WellBeing magazine, August 2011.

att, t wt ctt.



Ice on the starboard bow! At 4pm on 29 December,

1911, the steamshipAurora passed its rst iceberg since

leaving Hobart a ew weeks earlier. On board were Douglas

Mawson and the men o his Australasian Antarctic Expedition, en

route to explore a previously uncharted part o Antarctica due south o

Australia. They soon ound themselves within a puzzle o pack ice, which

settled the mountainous seas theyd had on the journey south and transxed

the men on deck.

The tranquillity o the water heightened the superb eects o this glacial

world, wrote Mawson in his 1915 account o the expedition, The Home of the

Blizzard. Majestic tabular bergs whose crevices exhaled a vaporous azure; loty

spires, radiant turrets and splendid castles; honeycombed masses illumined by pale

green light within whose airy labyrinths the water washed and gurgled. Seals and

penguins on magic gondolas were the silent denizens o this dreamy Venice. In the

sot glamour o the midsummer midnight sun, we were possessed by a rapturous

wonder the rare thrill o unreality.

A hundred years later, this ice-worldinspires the same sense o wonder and is

just as irresistible. The rest o the planet may be known, mapped and settled but

Antarctica remains a land apart: pure and unblemished, wild and intimidating, a

place where nothing is guaranteed and anything can happen.

Its a misty December aternoonwhen we leave Dunedin, on New Zealands

South Island, aboard the Orion, a ship twice as long and innitely more comortable

thanAurora (a 50-metre steam-yacht built in Scotland or whaling expeditions to

Newoundland). But our destination is the same as Mawsons: Cape Denison in

Commonwealth Bay.



There are three distinct regions in Antarctica. The

mountainous Antarctic Peninsula is the most accessible,

being only two days by sea rom the tip o South America.

Its also the most visited, receiving more than 36,000

tourists every summer. Then theres the Ross Sea, where

youll nd the largest Antarctic base, McMurdo Station(home to more than 1200 people in summer), Scotts

and Shackletons historic huts, the worlds most southerly

active volcano (Mt Erebus) and the Ross Ice Shel, a foating

ice barrier as large as France that periodically calves to

create mega-icebergs up to 300 kilometres long.

The largest and most remote region is East Antarctica. This ar side o Antarctica

makes up two-thirds o the continent, is separated rom the other regions by the

Transantarctic Mountains and includes the geographic and magnetic South Poles.

Its also at least ve sea days, about 2700 kilometres, south o Australia and New

Zealand.

Last summer, only 242 people visited Commonwealth Bay, one o its most

popular spots. Why so ew? Because its so ar and so deended by pack-ice that

you might go all that way and still not reach the continent or be able to get ashore.

But thats part o the adventure.

souTh across The souThern ocean

Beore this trip, spending ve consecutive days on the open ocean seemed a

daunting prospect. But crossing the Southern Ocean turns out to be a highlight

o the trip. It helps that my seasickness medication works and the sea plays nice:

even in the Furious Fities and the Screaming Sixties, latitudes notorious or rough

weather, the swell is a moderate three to our metres perhaps because 56 o us

Antarctic virgins had placated King Neptune on the way by letting our expedition

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leader, Don McIntyre, hose us down with near-reezing sea

water.

Were also travelling aboard the Orion, surely the

most luxurious ice-strengthened expedition vessel in these

waters. Its beautiully appointed 53 staterooms (some

with balconies) can accommodate up to 106 passengers

though there are only 96 on our trip, attended to by a

crew o 82. Theres 24-hour room service, a gym and

health spa, a sauna, a lecture theatre (lectures, movies and

documentaries are screened on each staterooms TV too)

and silver service dining in the restaurant, where stemless

wine glasses, rubber anti-slide mats on the linen tablecloths

and chairs that can be chained to the foor remind us where

we are.

Lovely as lie is indoors, its impossible to resist the pull

o all that ocean. Beore breakast, between lectures, ater

dinner, every chance we get, were out on deck to watch

dolphins leaping out o blue waves while prions and cape

petrels and wandering albatross skim the crests o the waves

with their wingtips. Eventually were so ar rom land, even the seabirds disappear

and I become acutely aware o our isolation. We are an island o comort in this

vast, watery wilderness, as physically alone as Mawson was.

anTarKTos

As we make our way south, the days become longer, and colder. By our ourth sea

day, the air temperature is zero and theres snow on the deck when we step outside

to watch humpback whales come up or breaths between ice foes. Snow petrels

circle the ship, a sign that were close.

The next morning, soon ater crossing the Antarctic Circle, we see the northern

edge o the Antarctic continent: an ice-cli with a sloping brow lling the southern

horizon. It seems impossibly vast. The geographic South Pole is still, incredibly, 2630

kilometres urther south, across all that ice some o it our kilometres thick.

For all Ive read and heard about Antarctica, its unlike any other place on Earth,

even the Arctic. In act, when the Greeks imagined a southern pole star to match the

northern one they calledArktos (the bear), they named itAntarktos, the opposite o

the Arctic. It makes sense: the Arctic is a sea surrounded by land, the Antarctic (as

the unknown southern land came to be known) is a land mass surrounded by sea.

