Kimberley Trip, Day 17: Return to Darwin

Saturday, June 8, 2024

Today is an at-sea day as we cross back over the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf to Darwin, where we will disembark from the Orion tomorrow morning. Again, the seas were rough, but not as much as the outgoing crossing. As with other at-sea days, there were lectures from the naturalists and an information session on future cruises. The day ended with the Captain’s cocktail reception and dinner. The cocktail reception featured a slideshow of photos that passengers had submitted (unfortunately, I misunderstood how to submit mine). There was also an auction of a specially-decorated flag from the ship to benefit the crew welfare fund and of a didgeridoo from Goyma’s family, the proceeds from which went back to his family. Happily, both auctions produced high bids for the beneficiaries.

For dinner, Dave and Jan were kind enough to join us in the COVID dining area for our final dinner on the Orion. It was a particularly good dinner, and we witnessed a beautiful sunset and moonset.

This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Indonesia and Australia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.