Best of the Kimberley and Tiwis - 10 Nights - Darwin to Broome

The new Darwin cruise ship terminal at Fort Hill Wharf is adjacent to the convention centre, only one kilometre from Darwin’s CBD. Modern amenities, hotels and parking are there, plus a mini-market with beautiful local productions – Aboriginal art and crafts, diamonds and opals, and eateries, distinctive of the Top End. Darwin is a home port for the small luxury vessels Coral Princess and Coral Discoverer that explore the Kimberley coast to Broome. Read more about Darwin, Australia

Bathurst Island lies 75 km to the north of Darwin in the Arafura Sea, and together with the larger Melville Island makes up the Twi Islands, part of Australia’s Northern Territory. The largest settlement on Bathurst is Wurrumiyanga with a population of around 1450. Most residents are the indigenous Twi people, with Twi as their first language. Read more about Bathurst Island, Australia

King George River enters Koolama Bay and the Timor Sea from the Gardner Plateau in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The 112km river was named after King George V in 1911 by the English explorer Chas Conigrave after a privately funded expedition in the area. Over many thousands of years the river has cut back into the plateau creating stunning sheer walls and majestic waterfalls at the end of several canyons. Read more about King George River, Australia

Vansittart Bay lies 530km WSW of Darwin, on the Kimberley coast of Western Australia, facing the Indian Ocean. A small stream, low rock platforms, and the sparse Truscott-Mungalalu Plateau face the bay. This is a protected large bay with numerous small islands and secluded coves that offer plenty of fishing. Read more about Vansittart Bay, Australia

Swift Bay, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, is an inlet to the fractured coastline, 12 kilometres west of the Mitchell River inlet. The flat rocky shoreline, with little vegetation, does have a number of sandy beaches, and deep to the SW of the bay mangroves line the shoreline. In the waters of the bay are of course salt-water crocodiles you’ll see from your Zodiak. Read more about Swift Bay, Australia

Bigge Island is the second largest of the islands that comprise the Bonaparte Archipelago, off the coast of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The island is composed of weathered sandstones that form a rugged and barren landscape, but it is criss-crossed by many deep grooves and fissures, forming valleys that support the island's vegetation. Being uninhabited and free of feral creatures, it is a safe habitat for several vulnerable mammal species, including the small Monjon rock wallabies, the Ilangnalya, and the Northern Quoll. Read more about Bigge Island, Australia

Read more about Careening Bay, Australia

The Montgomery Reef is Australia's largest inshore reef system covering more than 300km2, near the mouth of the Sale River off the Kimberley coast of West Australia. At high tide you see very little of the Reef but as the tide drops rapidly away a raging torrent of water, cascading off the top of this 400ha reef erupts, as miles of surrounding reef appears to slowly rise out of the ocean. Read more about Montgomery Reef, Australia

The Lacepede Islands (aka the Lacepedes) are a group of four islands in the Indian Ocean off the NW coast of Western Australia, 120 km north of Broome and 30 km from the mainland. They are all small and low-lying, being composed of coarse sand and coral rubble and are important breeding grounds for green turtles and colonies of seabirds including frigates, boobies and terns. In the late 1800s the mining and extraction of ‘guano’ (phosphate) from the islands was a lucrative extra for whalers hunting humpback, sperm and blue whales in the region. Read more about Lacepede Islands, Australia

Broome, situated on a peninsula in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, is known as the ‘pearl of the north’ due to its being the home of the South Sea pearls, among the largest commercially harvested cultured pearls in the world. In the 1800s Broome attracted pearl divers from Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines, resulting in the delightful multicultural town it is today. Visitors can witness first-hand how Broome pearls are cultured on a cruise to a local pearl farm, and hear the romantic stories of the original pearl luggers. Read more about Broome, Australia