Not that you can see any land; 99 per cent o Antarctica is permanently covered

by snow and ice. Cape Denison, a rocky point in the middle o Commonwealth Bay,

is an anomaly, one that, by ate or good ortune, Mawson ound only ater cruising

the ice-clis or weeks.

Unlike Mawson, we know where to go but even with our 21st-century

navigational gadgetry, satellite imaging and an ice master on the bridge, Orion

is at the mercy o the pack ice as much as Aurora was. Fortune smiles upon us too,

though. The ice magically parts and we anchor saely o Cape Denison, just as

Mawson did in January 1912.

The sun shone gloriously in a blue sky as we stepped ashore on a charmingice-quay the rst to set oot on the Antarctic continent between Cape Adare and

Gaussberg, a distance o about two thousand miles. Close to the Boat Harbour, as

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we called it, was suitable ground or the erection o a hut For supplies o resh

meat, in the emergency o being marooned or a number o years, there were

many Weddell seals at hand, and on almost all the neighbouring ridges colonies o

penguins were busy rearing their young So it came about that the Main Base was

nally settled at Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay.

hoMe o The blizzard

The two days were there, Commonwealth Bay is eerily calm, belying the act that

this is the windiest place on Earth. For the eatures that made Cape Denison ideal

or the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (its ice-ree harbour and exposed rock) owe

their existence to erce katabatic winds that blow down o the polar plateau, at

speeds o up to 320km/h as Mawson soon discovered.

The climate proved to be little more than one continuous blizzard the year

round; a hurricane o wind roaring or weeks together, pausing or breath only at

odd hours Stepping out o the shelter o the Hut, one was apt to be immediately

hurled at ull length downwind.

Even without a blizzard, stepping onto the ice or the rst time is exhilarating.

This is Australias Antarctic territory, but Cape Denison really belongs to the Adelie

penguins that still nest here in their thousands every summer. Theyre everywhere:

on every rocky promontory, sliding on their bellies down snowy slopes, porpoising

through the water, even walking with us as we wander.

Climbing a rocky ridge on one side o Cape Denisons small snowy valley, we

side-step nesting Adelies (named by French explorer Dumont dUrville ater his wie)

to reach the memorial cross erected in 1913 or Belgrave Ninnis and Xavier Mertz,

killed on a sledging journey with Mawson in early 1913. Back at sea level, we walk

around weddell seals lying like slugs on the ice to look at three small huts, in various

states o disrepair, used by Mawsons team to take magnetic readings. But the main

event, and the most signicant site in Australias Antarctic history, is whats now

called Mawsons Hut.

Mawsons MuseuM

Mawsons men had little or no building experience, but Australias rst scientic

base, made o pre-cut planks o oregon clad in Baltic pine, is in remarkably good

condition 100 years on thanks to its sturdy and simple design, the snow packed

around it, the cold, dry air that has preserved its timbers, and the eorts o Mawsons

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Huts Foundation, which was set up in 1996 to conserve the hut and its surrounds.

With chain-crampons over our gumboots to stop us slipping on the icy foor, we

step inside and back to 1912-13. This is one o the purest museums you will ever

see, with many o the things Mawson and his men used still here, in situ, literally

rozen in time, making pictures in your head about how they lived. There are books

such as The Hound of the Baskervilles, To Pleasure Madame and Nautical Almanac

1913, sparkly with hoar rost.

There are cans o cocoa, tins o Bovril, Eiel matches, the old stove where

the men would have warmed themselves ater venturing outside, photographer

Frank Hurleys darkroom where he scrawled on the wall Near enough is not good

enough. (Hurley came to Antarctica with Mawson beore joining Shackletons

legendary 1914-1916 expedition.)

Stepping outside again, I nd a quiet rock with a view to sit and take in this place

the constant burring o Adelies, a Wilsons storm petrel fitting over the rocks,

sotly alling snow. Just oshore lie the snow-caked Mackellar islands, dozens o

rock islets named by Mawson ater a patron o the expedition. Either side are John

OGroats and Lands End, the eastern and western limits o Mawsons home away

rom home treacherous ice-clis where one slip would mean instant death, as

Don McIntyre puts it.

Its all exactly as it would have been when Mawson was here: the penguins and

seals still come every summer; my ellow passengers in their red jackets could be

Mawsons men preparing or sledging trips; our black Zodiacs could be whale-boats

errying supplies in rom theAurora, anchored oshore where the Orion is today.

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Macquarie: Then and now

Too soon, were heading north again, but one o the advantages

o visiting this part o Antarctica is the chance to stop at Macquarie

Island, which Mawson amously called one o the wonder spots

o the world.

Leaping out o the water in scores around us were penguins o

several varieties, he wrote in The Home of the Blizzard. Penguins

were in thousands on the uprising clis, and rom rookeries near

and ar came an incessant din. At intervals along the shore sea-

elephants [elephant seals] disported their ungainly masses in the

sunlight. Circling above us in anxious haste, sea-birds gave

warning o our near approach to their nests. It was the invasion by

man o an exquisite scene o primitive nature.

