One Tide Charters
At One Tide Charter cruises have been designed for travellers who still have a spark in their lives and are looking for a unique experience to adventure beyond standard cruise itinerary and explore rarely visited and untouched parts of the Kimberley’s pristine wilderness coastline.
With a maximum of 12 passengers and 3 crew, One Tide Charters pride themselves of making sure their clients get to see the best of the amaxing coastline. One Tide Charters commenced operations in April 1997. In September 1998 owner / operator Greg Prouse purchased their original charter vessel “White Lightning” to offer extended cruises to the Buccaneer Archipelago.
In February 2008 One Tide Charters took delivery of their new charter vessel “Kimberley Explorer”. Kimberley Explorer has been designed exclusively for cruising the Kimberley coastline.
With a full length keel and shallow draught, Kimberley Explorer is capable of sitting on the ground once the tide goes out,
allowing passengers to explore reefs and creek systems at low water.
With a cruising speed of 20 knots and long range fuel tanks, time spent exploring the coastline is maximised, ensuring passengers get the most out of their time spent cruising the Kimberley coastline.
Essential comforts are well catered for with male & female showers and toilets (with hot and cold water).
With 1000 litres of water storage and a desalinator, beach camping while cruising the Kimberley coast has just become a whole lot more appealing.
Your typical day involves plenty of sightseeing , fishing, crabbing, swimming and then enjoying the tranquillity of an open campfire as you bed down for the night on an isolated beach.
1 – 5 May
This cruise is an action packed 5 days that gives you a good introduction to the Kimberley coastline. You will have up to 3 different camp sites on beautiful secluded beaches, each with their own characteristics. Incorporating the activities above subject to tide and weather conditions you will get to visit the following locations:
Cascade, Cone and Crawford Bays
Travelling north from Derby the mudlfats of the King Sound give way to the wonderfully picturesque coastline. Cascade,Cone and Crawford Bays lie crumpled and creased, their shores notched with a myriad of stony islands and innumerable hidden reefs that litter these offshore waters.
Numerous freshwater springs flow from the hills of King Leopold Sandstone into the forest to an abandoned camp site established by a hippy with his commune of women between 1974 and 1987. After exploring the remnants of the camp you will take a refreshing swim in one of the many fresh water rock pools.
Strickland Bay
Is an incredibly picturesque bay with numerous islands. At the back of Strickland Bay is the unsurveyed water mass of the ‘Graveyards’. Named after the pearlers who lost their lives in the area and were buried on Edeline Island. You will visit the graves, have a quick swim and admire the sculptured sandstone rocks.
Horizontal Waterfalls
are two narrow gaps in vertical sandstone rock strata which creates two spectacular ‘horizontal waterfalls’ when the tides reach peak flow in both rising and falling situations. Here you are transferred into one of the fast boats for an exhilirating ride through the gaps.
Crocodile Creek
In Yampi Sound is a little paradise tucked away behind the sandstone walls. The miners from nearby Koolan Island iron ore mine used this spot as a getaway site. With the top pool cascading into the lower pool and then onto the creek below, it’s a delightful swimming hole with all the yachtie memorabilia left for an enjoyable outing.
Silver Gull
Is the home to a couple of real life castaways living life in the slow lane. Phil & Marion have lived at Silver Gull for the past 15 years and support themselves by making jewellery and other souvenirs to sell to their visitors. With lovely gardens and concrete tank continually filling with fresh water that flows out into the creek below this is a great spot to have a swim or sit on their famous outdoor throne
Hidden Island & Silica Beach
With its powder soft pure white sand and turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean, Silica Beach is a resort destination in the making. Enjoy a refreshing swim at this pristine beach or take the time to climb up the sandstone rocks for some great photography.
Hells Gate
This narrow gap separates us from Cone Bay and makes for a helluva ride on spring tides. The force of the tide either coming into the King Sound or receding back to the sea makes for some turbulent water with impressive whirlpools and back eddies to get the heart pumping.
Whirlpool Passage
Whirlpool passage divides Chambers and Hidden Islands in the Buccaneer Archipelago. A scenic 3 mile ‘S’ bend tour is characterized at times of peak tidal movement by large metre deep whirlpools and tidal flows in excess of 10 knots. Passing through the passage when the tide is running is a dramatic experience as your vessel negotiates the violent whirlpools. However, get there at the turn of the tide and it looks like a millpond and ever so peaceful.
