Ashmore Reef

 Late yesterday afternoon we set sail for Ashmore Reef. This apparently counts as an International port, even though it is an Australian Territory. It is a requirement for foreign flagged vessels travelling from one Australian port and terminating at another to visit one International port along the way. It is extremely difficult to find out why this is the case.

So off we go to Ashmore Reef, with a planned arrival at 10 am. We are not going there to see if we can spot any illegal immigrants trying to enter Australia via Indonesia, but rather to see the bird life in this protected area, which is a major breeding ground for a number of seabirds.


Ponant at anchor when we arrive

Ponant is already there when we arrive, their passengers must enjoy early morning starts for their zodiac activities. Our tours start at a more civilisation 10.30am this morning, although our group goes out just after lunch.



Zodiacs in the water ready to take the morning groups to the reef


Zodiacs lined up alongside for boarding

At around 1 pm we hop into one of the large zodiacs for our ride into Ashmore Reef, West Island, which is the only island that the public can go near, and you are not allowed to go ashore. It is a bit of a tortuous path to get there through the reef, and given the shallow draft of the zodiacs we probably have taken a more direct route. However, we follow the rules and go through the channel markers.

There are some empty mooring buoys near the entrance to the channel into the reef. Apparently these are normally occupied by Australian Border Force vessels, but today they are empty. It seems everyone is in NT participating in the military exercises there.

As we approach West Island (the only one of the 3 islands we are allowed near, but not on), there are more moorings with a variety of vessels attached to them, that look like they have been seized or found drifting.


A life boat from a ship


A tinny with QLD rego



An Indonesian fishing boat?

We then head off to West Island to see the very active bird populations. Many of them are in the air and they are nesting everywhere along the low vegetation on the shoreline and beyond.







We also spent some time looking for sea life, but really only saw a few dark blobs under the water, one of which turned out to be a sizeable shovel nosed shark. Other  groups saw a few sea turtles, but the birds were the main attraction.

On our way back to the ship a surveillance aircraft flew over and circled the reef before continuing on.

Everyone was back on board by 3.30 pm for a 4 pm departure for Swift Bay

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