In act, man had invaded Macquarie long beore Mawson

arrived. Within 10 years o sealing captain Frederick Hasselborough discovering the

island in 1810 and naming it or Lachlan Macquarie, Governor o New South Wales,

its 200,000 ur seals had been hunted to extinction and its 100,000 southern

elephant seals had almost been wiped out too. Then New Zealander Joseph Hatch

established a penguin-oil industry: up to 2000 royal penguins at a time were

steamed in purpose-built digesters, yielding about hal a litre o oil per animal.

Mawson was instrumental in stopping the exploitation o animals on Macquarie,

in 1919. The island was proclaimed a wildlie sanctuary in 1933 and a nature reserve

in 1971, and was World Heritage listed in 1997. All o which means that this long,

ruggedly handsome island actually an uplited undersea mountain range has

recovered considerably in the 100 years since Mawson was here.

Landing at the islands northern end, were greeted by Tasmania Parks and

Wildlie Service rangers, our guides or the day. Everywhere we walk, we see

thousands o king and royal penguins (which Mawson called picturesque little

ellows, with a crest and eyebrows o long golden-yellow eathers) promenading

along the black-sand beaches like well-dressed gentlemen. (There are as many as

our million penguins on the island now kings, royals, gentoos and rockhoppers.)

Skuas and giant petrels soar overhead. Great boulders o fesh dot the landscape:

elephant seals, weighing up to our tonnes, which now number about 90,000. And

the grassy hills are alive with penguin cities one royal rookery we visit has about

13,000 nesting pairs and rabbits, introduced by sealers or ood and responsible

or extensive environmental damage. (Their days are numbered, however: a ve-

year, $25 million rabbit-eradication program began in April 2011).

a swell reTurn

Leaving Macquarie eels like the end o the trip but were still three sea days rom

Dunedin, and the Southern Ocean isnt about to let us go lightly. The swell builds

all day until, that night, it peaks at 10 metres.

At dinner, we hold onto our plates and glasses as the ship rolls, and watch the

windows o the dining room submerge, like the doors o ront-loading washing

machines on the rinse cycle. Ater dessert, a ew o us put on our wet weather gear

and stand at the stern railing watching a procession o monster waves chasing us, the

50-knot winds blowing rain squalls and salt spray in our aces until two waves catch

up to the ship, a wall o water descends and washes over the deck and we retreat

inside. Saely in our beds later, it eels as i the sea is breathing deeply under us.

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Our last stop is another World Heritage-listed subantarctic island: Campbell.

Although gale-orce winds prevent us rom going ashore, our Zodiac cruise along

the protected eastern clis, in the company o mermaiding New Zealand ur seals,

is spectacular, not least or the mercurial weather conditions. Cue the rain squalls!

Now some sunshine! Thirty-knot gusts tear the white caps o the dancing water

and hurl them at us until were rewarded with a rainbow and the sun momentarily

spotlights thousands o nesting albatross on the high clis above.

Ater another sea day, and smooth seas again, we cruise back into Dunedins

long harbour. When Mawson returned to Adelaide and the known world, in

February 1914, ater two long years on the ice, he marvelled at the tree-clad shores

and the smoke o many steamers and said, The welcome home the voice o the

innumerable strangers the hand-grips o many riends it chokes one it cannot

be uttered.

How strange it must have elt. To me, even tiny Dunedin seems busy ater less

than three weeks at sea. But ollowing his wake, landing where he did, stepping

inside the hut he and his men shared through blizzardly conditions, seeing the icy

environment that took the lives o some o them and almost killed Mawson himsel

its history in motion, the past in the present, and our journey to Antarctica has

been all the richer or it.

Louise Southerden recently won the Australian Society of Travel Writers 2012 Travel Writer of the

Year award for a portfolio of three travel stories, one of which was this story on her voyage to East

Antarctica with Orion Expedition Cruises.

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checK lisT:Orion Expedition Cruises Antarctic expeditions also visit the subantarctic

Islands. You can ollow in the ootsteps o Sir Douglas Mawson in January 2014

with voyages departing Dunedin.



colourKiMberley

stephen scourfieLd

I

t hAS BEEn A dAY oF ColoUR. not ColoUR In onE,

ovERPoWERIng SEnSE, BUt ColoUR ShIFtIng EvERY MInUtE.

This morning it was milky and blue, moist and windy cool, damp

but with the promise o heat. It was platinum and squid ink. It was steel

thats been heated and dipped in cold water. It was dark, childhood cupboard-

under-the-stairs and the sterling glint o silverware in church. It was the ocean as

tones o every-grey with wind moving it around. Light shating down, god-like

(whatever god), throwing silver on a patch o ocean. A random, pointless spot

o ocean. And that was the point. It was inky ocean and lustrous splashes; it was

sparkling sh gills and their dead, dark eyes.

That was this morning on Montgomery Ree, a bizarre 400 square kilometres

o sandstone that appears rom the ocean as the tide recedes. Imagine that.

Particularly on this day, with the moon and sun locked in some tug-o-love over

our lush green-and-blue jewel planet, when the tide line is pushed rom dark

and muddy, mussel-spangled rocks to the red hues o the Kimberley sandstone

that was laid down 200 million years ago, crushed, heated, melded over those

millennia, up to 5km under the surace o an ocean that deserted it and let it

dried, baked by the sun, with ocean-bottom ripples kilned into it.

