Unfortunately we had to give the Gibb River Road a miss due to bush fires and most of the places we wished to see were closed. Next time around we hope.
Arrived in Broome and free camped at Willie River, that is a great little spot right on the fore shore with great views, almost beside a pearl farm however Kath resisted the temptation to visit.
We booked into a van park next day as I didn't wish to leave my truck in a car park while we were away all day on the Horizontal Water Fall trip.
The whole day was just remarkable, first off was a visit to the Church at Beagle Bay, the whole thing is basically decorated with mother of pearl shell, the floor mosaic, altar, font etc etc was just gleaming white mother of pearl, the baptismal font had the largest bailer shell I have ever seen, it was massive.
Then on to Cape Levique and a walk on the beach, clean white sand right up to the base of the ocre red rock face, I am still trying to work out how the sand is not streaked with red, the rock is so soft it wipes off on the fingers. Any way after the little sojourn it was off the Pearl farm, that was a bit disappointing as nothing was shown/demonstrated on seeding the shells, husbandry etc, just pick a live shell from a rack ( these shells have a fungus damaging them so it as an early harvest, they are trying to limit the spread. There was a small pearl inside and this was cleaned, graded and valued at $150.
Short drive to the airstrip where we boarded the Cessna caravan fitted with floats for the ultimate experience, the horizontal falls themselves. The short 20 minute flight over the Buccaneer Archipelago was simply amazing, to see the huge tidal flows between the islands etc caused by the 11.4 mtr tide, huge whirlpools and eddies etc stretching for kilometres. Then the falls themselves came into view, wow! that had to be seen to be believed.
After a water landing we boarded the 1200hp boat to getup close and personal with the falls, the sheer brute force of the water was mind blowing, massive up wellings, eddies, whirlpools all at once was physical. the height was around 1.3mtrs as the boats are not permitted to navigate through the hole if it is any higher, the narrow second fall was higher so we are unable to navigate that one so the skipper just backed the boat into the slot and held it there, the pull of the water could be felt in the hull.
We did this a couple of times, shot the lower one a gain and then off for feed of fish n salad.
The hour flight back to Broome was a new experience as we traversed different country, all in all it was a fantastic day and worth the price.
feeding the pets
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