The Cable Beach Club Gibb River Road Mountain Bike Challenge is a remarkable five day 700+ km, socially competitive, team relay event raising money and community awareness for charity by tracing the Kimberley’s iconic stock route, the Gibb River Road.

This year 6 keen Cable Beach Club Resort staff (aka Lion Racing) are ready to take on the rough red roads by push bike from Derby to Kununurra with the determination to raise money for charity – in particular Police Legacy which is a concept that has grown to an organization caring for 134,000 widows and 1,900 children of deceased servicemen. In addition to the Police Legacy, Lion Racing’s charity of choice is the Kyle Andrews Foundation. Initiated by a young Broome boy undergoing treatment for Leukemia in Perth Western Australia, Kyle had a dream of bringing some of his young friends from the ward to Cable Beach in Broome so that, in his words, “they might feel better”. Even though Kyle is no longer with us, his foundation continues to find ways to make this happen.

This year K2O Kimberley To Ocean is supporting the Cable Beach Club Resort Lion Racing team by donating a luxurious Lower Deck King Twin cabin on board the well appointed 23m K2O. The lucky winner will be able to select a cruise of their choice up to the value of $9,200 based on 2 passengers.

K2O have been operating out of Broome along the far North coast of Western Australia for over 4 years and offer a maximum of only 12 guests the most intimate and exclusive cruise of a lifetime. Cruises range from 8, 10 or 14 days and focus on many activities including, swimming, fishing, mud crabbing, snorkeling, diving, hiking and Aboriginal art just to name a few.

The winner will be drawn at Swinging Arm Bar, El Questro, Friday 6pm, 22/5/09 and the results published in the Broome Advertiser on 4/6/09.

In order to get you hands on 1 of only 1,500 tickets selling for $10 each you will need to contact Ben Woelders @ Cable Beach Club Resort on 08 … Rachel Smith @ Kimberley To Ocean on 08 9192 7185.

The Cable Beach Club Gibb River Road Mountain Bike Challenge is a daytime event with participants camping and celebrating the day’s accomplishment at the extraordinary camping facilities provided at locations such as Silent Grove (Bell Gorge), Mount Elizabeth Station, Ellenbrae Station, Home Valley Station and Voyages El Questro Wilderness Park. The locations each offer a varied and unique life-time experience of camping in the Kimberley.

The Cable Beach Club Gibb River Road Mountain Bike Challenge will again feature as part of the Argyle Diamonds Ord Valley Muster’s calendar of events. See www.ordvalleymuster.com.au for further details.

To find out more about K2O have a look around our website or freecall 1800 210 318 and order your own glossy brochure today!

Proud to be supporting the NBCF

Breast Cancer is the most common cancer and most common cause of cancer deaths in women in the modern world. It is the most common cancer found in women over 35 and 9/10 women who detect the disease will not have a family history of the illness. (Source:www.myDr.com.au, NSW Breast Cancer Institute)

Rachel & Liz recently took time out from booking cruises, to go along to the Cable Beach Club Resort for a Pink Breakfast Fundraiser. It was a very successful morning with over 100 in attendance. In addition to a yummy breakfast, there were speakers who brought home the reality of the disease and also gave us an update on research and how West Australia are leading the way.

The Cable Beach Club Resort will be lit up in pink for the whole of October to celebrate the official month of the National Breast Cancer Foundation. If you wish to know more and how you can help visit www.nbcf.com.au and why not organise your own Girls Night In in October to raise much needed funds for research.

Recent media coverage has raised the profile of the plight of this last great wilderness, as well as the plight of the wildlife that are threatened and will be threatened if this unsustainable development goes ahead.

If you wish to show your support, refer to the Save the Kimberley website for more info and find out how you can help. For the moment, tell you friends, neighbours and relatives to show their support.

At the K2O HQ, we receive many letters of thanks for a holiday experience of a lifetime with a crew that exceed expectations. You can read some of the testimonials on this website. It is also a pleasure to receive disks and emails with photos, so we can keep the website fresh.

This year we have seen the latest in cyber-social networking come together with the more traditional idea of feedback with the creation of a K2O Cruise Blog by Dean Murray & Tania Lindau who travelled with us in July this year. They had a great time with the crew and fellow passengers on their Discovery Expedition starting with a fixed wing scenic flight over the Kimberley region to the Mitchell Plateau followed by a chopper flight over the Mitchell Falls. That was before they even got to the boat!!

Read all about their adventures…… and feel free to leave any comments.

PADI offer courses for the very beginner to the very advanced. In Broome, Workline Dive & Tackle are a certified Dive Centre who offer many courses in the Dry Season (May-October).

As a worldwide organization, PADI are also involved in helping to preserve the many marine environments. Project AWARE is the dive industry’s leading non-profit environmental organisation dedicated to conserving underwater environments in 175 countries through education, advocacy and action. Project AWARE Foundation works in partnership with divers to combat challenges facing the marine world. Such projects include Coral Reef Monitoring, International Whale Shark Project and education campaigns such as Protect the Sharks and Protect the Living Reef.

Project AWARE created the Go ECO (Explore, Conserve, Observe) campaign to inspire dive operators to implement environmental best practices in their local area and to educate tourists about how they can travel responsibly. As divers and industry leaders we can all do our part to protect the local resources.

In addition to meeting Tourism Council standards we are now working towards a new certification in Eco Tourism. We are in the final stages of the certification and hope to be proudly showing the gecko logo before long.

In the meantime, I thought I might talk a little about Eco Tourism and why it is so important.

First and foremost it is about working together sustainably, to protect the conservation and bio-diversity values of the areas we visit, in our case, the Kimberley coast and very soon, the Rowley Shoals.