At 2am the ree was covered by nearly 7m o this bisquey sea, but now it

is draining o in gentle wateralls that tinkle like broken glass, jet in streams,

and bring bursts o tiny sh (hoping or reedom) to the white egrets standing

alongside. Waiting or the easy prey that comes ater each tide. (For thesupermarket to open.)

At 2am you couldnt have seen it, but now, not much more than ve hours

later, it is a picturesque cascade, laid on or us, in our rubber Zodiacs, away

rom the MV Orion or a dip into natures bazaar. The Montgomery Ree o the

Kimberley coast; what David Attenborough once said should be described as the

Eighth Wonder o the World.

We troll around up what they call The River, as the ree drains and green

turtles stick up their beaky aces to breath, and then the wind dies a little and

we are away in soupy, more-blue water, and the rothy tops look the white o

altar-boy collars.I eel completely saturated by the place, the environment, the natural

This story rst published in The West Australian

Images: BOB FOWLER & NICK RAINS

The striking Kimberley colours



stupendousness o it, and o our natural part in it as complex auna organisms,

part o natural systems and no more. (And then I hold a digital camera up and it

questions that little notion.)

By the time we are back at the ship, the day has changed. Brunch is served a

massive brunch o everything-eggs, cooked or you, pork roast and cold meats.

A wonderul, wonderul spread o everything humans can conjure up. But it is

surrounded by put in context by the turquoise that is now beginning to surround

it. For, at 10am, the sun is breaking through. It is patchy at rst. Some o the ocean

is dark, and some o it milky-turquoise, so you might think that some is deep and

some shallow. You might think that we are in dangerous waters that there is both

sand in the shallows and deep rocks. But thats not the case. It is cloud holding

back the broad sunshine and letting it through, and the sky matches it with both

china blue and white and then the milky cusp o sky-through-cloud in between. (It

is a changeable moment, when either the clear-blue or the clouds might win, but I

know the ormer is true.)

And then, bang, the sun has won, and laid on an opaque, greenish-blue world,

fat to the horizon.

But even these are not the best o the colour-changes o today.

Ater our exploration o Montgomery Ree, and my agreement with Sir David,

Captain Mike Taylor moves the Orion 10 nautical miles to anchor o Rat Point,

a dominating Kimberley sandstone blu. The other side o us is Steep Island, an

equally sharp eature which ghts or the eyes attention, and between it all, water

so that salty that it seems to run an electrical charge.

When we anchor, Rat Point looks somewhat benign. Beige and tan with dark

clets o shadow that hold promise.

By 2.15pm, when we board Zodiacs to head to shore and Rat Points art site the

colours had shited again, to a raw, baked red, resonating colour. It isnt hot today,

but the rock knows heat and it knows it over millions o years.

We land on the sand and shingle beach, walk past a clump o personable boab

trees that could be a amily with all its oibles, and climb a green gulley chorusing

several species o honeyeaters and the whir o rainbow honeyeaters.

By the time we get to the art site, it is overcast. Around the mouthless heads o

the Wandjinas are clouds. They control the clouds and the lightning.

They are happy we are here, says one o Orions guides, They have laid on

some cloud or us.

We sit and appreciate the moments and the images - an art site ull o Wandjinas

and dugong (with their whiskers), sh and snakes. And yams. Tales both spiritual

and practical. What we believe; what we eat. Connections.

The Wandjina spirits, which traditional Aboriginal people here believe created

lie and the land, and even the eatures o it, and control and bring the wet season

with its crucial rains, and gave instruction on how to live.

And then the sun bursts out. Thats it, says the expedition crew guide, they

have had enough o us; we have had our moment and its time to go.

And we do.

We walk down again and there, at the bottom, is a Chinese-Malay man who has

injured his right leg and been waiting on the beach or his wie who has walked and

rock-hopped the hal-hour up to the art site.On either side, the beach is fanked by rock aces. As you look out to the now-

languid sea, by the macho Rat Point itsel to the right, and by a big rock wall to

the let.

The amous Kimberley sunset.

Wandjina Rock Art at Rat Point.

Guests enjoying the spray o King George Falls



Time passed so quickly, he says, in no time.

He briefy describes the light on the rock ace.

One minute it was dark and ominous. The next it was bright and cheerul.

And as we board the Zodiacs and umble with our bags, I look up and see that

behind the young Filipino man bracing the outboards throttle grip, the rock ace

has red up to a rosy arewell. It looks airground-happy. I snap a couple o pictures.

(Its cant-go-wrong stu) And as we pass Rat Point itsel, I see the same. That oldphrase picture perect rings in my head, and there it is, maniested beore me.

Picture Perect indeed. Its point-and-shoot stu.

The days colour has run the gambit o emotions (make em laugh, make em

cry, pick em up, knock em down), and I head to my cabin to let it all settle not just

in my head, but in all the jangling cells o my body.

