Kimberley: The Lost Land in Australia (11 Days)

Australia's only tropical capital and a culturally diverse frontier city on the Timor Sea. Guests embark Silver Cloud during the afternoon, with time beforehand for the waterfront, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory or the George Brown Botanic Gardens. The expedition team runs the welcome briefing and safety drill before an evening sailing.

A full day at sea crossing the Timor Sea westwards. The expedition team opens the lecture programme with sessions on Kimberley geology, the region's tides, marine life and the Wandjina and Gwion Gwion rock art traditions. Zodiac and landing procedures are briefed and biosecurity checks completed.

Ashmore Reef is a remote coral atoll and Commonwealth marine reserve some 300km off the Kimberley coast. Zodiac excursions run over vibrant coral gardens holding green and hawksbill turtles, reef sharks and dense tropical fish life. The islets are a major seabird breeding site, with frigatebirds, terns and boobies in numbers.

A second sea day as the ship closes on the Western Australian coast. Lectures continue on the Kimberley's Traditional Owners, its pearling and pastoral history and its saltwater crocodiles. Guests have time for the pool deck, the spa and the photo studio's Kimberley technique sessions.

Wyndham is the northernmost town in Western Australia and the gateway to the East Kimberley, sitting at the head of the Cambridge Gulf where five rivers converge. The Five Rivers Lookout on Bastion Range gives a panoramic view over the whole system. Excursions take in Parry Lagoons Nature Reserve for birdwatching and the town's gold rush and pioneer heritage.

Koolama Bay, at the mouth of the King George River, opens onto some of the most dramatic coastal wilderness in the Kimberley. Zodiac cruises run upriver between sheer 80-metre sandstone walls to the twin King George Falls, the highest single-drop falls in Western Australia. The bay takes its name from the SS Koolama, bombed and beached here in 1942.

Jar Island in Vansittart Bay holds some of the most accessible Gwion Gwion (Bradshaw) rock paintings, elegant ochre figures thought to be among the oldest figurative art on earth. The bay's red cliffs, sandy beaches and clear turquoise water make for excellent Zodiac cruising. A short walk over the dunes elsewhere in the bay reaches the intact wreck of a Second World War DC-3 that crash-landed in 1942.

The Hunter River and Porosus Creek form a vast mangrove system beneath towering sandstone cliffs and cascading seasonal waterfalls. Zodiac cruises push deep into the creeks to look for saltwater crocodiles, mudskippers, mangrove herons and white-bellied sea eagles. Naracoorte Waters and nearby Wandjina rock art galleries are also visited when tides allow.

The Buccaneer Archipelago scatters more than 800 islands of dramatic red rock across the Yampi Sound. The signature experience is Talbot Bay's Horizontal Falls, where enormous tidal flows force seawater through two narrow gorges to create a horizontal waterfall. Zodiac operations here are timed precisely to the tide.

A second day working the archipelago's islands, bays and pristine white-sand beaches. Sites may include Silica Beach with its near-pure quartz sand, Crocodile Creek and Nares Point. Zodiac cruising and swimming, where safe, round out the last full day.

Silver Cloud arrives in Broome and guests disembark after breakfast. The town is the historic heart of Australia's pearling industry, with Chinatown, Cable Beach's Indian Ocean sunsets and the dinosaur footprints at Gantheaume Point. Transfers connect to Broome International Airport for onward flights.