Thursday the 18th of August 2022 – Derby, Western Australia

Posted on by bebraveontour

Our Cessna Caravan (appropriate) Seaplane.

We’ll for the last 24 hours we have ticked off a bucket list item, a visit and overnight stay at the Horizontal Falls. Located on Talbot Bay in the McLarty Ranges about 30 minutes flying time north of Derby. The falls are so named because there is about a 3 metre fall in water in Talbot Bay when the tide goes out and we got to travel thru one of the “arch’s” and experience the thrill of being a “component” of the huge torrent of water that escapes the bay. The following photos are just some of the pics I took during our trip.

We took off from Derby airport and then landed on Talbot Bay next to the “pontoon” out accomodation for the night. Having never been on a seaplane before, that was also a highlight for me. As soon and we landed it was off to go thru the falls in our fast boat, although the tide was stable at this time it was still very exciting and wetted our appetite for the morning trip when the tide was running out. Dinner on board the pontoon was freshly BBQ’ed Barramundi and Sue, Andrew, Susan and I enjoyed the company other guests over dinner and a glass (or 2) of wine. This morning it was up early for breakfast and then back into the fast boats for our ride thru the falls. What followed later was morning tea, a cruise thru the Bay to Turtle Creek and then a great flight back to Derby, with low level passes of the sounds and canyons around the Ranges and King Sound. A ver memorable experience.

Derby from the air, with our Caravan park in the forefront.
The “Pontoon” our accomodation for the night. It was very stable, hardly noticed any movement. The Horizontal Falls Adventure runs from March thru November, and then the Pontoon is packed up and taken up Cyclone Creek during the wet season to protect it from the harsh Wet season storms.
Me in the shark cage, whilst the sharks have a feed!
Our late afternoon cruise thru the falls was rather passive but still very exciting.
It’s morning now and we’re heading to the falls to experience the 1 metre fall thru the entrance.
You can see the rough water here as the huge amount of water try’s to get thru the opening. It’s very turbulent both ways!
Low tide in Talbot Bay, just shows you the difference between low and high tides. Tides here are the 2nd largest in the world outside Nova Scotia.
The Falls from our aircraft after take off form the bay. The smaller arch still has big volumes of water travelling thru whilst the larger arch as levelled out somewhat at this time.
A few of the Falls from the 180 degree opposite angle, amazing the colour change in such a very short time.
Coming into land at Derby airport. You can tell there is not much in the way of “scenery’ around the airport, for that matter Derby in itself.

So tomorrow we head to Broome. Susan and I will have an extended stay there whilst Sue and Andrew head south (after Broome) to Karajini National Park. We developed problems with our electronics in the Crusier after travelling thru a creek crossing at El Questro near Kununurra. It’s going to be a costly repair and we’re hoping our stay in Broome will be no longer than 8 days. The Cruiser has been great on all our trips in the 7 years we have had it and it seems we have just been un-lucky. It’s not an unknown issue as 3 new Hi Lux utes have also surcome to the same problem. Fingers crossed we get a good outcome and can catch up with Sue & Andrew at Bullara Station near Exmouth in 8 days time.

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