But then the ship swings a little on her anchor and there, outside the slide

door and narrow balcony, Steep Island presents itsel like a cut o resh steak. My

goodness, the rawness o that colour could make anyone grab a camera or a paint

palette. And I step out and see Rat Point is doing the same. (Anything you can do,

I can do better.) The two o them out there together, acing o, pulsing, having abit o macho un.

And then the sun dips to the horizon, in a fashy, bloody, dot, and vanishes, and

all thats let is a murky purple, a memory o amber.

And I eel awash, drained and washed out by the kaleidoscopic day.

checK lisT:Orions Kimberley Expeditions operate between April and September in 2013.

They include a scenic fight over the Bungle Bungle Ranges.

Zodiac saari up King George River

Booby on the fy.



Zodiacs exploring the Russian Far East.



o ogand vodKaexoTic isles

Words And pictures

John borthWickFirst published in The Sunday

Telegraph and escape.com.au



ThERES no SUCh thIng AS BAd WEAthER. JUSt

tRAvEllERS BAdlY dRESSEd FoR thE WEAthER,SAYS

thE ExPEdItIon lEAdER AS oUR RUBBER ZodIAC

BoAt SkIMS ovER thE loW SWEll.

It is mid summer in the ultra-remote Kuril Islands o ar eastern Russia, which means

near-zero temperatures and me wearing 18 items o clothing including gumboots

and a bank-robber balaclava.

Our surroundings are volcanic peaks, kelp beds and glittering og banks. Seaotters casually foat nearby on their backs. Another Zodiac radios to us, swearing

they see a supine otter thats clutching an empty vodka bottle to its chest. Too

Russian to be true? I dont believe it until, back on our ship, Orion II, I see the photo

o this would-be blotto otter.

You might call the Kurils an archipelago o og and vodka Soviet exiles here

would have needed plenty o the latter to endure the ormer. The chain o 56 largely

uninhabited islands stretches over 1000 km north rom Hokkaido, Japan to Russias

Kamchatka Peninsula. Home to 100 volcanoes (40 o them active) and endless

wildlie, the islands are also dotted with the ruins o gulag prisons and secret bases.

More people have probably seen the summit o Everest than have visited someo these islands, suggests Wayne Brown, one o our naturalist guides. Weve sailed

rom Otaru in Hokkaido to explore the Kurils, expedition-style, going ashore daily in

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Zodiacs to look or ur seal rookeries, old settlements and prolic

bird colonies.

Its a sunny day as we rst land at Urup Island. Emerald

hillsides tilt up to a volcanos snowline. Two Russian shermen

working at salmon-salting greet us, their rst visitors or months.

Moments later hundreds o stinging midges attack us which

explains well the islands lack o visitors.

The Kuril Islands were originally inhabited by Ainu aboriginals who were

displaced during centuries o territorial tug o war between Russia and Japan. On

Shumshu, the most northerly island, the two nations continued to ght or three

months beyond the ocial end o World War II. Russia then occupied the our

southernmost islands, Japanese territory, and seems determined to never relinquish

them. Among our ships mostly Australian passengers is a lively contingent o 20

Japanese keen to see the islands that were once Japans.

The seas are calm as our Zodiacs range around the twin Chirpoy (small bird)

Islands until we come upon a haul-out o Steller sea lions, the worlds largest sea

lions. Weighing as much as 1000 kg these giants loll, sunbaking on a high rock

ledge until several o them launch into the sea with the worlds largest bellyfops.

A new day, a new island. Our boats sur through a gap in the ancient crater rim

o Yankicha Island and we nd ourselves on a lagoon ringed by orested walls and

a jagged skyline. This gothic caldera could be a wind-chilled Bora Bora or, equally,

the site o some sinister installation where Bond and Goldnger might duel to the

death.

We come ashore on a beach o hot springs and steaming mud. A crewman

digs a trench in the sand that soon lls with water and, ater peeling o multiple

layers o clothing, I slip into an extreme spa, Ainu-style near-boiling water, near-

reezing air. Meantime, a small black Arctic ox, entirely unaraid o humans, comessning around, inspecting these strange aliens whove invaded his island. On our

way back to the ship we spot a colony o very rare whiskered auklets our long,

o ii at.



white, whisker-like eathers radiate rom their dark aces. Serious birdwatchers

search or years in other regions just to glimpse one o these, says our Russian

guide Sergey, And here they are by the hundreds.

Our northernmost destination is Kamchatkas Zhupanova River, one o the mosttrout-rich waterways in the world and also home to the Stellers sea eagle, the

heaviest o all eagles. One o these white giants obligingly alights in a tree and

spreads its wings, seemingly two metres wide. The only local that can trump this

spectacle is the brown bear and, in luck, we track a large one as it pads along the

shoreline.

We dock at Kamchatkas capital, Petropavlovsk where about hal the ships

passengers head to a sled dog arm. Here we check out teams o blue-eyed Siberian

huskies plus a troupe o curvaceous, gyrating Koryak dancers, ollowed by a lunch

that eatures unlimited servings o succulent, resh salmon roe and good vodka.

Meanwhile, the other passengers stump up $1000 each or a spectacular helicopter

daytrip to a World Heritage geothermal wonderland, the Valley o the Geysers or,

expediTion cruising is liKe a series

o haiKu poeMs one perecT

MoMenT capTured in TiMe,

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according one cheeky traveller (who cant aord

the trip), the Valley o the Old Geezers.

