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
There is noThing liKe png
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
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
2/40Journeys FEBRUARY 20132
WHERE DO YOU GO WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN
www.orionexpeditions.com
B O R N E O | K I M B E R L E Y | P A P U A N E W G U I N E A | N E W Z E A L A N D | S U B - A N T A R C T I C I S L A N D S | A N T A R C T I C A
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
3/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 3
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
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
4/40Journeys FEBRUARY 20134
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.
louisesouTherden
0JohnborThwicK
aMywaTKins
{
{{
anTarcTica
borneo
russian ar easT
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
5/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 5
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.
16
28sTephen
scourield
rodericKeiMe
}
}
ctt
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
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
6/40Journeys FEBRUARY 20136
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
... t
t
t -t; t
m k
m t k t tt
tt mt
.biz Cm gui
Cuii & Cui shi
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
7/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 7
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
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
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?
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
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.
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
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
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
11/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 11
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
12/40Journeys FEBRUARY 201312
Reconstruction o atraditional longhouse.
c t t , mt tm ... -k
.
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
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
13/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 13
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
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
14/40Journeys FEBRUARY 201314
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.
T t j t t t tt
tt: t, t t tt .
Top: Hornbills are regular visitors to thelodge. Above: Inant silver lea monkey,Labuk Bay (Roderick Eime).
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
15/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 15
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.
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
16/40Journeys FEBRUARY 201316
l m wm v Tm i m t t f
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
17/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 17
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
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
18/40Journeys FEBRUARY 201318
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
g m
m
mtt m m
t t
t tt t
t t
tt.
s tt, Tf
Tf
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
19/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 19
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.
T
m
mtm,
t t m-
t
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.
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
20/40Journeys FEBRUARY 201320
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.
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
21/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 21
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.
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
22/40Journeys FEBRUARY 201322
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
a gt t o .
rt l t t k t M i
it tt
m k
mt k
t
: t
t
t sm
st...
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
23/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 23
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
i t
att, t
k t
et,
t at.
a t z.
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
24/40Journeys FEBRUARY 201324
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
m
t
jkt
M m
t
i M ht t m.
rm t M ht, c d.
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
25/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 25
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.
M ht t 242 tt t , c d.
a att t t c d.
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
26/40Journeys FEBRUARY 201326
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.
T wk t bk b, M i.
a hm, k , t
M i tt.
gt
t
t :
t ,
t
t,
m t
90,000.
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
27/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 27
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.
h t t
mt t.
T m, t
d m t t
t k t .
lt s t , s b,
M i.
b K
k, s b, M i.
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.
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
28/40Journeys FEBRUARY 201328
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
29/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 29
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
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
30/40Journeys FEBRUARY 201330
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
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
31/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 31
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.
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
32/40Journeys FEBRUARY 201332
Zodiacs exploring the Russian Far East.
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
33/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 33
o ogand vodKaexoTic isles
Words And pictures
John borthWickFirst published in The Sunday
Telegraph and escape.com.au
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
34/40Journeys FEBRUARY 201334
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
a T i m t t t st .
rih o ii t at i, K . a .
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
35/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 35
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.
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
36/40Journeys FEBRUARY 201336
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,
Kk t k t
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
37/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 37
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
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
38/40Journeys FEBRUARY 201338
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
o et Tm
Mm Mk ct
d wj
m wj T
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
39/40Journeys FEBRUARY 2013 39
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.
h
tm
t t t
mmt ttt... t t
tt
m
t .
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.
7/28/2019 Journeys Magazine - Issue 1
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