There are 2 stages to the certification, the first one having been completed, Nature Tourism is defined as:

“Ecologically sustainable tourism with a primary focus on experiencing natural areas.”

K2O is currently progressing to Ecotourism certification which under the program is defined as:

“Ecologically sustainable tourism with a primary focus on experiencing natural areas that fosters environmental and cultural understanding, appreciation and conservation.”

Eco tourism in a natural area offers interesting ways to learn about the environment with an operator that uses resources wisely, contributes to the conservation of the environment and helping local communities. It encompasses the triple bottom line (environment, social, cultural) and gives companies guidelines to work with local communities, conservation groups, and raising awareness of the issues to the visitors to the area. The Kimberley coast is a unique wilderness and we are working to keep it that way.

If you wish to know more visit Eco Tourism Australia or to learn about the issues facing our region and how you can help, visit Save the Kimberley.

Edward Hatherley, Regional Fire Coordinator (DEC) for the Kimberley Region recently sent out the annual notification of the end of the DEC burn program, and I asked him to elaborate on the reasons behind fire in the Kimberley.

“The objectives of the burning is to create fuel reduced buffers that may limit the extent of wildfires and create a mosaic of different age vegetation that will assist in maintaining the biodiversity of the area. DEC also works closely with adjoining stakeholders in the interest of developing a strategic fire plan to address the issue of large late dry season wildfires that are having a significant impact across the Region. Generally DEC operations run over a 12 week period commencing around April 2008 through to late June and an aircraft may be used to ignite these burns.

Over the past 12 months an increased number of DEC resources have been directed towards engagement and training of indigenous people in order to increase capacity and knowledge across the Kimberley region. DEC, with the assistance of the Kimberley Land Council (KLC) is actively engaging and involving Traditional Owners in the planning and implementation of its prescribed burning program. This has been a significant step towards engaging aboriginal people in how fire is managed across the Kimberley.

DEC has been developing its fire program to include “landscape mosaics” or “patch burning” as well as strategic buffers. Such burning allows for mosaics of burnt and unburnt patches to be developed in the landscape. Mosaics in the landscape provide refuge for native fauna during late fires, strategic buffers are designed to try and limit the size of large fires. Fires lit in the early part of the dry season are generally less intense, and of a more “patchy” nature owing to the diversity in vegetation structure, curing rates. Fires that burn late in the dry season consume a greater percentage of the combustible vegetation, run for several weeks, and burn under far more extreme intensity and conditions.

In 2008 we also saw the further development of a close partnership with “Ecofire” a National Heritage Funded project aimed at strategic fire management of Pastoral leases. DEC’s prescribed burning program which covers the conservation estate, unallocated Crown Lands and some Aboriginal Lands surrounding the Ecofire project area, was closely aligned to ensure truly strategic approach. This aims to limit the size and extent of wildfires, which impact on the Kimberley Region each year.

For the second year in a row the Kimberley received widespread rainfall in June with falls of up to 47mm being recorded. This rainfall not only promotes the quick recovery of the early dry season fire areas, but has the added advantage of extinguishing most fires across the Region, effectively creating a distinct end to the Prescribed Burning Season.

Fire is and always has been a part of the Kimberley environment, however the contemporary regime of large, intense, late fires are impacting on the ecological and aesthetic values of the Region. With vast inaccessible areas, limited resources and a fire prone environment the best approach is to work strategically with all stakeholders towards a mutual outcome.”

For more information visit the website for Department of Environment & Conservation (formerly CALM)

The new owner, Mark Walsh, is a well known Broome identity who owned and successfully operated a pearling business in Broome for 20 years. Mark has the experience, passion and financial stability to guarantee your cruise experience.

Phil and Debbie would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support in booking with K2O, we are sure you will have the “Trip of a Lifetime”. We know we take with us many fantastic memories of experiences shared with guests, crew, friends and family onboard the K2O in the Kimberley.

Should you have any queries regarding your cruise or future cruise opportunities, please don’t hesitate to contact Liz in the office.

Yours sincerely
Phil and Debbie Peet

“…but how can a waterfall be horizontal?”
I hear you ask with a look of confusion and wonder….

Well the science behind it is that the McLarty Ranges where the falls are found, comprises of 2 ridges running parallel, 300 metres apart. The first opening is approximately 20 metres wide and the second, 10 metres. Given these narrow gaps compared to the massive tidal movements found in the region (up to 10 metres) the water cannot get through the space quick enough. This can create up to a 4 metre ‘horizontal waterfall’ effect as the water is pushed up against the side of the narrow cliffs.

To witness the thrill of this natural phenomena, take a scenic flight from Broome or Derby. Alternatively, there is nothing quite like hopping into a boat to feel the adrenalin rush of speeding through the falls. Experience the power of the whirlpools of the pristine, turquoise waters as you traverse the gaps then exit to marvel at the vivid red landscape as it opens up before you. A sight that David Attenborough has been known to describe as “one of the greatest natural wonders of the world”.

Cruising along the Kimberley coast you cannot help but sit back and take notice of nature; the rustle of the trees, the lapping of the waves and the song of the many birds that call the Kimberley home. Pure serenity…

For some, bird watching is a serious quest to sight that particular bird found only here in the Kimberley. Some see this as a challenge and for others it is just the thrill when they finally do catch a glimpse of that bird yet to be ticked off the list!!!

There are indeed numerous activites to enjoy in the Kimberley and bird watching is certainly popular. Needing just a pair of binoculars you can twitch anywhere at anytime on your travels.

Below are some of the species you may find on your Kimberley adventures…binoculars poised, let’s twitch…