Cruising is no longer or the newly wed, the

over-ed and nearly dead, is the cruising industrys

unocial slogan. Were on the inaugural cruise

in Asian waters o Orion II, the sister ship to the

highly-acclaimed, Australian-owned Orion. Our

time on the luxurious vessel capacity 100 guests

certainly isnt all about bird watching and beach

landings. For instance, Che Lothar Greiners meals

are a constant gauntlet o temptations. Resistance

is utile. Veal tenderloin, caviar, black cod,

tempura, salads, sorbets and crme brulee and

that is just one nights degustation menu. Resting

between easts and shore excursions we can chose

rom expert lectures on Kuril history, exploration

and wildlie. Or just snooze and cruise in our ne

staterooms.

Expedition cruising is like a series o haiku

poems one perect moment captured in time,

reckons Orion IIs aable Irish captain, Mike Taylor.

Our rst sight o the Fuji-like cone o Alaid volcano

on Atlasova Island is such a moment. The snow-

capped 2,339-metre peak, the highest in the

Kurils, looks down on grasslands where we nd

the ruins o a Stalin-era prison or emale political

prisoners. I summer here is a time o brie, sun-

warmed calm, the rest o the year must have been

a snap-rozen hell, worsened by the threat o Alaid

spitting its volcanic dummy as it did periodically.

Cormorants, gulls and murres litter the air.

Curious ur seals buzz our Zodiacs. By way o

sombre contrast, the Ainu knew our next island

as Matua, or hell mouth, thanks to its thermal

and volcanic hyperactivity. We splash ashore as its

og and mists lit to reveal a lush island scattered with abandoned Soviet bunkers,

anti-aircrat guns, helmets and hal-tracks. Theres more o the same at our next

landing but on a huge scale. On Simushir Island the empty dormitories, Lenin

murals, cinemas and crumbling workshops speak o the 5000 Soviet personnel who

inhabited then, in the early 1990s, abandoned this arthest Eurasian outpost o

Moscows bankrupt empire.

We cross the Sea o Okhotsk to Sakhalin Island or our nal excursion, to the

tiny, treeless outcrop o Tyuleny. Thronged with 150,000 noisy northern ur seals,

hundreds o Steller sea lions and millions o black and white murres, it is like a mad,

marine Noahs Ark. Brawling, braying bull seals, squirming pups and dinning birds

crowd almost every inch o the clis and shoreline. Tyuleny is a wildlie research

station and rom its walkways and observation hides we are able to photograph

close-up this antastic melee an extraordinary nale to an extraordinary voyage.

at



Im a goby girl, in a goby world he sings, acting startled, acting up.

Harry loves just about everything in the water, but he really loves gobies.

These are great little sh, he enthuses. And I mean enthuses.They can change sex multiple times They can use their pectoral ns like eet

and walk along They can adhere to pieces o coral They have an incredible

amount o fexibility

Harrys brilliant. He has a genuine enthusiasm and the ability to communicate

that thrill. He conjures up the image o both a bug-eyed, cross-dressing sh and a

super-specialist creature, all with a bit o theatre and ew pearls o wisdom thrown

in.

Harrys real name is Mark Christensen, but one simply cant imagine anyone

knowing or caring about that. To all and sundry, hes Harry scraggy-bearded,

unmade-bed-looking, croc-ooted, lovable, inspiring Harry.He is a marine biologist and or 14 years worked in the tourism industry, drawing

up educational programs or the Kimberley, Great Barrier Ree and Torres Strait.

There, he helped set up Poruma Island Resort on Coconut Island. Establishing

abouT

harrywild

HARRY CRoUChES SlIghtlY And holdS UP hIS hAndS, FIngERS

SPREAd, lIkE A CRIMInAl CAUght In A PolICE SPotlIght. hE

lookS UP, hIS FACE FRAMEd BY A dInnER-PlAtE BEARd, And

FlICkS hIS oPEn-WIdE EYES FRoM SIdE to SIdE.

by stephen scourfieLdThis story originally published in TheWeekend West, 12 November 2011

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tourism on this a small coral cay was to bring sustainable employment or

Aboriginals, whom Harry recruited and trained. He also worked or many years with

guests on Lizard Island o Queensland.

He joined Orion Expedition Cruises in 2005, and has worked or many seasons in

the Kimberley as a guide and expedition leader on its original ship, Orion, then later

on Orion II where Harry clearly revelled in the new environment.

In his talk on the ree sh, during the expedition cruise ships voyage Across

the Wallace Line, he has enthused us all about damsel, parrot, surgeon, butterfy,cardinal and angel sh, the wrasses, cods and trouts, and the blennies and, yes, the

gobies, we will see this aternoon in several splendid hours o snorkelling over coral

and a drop-o into the deep blue o Kakaban Island.

The voyage in South-East Asia leaves Sabah to head down the Makassar Strait

between Borneo and Sulawesi, pretty well directly north o York (no, not Cape York),

past Bali, where the voyage ends.

