Orion replaces East Timor with Australian ports

Orion Expedition Cruises' MD Sarina Bratton announced today that Australian destinations will replace Dili and Baucau in East Timor when Orion sails from Darwin June 9 on what was to have been the 4,000gt expedition ship's first 2006 voyage to the fledgling nation that is now in chaos.

Bratton, who pioneered post-independence cruise visits to East Timor last year, said she is ‘saddened' by the civil unrest and bloodshed in the former Portuguese colony where Australian troops are deployed in an effort to restore law and order.

Bratton said Orion will now call at Melville Island and Victoria Settlement and Port Essington on Cobourg Peninsula on the 10-night round voyage from Darwin which is also scheduled to visit Kupang (West Timor), Komodo Island, Maumere (Flores) and Mt Borradaile in Arnhem Land.

‘We will continue to monitor the situation in East Timor and evaluate our visits based on the safety and security of our guests,' she said.

However, Bratton added that Orion's new itinerary for its planned ‘Dragons, Dili and Dreamtime' programme will stay in place if the situation in East Timor does not improve in time for the July 21 and Aug. 11 departures.