12 – 23 Jun
28÷7−8÷8
Departing Doubtful Bay and the Sale River area the 12 day cruise incorporates sites and activities from the 5, 6 or 8 day cruises, but continues further up the coast to:
Llangi
you will stop to see some strangely weathered rock formations known as the ‘Petrified Warriors’. Named after the warriors who, in Aboriginal mythology took part in a big dreamtime battle between the Wandjina and other spirits, like sentinels, they guard the nearby entrance to Llangi Gorge. In 2000 skipper Greg took some of the Dambimangari group (traditional custodians of this area) along with a student film crew to film Donny Woolagoodja touching up some of the paintings in Namaralli’s cave and passing on their stories to the young ones. With a beautiful beach and small waterfall we take some time to view these imposing rock formations.
Slade Island
with its beautiful weathered sandstone rock formations that take on all sorts of shapes. Take the time to let your imagination run wild identifying the creatures carved by nature’s elements. We travel past the Kurri Bay Pearl Farm which is one of the largest operational pearl farms in the Kimberley.
Sheep Island
on the cruise take the time to read the story of this area “There Were Three Ships — the story of the Camden Habour Expedition 1864 – 65” by Christopher Richards (1990). The book recounts their disastrous journey to open up grazing in the far north of the Kimberley. We will stop to look at the lonely grave site of ‘Mary Pascoe’ on a small island.
Camden Harbour
the site of the disastrous scheme to colonize the area in the mid 1860s following earlier explorer reports of fine pastureland. Camden Habour is also the area where the Presbyterian Church established Kunmunya Mission in 1915. Kunmunya Mission is also the site where in 1987 Dick Smith and the Australian Geographic Society sent Michael & Susan Cusack to spend a year in the wilderness. Their book ‘Our Year in the Wilderness’ is on the boat where you can see a photo of Skipper Greg and his good friend Joe who were the Cusack’s first visitors in Greg’s ‘Yellow Boat’. (Read a very informative commentary about the Kunmunya Mission at http://kimberleycruising.com.au/Excursions/kunmunya.htm)
Leaving Camden Habour we continue on through George Waters past Hanover Bay and down through Treachery Head on our way to St George Basin. We travel through boiling and turbulent water prior to reaching the opening of St George Basin passing Mount Trafalgar and Mount Waterloo. We then take a 12 nautical mile run which brings us to the beginning of:-
Prince Regent River
is the eroded remains of the longest single straight lineament in Australia running 240 kms SW into the King Leopold sandstone plateau
Camp Creek
is about 15 km in from the Prince Regent River mouth. With limited time and tide we set up camp for 2 days camping next to a rock escarpment with fresh running water, surrounded by paperback trees. With lines in to catch a barramundi in one of the many pools this is a great site for bird watchers. Here passengers have the option of doing a 2 hour walk following a fresh water course over the rocks and amongst the shrubbery to find two magnificent pools that end in a series of waterfalls for a fresh water swim.
King Cascade Falls
is one of the Kimberley’s most beautiful waterfalls and sits at the head of a natural amphitheatre fringed by mangroves and ferns, with water cascading over the 50 metre rock face to the south of the Prince Regent River. Discovered by Phillip Parker King, the King Cascade Falls are probably more famous as the location where America model Ginger Meadows was taken by a large crocodile while swimming at the bottom of the falls. After nosing Kimberley Xplorer under the falls and getting a good drenching and some top photography we head back out into the basin for an overview of the entire area and another swim in one of the many fresh water pools well above the watchful eyes of the crocodiles. We then spend a night onboard Kimberley Xplorer we have the opportunity to take the dingys out to do some mud crabbing, flick a rod for a barramundi or check out another great art site.
10 – 17 May
21 – 28 May
1 – 8 June
16 – 23 Jul
29÷8−3÷9
Departing from Talbot Bay and The Horizontal Waterfalls the 8 day Sale River & Montgomery Reef cruise incorporates sites and activities from the 5 or 6 day cruise but travels further up the coast cruising past the Kingfisher Islands to:
Montgomery Reef
which is more than 400 sq kms in size and exposes up to 4 metres of reef at low tide. As the tide falls the reef begins to show itself to reveal a river cutting through the reef. We take Kimberley Xplorer up as far as the river will allow to anchor up while we have breakfast and watch the water cascade off the reef into the emerging river. After breakfast we lower the dingys to travel further up the narrowing river for a close up look at the turtles, black tipped reef sharks and abundance of fish and bird life. Several small islands dot the reef’s surface supporting rich mangroves, crocodiles, turtles, birds and fish.
Raft Point Indigenous Rock Art
a half hour ascent of a red sandstone bluff overlooking ‘Steep Island’ will take you to a ledge where you will come face to face with the Wandjina whose effigy was raised at the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games). The Raft Point ledge is an art gallery to savour with its walls and ceilings adorned by an exceptional collection of Wandjina figures, dugong and the ‘Great Fish chase’.
Red Cone Creek
we follow a mangrove lined creek to the magnificent waterfalls of Ruby Falls. Climbing to the top of the plateau we have an enjoyable swim with great scenery and photography. Small bats can be seen clustered together in black masses under the overhangs and crocodiles will often be up on the rocks or small beaches basking in the sun.