Harrys quite a character, but hes joined by specialist bird watcher Chris Harbard,

who has fown out (in an aircrat) rom near Cambridge, England, to share his

knowledge and good company, and Kit van Wagner, an American and enthusiastic

marine science educator.They make a ormidable, amiable and knowledgeable team under expedition

leader and marine biologist Mick Fogg.

Each gives entertaining lectures, with guests leaving the comortable lounge

inused painlessly with knowledge. Kim brings mangroves alive, Mick delves into

Indo-Pacic coral ree biology and Chris covers the birds o Borneo, with its 633

species.

Kingshers, sunbirds, spiderhunters, trogons, pittas, broadbills, bee-eaters he

brings them all alive. But when he gets to the hornbills, he tells how emales wall

themselves into a nest in a tree or up to our months.

Incredible, he says, staring at the picture o one on the screen, just or a

second as i he were there himsel, in the orest, looking at it through the precious

Swarovski binoculars that he so oten wears around his neck.

Chris, one can clearly see, has his avourites too.

But, back to gobies.

Harry is again wide-eyed, telling us how these little sh have big eyes in the top

o their head, so they can see danger. They oten live with a blind shrimp. Harry

raises his eyebrows and rolls his own eyes.

But then he drops into marine science, explaining that the shrimp might be

blind but its a big excavator, and the goby is good at spotting danger. The shrimp

does the earthworks, and the gobys tail stays connected to the antenna o the

shrimp. I theres any sign o danger, the goby ficks its tail and they both go down

the hole. Quick smart.

In a symbiotic relationship, they share the hole.

But then Harry gets that impish grin back.

O course, I dont know what else they get up to in there Another goby

pearl in his goby world.

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checK lisT:The specialist expedition team, typically experts in the disciplines o history,

botany, marine biology, geology and wildlie, accompany each voyage, changing

as required to provide local knowledge specic to the destination. Together,supported by guest lecturers, they provide a wealth o expertise which they

share to expand guests knowledge, enhancing the experience.

Mk t t o-t it c ct.


40/40

2 0 1 3 C A L E N D A R - O R I O N

DEPT. DATE NTS EXPEDITION

18-Apr-13 10 Kimberley Expedition DARWIN, Com*, Kununurra (or included Bungle Bungles fight), King George River & Falls, Vansittart Bay, Hunter River (optionalhelicopter to Mitchell Falls), Montgomery Ree/Rat Point, Talbot Bay/Horizontal Wateralls, Crocodile Creek, Nares Point, BROOME

28-Apr-13 10 Kimberley Expedition BROOME, Crocodile Creek, Nares Point, Talbot Bay/Horizontal Wateralls, Montgomery Ree/Rat Point, Hunter River (optionalhelicopter to Mitchell Falls), Vansittart Bay, King George River & Falls, Kununurra (or included Bungle Bungles fight), Com*, DARWIN

8-May-13 10 Kimberley E xpedition DARWIN, Com*, Kununurra (or included Bungle Bungles fight), King George River & Falls, Vansittart Bay, Hunter River (optionalhelicopter to Mitchell Falls), Montgomery Ree/Rat Point, Talbot Bay/Horizontal Wateralls, Crocodile Creek, Nares Point, BROOME

18-May-13 10 Kimberley Expedition BROOME, Crocodile Creek, Nares Point, Talbot Bay/Horizontal Wateralls, Montgomery Ree/Rat Point, Hunter River (optionalhelicopter to Mitchell Falls), Vansittart Bay, King George River & Falls, Kununurra (or included Bungle Bungles fight), Com*, DARWIN

28-May-13 10 Kimberley Expedition DARWIN, Com*, Kununurra (or included Bungle Bungles fight), King George River & Falls, Vansittart Bay, Hunter River (optionalhelicopter to Mitchell Falls), Montgomery Ree/Rat Point, Talbot Bay/Horizontal Wateralls, Crocodile Creek, Nares Point, BROOME

7-Jun-13 10 Kimberley Expedition BROOME, Crocodile Creek, Nares Point, Talbot Bay/Horizontal Wateralls, Montgomery Ree/Rat Point, Hunter River (optionalhelicopter to Mitchell Falls), Vansittart Bay, King George River & Falls, Kununurra (or included Bungle Bungles fight), Com*, DARWIN

17-Jun-13 10 Kimberley Expedition DARWIN, Com*, Kununurra (or included Bungle Bungles fight), King George River & Falls, Vansittart Bay, Hunter River (optionalhelicopter to Mitchell Falls), Montgomery Ree/Rat Point, Talbot Bay/Horizontal Wateralls, Crocodile Creek, Nares Point, BROOME

27-Jun-13 10 Kimberley Expedition BROOME, Crocodile Creek, Nares Point, Talbot Bay/Horizontal Wateralls, Montgomery Ree/Rat Point, Hunter River (optionalhelicopter to Mitchell Falls), Vansittart Bay, King George River & Falls, Kununurra (or included Bungle Bungles fight), Com*, DARWIN

7-Jul-13 10 Kimberley Expedition DARWIN, Com*, Kununurra (or included Bungle Bungles fight), King George River & Falls, Vansittart Bay, Hunter River (optionalhelicopter to Mitchell Falls), Montgomery Ree/Rat Point, Talbot Bay/Horizontal Wateralls, Crocodile Creek, Nares Point, BROOME

