Derby and the Horizontal Falls

We arrived in Derby on Monday 29th May, and drove around town to get our bearings. We had a good look around, found the shopping area, (Woolworths and IGA), the visitors centre, the caravan park where we would be leaving the truck for our night away and the dog kennel.
The worms were biting so we had lunch in little cafe - battered barramundi and squid, chips and and salad - very nice! Then it off to the Port to watch the tide come in for a while. We were lucky enough to see a big salty roaming his territory and catching some very large fish from our vantage point on the jetty. Apparently he's quite new in town and not that often sighted.
We bought a intricately carved boab nut from a local aboriginal guy, he carved our names and the date in to the top of it. It's quite a work of art. See the photo.
Tuesday morning we were collected from the caravan park and taken to the Derby airport to meet up with another 10 people who were doing the Horizontal Falls Tour with us. We boarded a seaplane and flew out over the mud flats to Talbot Bay in the Buccaneer Archipelago. We landed on the water and motored to the pontoon and houseboat that would be our playground and accommodation for the afternoon and overnight visit. We watched the young guys feeding Tawny Nurse Sharks and big Angel fish who come in from around the area for the feeding show. They are not caged but live in the area and respond to regular feeding and attention from the crew. They call them their pets and have names for them all.

We were then taken out in a fast boat with four 300hp outboard motors attached to have a look around the beautiful scenery and then through the horizontal falls. Because the tide wasn't moving as fast as they hoped, and the daylight was fading fast, we were promised another boat ride the following morning when the tide would be piping through the gaps that create the falls.

We returned to the houseboat for nibbles and drinks before a dinner of barramundi, greek salad, potato salad and beetroot salad. We spent the rest of the evening talking with the others, most of whom are travelling the Gibb River Road as well. There's a good chance we will run into some of them again.

We were up at 6am for coffee with bacon, eggs, toast and cereal before another fast boat ride through the falls, and yes this time was more thrilling as we rushed through those small gaps. The smaller one being only 7 metres wide. On both the outgoing and the incoming tide, the water rushes through the gaps in the range, at 1 million litres per second!!!!

It wasn't long before our seaplane arrived with our pilot, a young kiwi girl named Sonia, who told us she does 8 flights a day, some from Derby and some from Broome. The flight back was over the Buccaneer Archipelago and King Sound, absolutely stunning!!.

It may be some time before I can update this blog because I believe there is very little reception available on the Gibb, so "au revior" until then.Read more