Horizontal Falls

After our day today I feel I should apologise to all our lovely readers who are currently in one of the many lockdowns happening. One of the things we were definitely going to do if we made it to WA was to book a day trip to the Horizontal Falls. In the King Sound north of Derby there are such large tides that in a specific spot where the tide change creates conditions like a waterfall. It was a full day with a pick up at 5:10am! It was incredibly foggy this morning which was a surprise.

The first activity was a 2 hour drive to Cape Leveque which is at the top of the Dampier Peninsula. We were rewarded with an amazing beach with white sand and red cliffs. It made for fabulous photos. Next stop Cygnet Pearl Farm which was created by an eccentric Australian in 1945 who wanted to create an Australian business in competition to the all the Japanese owned farms.

We had a full breakfast and then taken on a tour of the pearl operation including harvesting an oyster to hopefully find a pearl. It was so interesting to see the farm in action and learn more about how they place a value on the pearls. The oyster had a pearl but it was deformed and coloured so not worth anything. It also had a tiny natural pearl which was not created around the seed. It is called a Keshi pearl and it was worth $180. Of course we finish the tour in the shop with delicious pieces of jewellery. The price tags were pretty hefty for this unemployed girl so I left empty handed.

On to the nearest airstrip for the first flight in the little sea planes. We were all seated carefully to make sure the weight was evenly balanced. This flight was 20 minutes and flew over the Buchaneer Archipelago which has a huge number of small islands off the coast. We also flew over the horizontal falls which was so cool to see them from the air.

The planes landed on the water in Talbot Bay where the adventure company have created a floating hotel to use as their base. It was quite busy when we arrived as the fog has caused disruption. On our tour there was supposed to be another group who flew up and then drove back but their tour was cancelled due the fog. Also the overnight tours normally leave at 7:30am but they were still there and did not leave until mid afternoon.

As soon as we disembarked we went out to the horizontal falls as the tides were perfect. The boat seated 30 and was well powered with 3 x 300hp outboards. The wide gap was 20 metres and the water falls 3m from one side to another. We played around in the rapids for quite a few minutes and then went to look at the narrow gap. This one is only 7m wide and the boat is 4m so not much wriggle room! As the tide was at the peak we could not go through the second gap but had some fun as the driver pretended to let the tide take us. It was as amazing as we expected.

Back to the boat for a BBQ lunch and shark feeding. You could also swim in the next door cage and check out the sharks underwater. Regan and I decided to give this a miss. The final tour in Talbot bay was to Cyclone Creek which had amazing rock formations. Final flight was back to Broome, a little nervy to take off on the water. A door opened on the plane as we started to take off so a quick abort to close the door and off again. The flight was an hour and we were quite pleased to be dropped off at the camping ground.

Easy tea and toast dinner and suspect it will be an early night.Read more