17-Jul-13 10 Kimberley Expedition BROOME, Crocodile Creek, Nares Point, Talbot Bay/Horizontal Wateralls, Montgomery Ree/Rat Point, Hunter River (optionalhelicopter to Mitchell Falls), Vansittart Bay, King George River & Falls, Kununurra (or included Bungle Bungles fight), Com*, DARWIN

27-Jul-13 10 Kimberley Expedition DARWIN, Com*, Kununurra (or included Bungle Bungles fight), King George River & Falls, Vansittart Bay, Hunter River (optionalhelicopter to Mitchell Falls), Montgomery Ree/Rat Point, Talbot Bay/Horizontal Wateralls, Crocodile Creek, Nares Point, BROOME

6-Aug-13 10 Kimberley Expedition BROOME, Crocodile Creek, Nares Point, Talbot Bay/Horizontal Wateralls, Montgomery Ree/Rat Point, Hunter River (optionalhelicopter to Mitchell Falls), Vansittart Bay, King George River & Falls, Kununurra (or included Bungle Bungles fight), Com*, DARWIN

16-Aug-13 10 Art o the Kimberley DARWIN, Com*, Wyndham (or Warringarri Art Centre, Warmun Art Centre, Bungle Bungles or Ord River) (overnight onboard), KingGeorge River & Falls, Vansittart Bay, Bigge Island, Montgomery Ree/Rat Point, Nares Point, Crocodile creek, BROOME

26-Aug-13 10 Kimberley Expedition BROOME, Crocodile Creek, Nares Point, Talbot Bay/Horizontal Wateralls, Montgomery Ree/Rat Point, Hunter River (optionalhelicopter to Mitchell Falls), Vansittart Bay, King George River & Falls, Kununurra (or included Bungle Bungles fight), Com*, DARWIN

5-Sep-13 10 Kimberley Expedition DARWIN, Com*, Kununurra (or included Bungle Bungles fight), King George River & Falls, Vansittart Bay, Hunter River (optionalhelicopter to Mitchell Falls), Montgomery Ree/Rat Point, Talbot Bay/Horizontal Wateralls, Crocodile Creek, Nares Point, BROOME

15-Sep-13 14 Kimberley with SpiceVoyage of Discovery BROOME, Nares Point, Crocodile Creek, Montgomery Ree, Rat Point, Kuri Bay, Bigge Island, Montelavit Islands, King George River &Falls, Semau, Savu, West Sumba, Komodo, Satonda, Kananga, Badas, BALI

29-Sep-13 10 Borneo Discovery BALI, Semarang (or Borobudur), Tanjung Puting National Park (or Camp Leakey) (overnight onboard), Pare Pare (or overnight land tripto Tana Toraja), BALI

9-Oct-13 6 Private Charter BALI to SINGAPORE

15-Oct-13 10 Private Charter SINGAPORE to BALI

25-Oct-13 10 Camp Leakey -Faces in the Forest

BALI, Tanjung Puting National Park (or Camp Leakey) (overnight onboard), Kuching (or Semenggoh Rehabilitation Centre), BakoNational Park, Natuna Archipelago, Anambas Archipelago, SINGAPORE

4-Nov-13 14 Dry Dock SINGAPORE

18-Nov-13 10 Camp Leakey -Faces in the Forest

SINGAPORE, Anambas Archipelago, Natuna Archipelago, Kuching (or Semenggoh Rehabilitation Centre) (overnight onboard), BakoNational Park, Tanjung Puting National Park (or Camp Leakey) (overnight onboard), BALI

28-Nov-13 10 Forgotten Islands -

Photography

BALI, Komodo (overnight onboard), Kisar, Sangliat Dol, Weluan Beach, Thursday Island, Orion Ree, CAIRNS

8-Dec-13 5 Great Barrier Ree &Islands - Food & Wine

CAIRNS, Hardy Ree, Hamilton Island, Percy Island, Lady Elliott Island, BRISBANE

13-Dec-13 7 Tasman Discoverer -Food & Wine

BRISBANE, Norolk Island, Russell (Bay o Islands), Roberton Island (Bay o Islands), AUCKLAND

20-Dec-13 14 Exploration o theAntipodes

AUCKLAND, Chatham Islands, Bounty Islands, The Antipodes, Campbell Island, Macquarie Island, Auckland Islands, DUNEDIN

3-Jan-14 14 New Zealand & Sub-Antarctic Exploration

DUNEDIN Snares Island, Doubtul Sound, Milord Sound, Dusky Sound, Stewart Island, Auckland Islands, Campbell Island, Akaroa,Kaikoura, Marlborough Sounds, Picton, DUNEDIN

17-Jan-14 21 Scott & ShackletonsAntarctica - Ross Sea

DUNEDIN, Auckland Islands, Macquarie Island, Ross Sea Region, Campbell Island, DUNEDIN

7-Feb-14 21 Scott & Shackleton's DUNEDIN, Auckland Islands, Macquarie Island, Ross Sea Region, Campbell Island, DUNEDIN

Documents

Journeys Magazine - Issue 1