Monday, September 2, 2024

[updated] Australia's North West and Kimberley: Broome, Barramundi and pearls

Multiple Journeys 2005-present

Since 2005, expedition cruise specialist, Roderick (Rod) Eime has been visiting Broome, the Kimberley and the famed Australia's North West, completing numerous voyages including working as an expedition guide for major cruise companies.

The Kimberley earned iconic status after Baz Luhrmann's 2008 blockbuster 'Australia' and, love the movie or not, has ensured the ancient landscape is never far from the tourism spotlight.

Great Escape in the Kimberley

Rod has stayed at the newly renovated and Gold Award-winning Mangrove Hotel in Broome before boarding Great Escape for an intimate 4-night adventure cruise. He has also stayed at the modest Kimberley Travellers Lodge as well as the much-lauded Cable Beach Club Resort & Spa and Pinctada McAlpine House.

The intimate 36-passenger Reef Prince at the famed Twin Falls (RE)

PONANT Le Laperouse 2022

July-August 2024. Seabourn Pursuit

He has also voyaged aboard Kimberley Pearl, Reef Prince (for waterfalls) and Ponant's plush Le Laperouse. In 2024, he will board Seabourn Pursuit for their debut Kimberley season.

Mangrove Hotel, Broome

This was backed up by one of the most unusual cruise offerings in the Australian market. True North spent a week in the amazing Rowley Shoals, a little-known marine reserve 260 kilometres offshore from Broome and effectively an ‘aquarium’ in the open ocean with some of the best diving and fishing in Australia.

True North in the Rowley Shoals

Original and PR-supplied available.

Rod would be delighted to discuss editorial commissions with high-end print publications or websites. Few contemporary travel writers can boast Rod's experience in this region.

With support from Tourism WA



Saturday, November 6, 2021

Back to the river: paddlewheeler on the Murray River

 

Murray Princess Paddlewheeler

"While I was born in Adelaide, both my parents were born in the South Australian country," says travel writer and photographer, Roderick Eime, "Mum was born at Renmark, and with many childhood weekends away, the Murray River formed a large part of our family life."

"We often forget that paddlewheelers opened up the Australian outback to commerce long before the first railway lines and roads were laid. The old steamers are an integral part of our colonial history."

19th-century commerce. Loading cargo on a Murray River paddlesteamer
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Rod revisits his family heritage along Australia's largest river with a reprise on the largest inland paddlewheeler in the southern hemisphere, the majestic PS Murray Princess.

Stories and images from this voyage will be available from December 2021.


Sunday, September 5, 2021

Coffee Culture: Australia's First Indigenous-owned coffee brand.



While we're all enjoying more cuppas at home, it's the perfect time to switch over to a socially conscious brand doing great things. DHUWA is the first Indigenous-owned coffee to be stocked in Woolworths. The home-coffee blends have been created in partnership with Griffiths Bros Roastery and headed up by proud Mununjali Palawa man Shawn Andrews with the view to train and employ Indigenous people and in so doing, contribute to their communities. Gwen Luscombe meets the man who is truly putting culture into coffee.

The Hills are Alive: Adelaide's new gourmet bonanza


 While Australia's Eastern states are locked down, Adelaide-based writer and photographer Roderick Eime, has revelled in the relative freedom of the South Australian capital revisiting places of his childhood in the Adelaide Hills and Mount Lofty Ranges. What has he found? Always a fertile region for fruit and vegetables, the Hills are now a wine and gourmet food bonanza. The famous Barossa Valley continues to evolve with a new wave of wineries and labels from the latest generation of the old families. And so much else.

Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Cruising returns to South Australia with small ships

 


After an agonising hiatus, cruising returns to the historic waters of South Australia. With a heritage of leisure cruising dating back more than a century, small ships are leading the way into this rich maritime region. Roderick Eime goes back to sea with Coral Expeditions.

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

White wine and cheese? Who'd have thought?



Showing a sense of adventure is your best approach when trying to match wine and cheese, wine writer Winsor Dobbin says.

The vast majority of wine lovers automatically choose a bottle of red to accompany the cheese course. 

This is seen as an unwritten rule – but rules are made to be broken and many white wines can do the job just as well as reds, particularly the leaner, more modern styles of chardonnay. 

Mitchell Taylor, owner of Taylors Wines in the Clare Valley, says he believes a dry Riesling is the best companion for a cheese platter.

Friday, September 21, 2018

New small ships for 2018


Expert expedition cruise journalist and photographer, Roderick Eime, lists recent and forthcoming small ship experiences for your editorial consideration. [Contact]



Cruise Line: CroisiEurope / CF Mekong
Vessel: Indochine II (launched 2017)
Destination: Mekong. Siem Reap to Saigon
Date travelled/travelling: September 2018



Cruise Line: Silversea
Vessel: Silver Cloud (rebuilt 2017)
Destination: Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Date travelled/travelling: September 2018



Cruise Line: Ponant
Vessel: Le Champlain (maiden voyage)
Destination: Bergen, Norway
Date travelled/travelling: October 2018



Cruise Line: Lindblad-National Geographic
Vessel: NG Venture (maiden voyage)
Destination: West Coast USA and Mexico
Date travelled/travelling: December 2018



Cruise Line: Captain Cook Cruises Fiji
Vessel: MV Reef Endeavour
Destination: Fiji - Taveuni, Ovalau
Date travelled/travelling: April 2018

FORTHCOMING / TBA
  • Captain Cook Cruises: Murray Princess 
  • G Adventures 
  • Sea Trek Bali
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