Three Ways
at the southern end of Doubtful Bay we spend our time cruising the merging river systems in the dingys. This whole area is very impressive visually and offers some great fishing opportunities including barramundi, NW Snapper, Finger Mark, Black Jewies (Mullaway) — they’re all there.
Sale River
One of the true oases in the wilderness,flows into the NE side of Doubtful Bay opposite Storr Island and Success Strait. As you move up river it is possible to see cabbage palms, Kimberley Rose and Boab trees on the northern bank. As you make your way upstream there are a series of rock bars across the river restricting access unless you are on spring tides. With the big tides you can make your way to where the freshwater flows over a small cascade with a sandy beach. Behind the beach and up the stream is a monsoonal rainforest where we have a freshwater swim. Passengers can either throw in a line to catch a barramundi or take a walk along the gorge to some rarely seen rock art.
17 – 22 Apr
28÷6−3 Jul
7 – 12 Jul
24 – 29 Sept
Crusie itinerary is the same for the 5 day cruise, however the extra day on the 6 day cruise gives you more time to explore and fish this amazing coastline. You will have up to 3 different camp sites on beautiful secluded beaches, each with their own characteristics. Incorporating the activities above subject to tide and weather conditions you will get to visit the following locations:
Cascade, Cone and Crawford Bays
Travelling north from Derby the mudlfats of the King Sound give way to the wonderfully picturesque coastline. Cascade,Cone and Crawford Bays lie crumpled and creased, their shores notched with a myriad of stony islands and innumerable hidden reefs that litter these offshore waters.
Numerous freshwater springs flow from the hills of King Leopold Sandstone into the forest to an abandoned camp site established by a hippy with his commune of women between 1974 and 1987. After exploring the remnants of the camp you will take a refreshing swim in one of the many fresh water rock pools.
Strickland Bay
Is an incredibly picturesque bay with numerous islands. At the back of Strickland Bay is the unsurveyed water mass of the ‘Graveyards’. Named after the pearlers who lost their lives in the area and were buried on Edeline Island. You will visit the graves, have a quick swim and admire the sculptured sandstone rocks.
Horizontal Waterfalls
are two narrow gaps in vertical sandstone rock strata which creates two spectacular ‘horizontal waterfalls’ when the tides reach peak flow in both rising and falling situations. Here you are transferred into one of the fast boats for an exhilirating ride through the gaps.
Crocodile Creek
In Yampi Sound is a little paradise tucked away behind the sandstone walls. The miners from nearby Koolan Island iron ore mine used this spot as a getaway site. With the top pool cascading into the lower pool and then onto the creek below, it’s a delightful swimming hole with all the yachtie memorabilia left for an enjoyable outing.
Silver Gull
Is the home to a couple of real life castaways living life in the slow lane. Phil & Marion have lived at Silver Gull for the past 15 years and support themselves by making jewellery and other souvenirs to sell to their visitors. With lovely gardens and concrete tank continually filling with fresh water that flows out into the creek below this is a great spot to have a swim or sit on their famous outdoor throne
Hidden Island & Silica Beach
With its powder soft pure white sand and turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean, Silica Beach is a resort destination in the making. Enjoy a refreshing swim at this pristine beach or take the time to climb up the sandstone rocks for some great photography.
Hells Gate
This narrow gap separates us from Cone Bay and makes for a helluva ride on spring tides. The force of the tide either coming into the King Sound or receding back to the sea makes for some turbulent water with impressive whirlpools and back eddies to get the heart pumping.
Whirlpool Passage
Whirlpool passage divides Chambers and Hidden Islands in the Buccaneer Archipelago. A scenic 3 mile ‘S’ bend tour is characterized at times of peak tidal movement by large metre deep whirlpools and tidal flows in excess of 10 knots. Passing through the passage when the tide is running is a dramatic experience as your vessel negotiates the violent whirlpools. However, get there at the turn of the tide and it looks like a millpond and ever so peaceful.
One Tide Charters are camping tours that operate in remote wilderness areas. A reasonable level of fitness is required. Whilst all care is taken One Tide Charters will accept no responsibility for personal injury loss or damage to personal effects or expenses incurred as a result of delay cancellation or alteration of any service due to circumstances beyond our control. Travel insurance is strongly recommended.
One Tide Charters reserves the right to postpone or cancel any trip due to reasons such as mechanical failure weather conditions or insufficient passenger numbers (minimum of 4). In such circumstances all moneys will be refunded.
A cancellation fee of 25% will apply if bookings are cancelled prior to 10 days before departure. A 50% fee will apply if bookings are cancelled within 10 days of departure