Horizontal Falls

HORIZONTAL FALLS

We were collected from the caravan park at 2:15pm and taken to the Derby airport where we were loaded onto a small seaplane. We flew out over King Sound, over the mudflats and mountain ranges in between Derby and Talbot Bay, and part of the Buccaneer Archipelago. Some great sights along the way. A smooth water landing had us at the houseboats about a half hour later.

Our plane

Great views on the way out

Our accommodation

We were conducted to our cabins, given a short information session on what to do and what to expect and then watched as a number of ‘blind’ sharks were fed – some people hopping into shark-proof cages to get a closer view – we could see quite fine, thank you, from the pontoon. Next we were then put onto a couple of very fast boats for a tour of some of the surrounding bays. The area has obviously been involved in some tremendous forces over the millennia judging from the twists and folds in the rock formations.

 

Shark feeding

Forces of Nature at work

Then came what we were all there for – the Horizontal Falls. We were in the larger of the two boats (for which Sonja was very grateful!) and we sped up to the first of the two narrow openings.

 

One of the boats about to enter the narrow gap

Just a small change in height of water level

Someone is really enjoying this!

There is only one entrance for water into this section of the bay. The water passes through the two openings. The first is the narrow gap (from the seaward side) of only seven metres and the next larger one of twenty metres. The water level on the two sides is of different heights caused by the tides. For our several trips through on the first day there was a one-metre drop. At one stage the boat backed into the gap and the driver had us running at 12 knots to keep in position – a fast flow of water. The drop was not quite so dramatic in the larger of the two gaps. It was real thrill-ride stuff as we sped through the narrow gap. We only received one drenching through all the bouncing around.

On return to the houseboats we had drinks and nibbles (BYO alcohol) and then a delicious meal of grilled barramundi and salads for tea. We sat with a couple we had met up on our flight to Mitchell Falls and had a good time catching up on each other’s travels. As we were going to be up early the next morning we showered and retired early.

After breakfast at around 6am some people went off on helicopter flights over the falls. David managed to get onto the last one. Some great close up overhead views of the falls area. Immediately the helicopter landed and David was off again on a morning trip through the falls. Sonja had decided she had had enough of thrill-rides and so remained back on the houseboat – the only one who chickened out!

View of the narrow gap from the helicopter

View of both gaps from the helicopter

A 2 metre change in level just too dangerous to try!

David managed to grab one of the front seats this time (much more exciting) as the boast headed off with the tide running in the opposite direction from the yesterday’s trip. There was also much more water coming through this time and the drop was about 2 metres. This was far too dangerous for the boat to negotiate and so we went through the larger gap several times and only sat in front of the smaller one amazed at the visible drop and the power of the water rushing through.

The boat returned us to the houseboats where we boarded the seaplane and took a different route back to Derby. We spent the rest of the day just relaxing. We took a drive out to the Derby Wharf again to see what the difference in height from low to high tide was like - a 9 metre change between high and low tides today!

Interesting views on the way home

Anyone who makes it up into this part of Australia definitely needs to make sure the Horizontal Falls is included in the MUST DO list.