I booked this cruise through Aurora Expeditions, whom I had sailed with three times before. I mistakenly thought Aurora had contracted the ship as they had done with an Inside Passage Alaskan trip I undertook in 2014. This was not so! I was expecting a rather active voyage around the Northern Australian coast, instead I found myself on a very sedentary voyage with more than half the passengers being older and less active than the 15 of us that anticipated an active voyage.

We left Broome and 23 days later arrived in Cairns, Whilst I saw a large amount of things, I was disappointed at the sedentary nature of the journey and at times the arrangements for excursions ashore seemed ad hoc.

The ship really wasn't suited for this journey, in quite in small seas it rocked and rolled making a number of passengers sick. Even myself, and I consider myself a good sailor, was thrown around the cabin and other areas. It was a wonder that some of the more fragile passengers did not damage themselves or break a bone. This ship was built around 30 years ago for Great Barrier Reef trips; it is scheduled to do southern and eastern Tasmania soon - I wonder how it will cope. Read more