‘I sold my business and ran away to sea’
This cruise line executive didn’t even know the industry existed until he chanced upon a job driving Zodiacs. He’s never looked back.
Robin West was running a dive centre in South Africa in the early 2000s when he took a chance on a short-term contract as Zodiac driver and divemaster on an expedition ship. He flew to Valparaiso in Chile and, after two months voyaging across the Pacific, he was hooked. “I didn’t even know this industry existed,” he says. “It was the best thing I’d ever done in my life.”
West, who is vice-president and general manager of expeditions at Seabourn, landed a contract in Antarctica the same year. He returned home to Cape Town, sold his business and ran away to sea. For the next decade he worked for various companies, including former Australian expedition cruise operator Orion, where he first encountered the Kimberley. He’s since explored the remote coastline more than 30 times.
After Seabourn headhunted him and his partner Jarda Versloot-West in 2013 to lead its first Antarctic sailings, he suggested the company build a dedicated expedition ship. The company now has two; the latest, the 132-suite Pursuit, was recently inaugurated on Ngula (Jar Island) on the Kimberley coast, fulfilling a long-held dream for West.
The Carnival-owned line joins a growing roster of operators offering itineraries in northwest WA. West says Seabourn’s key point of difference is the effort and time it has invested in building long-term relationships with traditional owners, including hiring Dambimangari rangers for its expedition team and providing funding for visitor facilities on Ngula, home to the ancient Gwion (Bradshaw) rock paintings. It’s also the traditional lands of the Wunambal-Gaambera people, who were named the collective godparents of Pursuit.
What makes the Kimberley so special?
Its remoteness, its living cultural heritage, and its natural wonders such as Horizontal Falls and Montgomery Reef, a 400sq km reef system that’s 1.8 billion years old and is revealed by low tide twice a day. That happens nowhere else on the planet.
Name an unsung wildlife experience
In the Indian Ocean there’s a place called Aldabra, it belongs to The Seychelles. It’s an atoll about 11km long and, in terms of wildlife, it’s the tropical version of South Georgia. There are 120,000 giant Aldabra tortoises walking around.
The place I call home
I live in The Netherlands, in Alkmaar. If you live in Alkmaar you’re known as a kaaskop, which means cheese head. Alkmaar has the oldest cheese museum in the world. Every Friday in the summer months, on the main square, they re-create the whole cheese market the way it was in the 1400s and 1500s.
My most recent holiday
I’ve just come back from two weeks in Namibia. This was the first time we could take the kids because they’re finally old enough (five and nine). We’d always wanted to experience Namibia with them. We rented a 4x4 with two rooftop tents, totally self-contained, and spent two weeks there. We saw everything – cheetahs, lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras. We went sand-boarding in the desert, did a catamaran tour where fur seals jumped up on the boat to be fed, went game driving. They absolutely loved it.
Dream destination
We spent our honeymoon in The Maldives and it’s always been a place we like to go every couple of years. We’ve been to Kuramathi four times now. For me, nothing compares. The islands are just perfect and the diving’s phenomenal. We went to a place called Fish Head Reef (in the North Ari atoll), one of the country’s top 10 dive sites. It’s spectacular. We swam with whale sharks.
My favourite hotel pool
In Ushuaia, up on the mountainside, there’s a place called Arakur. I used to be on the executive of the IAATO (International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators) committee and we had a meeting there. A group of us woke really early, and there is a heated pool where all you can see are snow-capped mountains all around. I remember all of us just thinking, “This has got to be the craziest swimming-pool experience in the world.”
An unforgettable sight
Coming ashore at South Georgia, seeing 250,000 pairs of king penguins. It’s an overwhelming experience and something that sticks in your mind forever.
A transformative moment
I’ve been to some remote places in the Asmat (communities in South Papua) where I’ve been inducted as a spiritual family member. Jarda and I went through an initiation ceremony where they pass on to you a name of their ancestors. It’s a very spiritual and moving thing to be part of that. That goes beyond tourism.
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