Monday the 6th July and time had finally arrived
for the Horizontal Falls overnight flight. We put the van into storage, had a
last look around Derby and, to make it more of a special day we had lunch out
at the wharf. We were picked up at the van park at 2.15pm and went out to the
airport, met the pilot and were in the air flying out of Derby. Everything
works like clockwork with these Horizontal Falls tours, with one new lot of
tourists in and another lot go out. (Photos from the flight of Derby and King Sound are in the 'Derby' post).
The Horizontal Falls came into view. There are the two
narrow passages, one being narrower than the other. Just beyond is Talbot Bay
where the houseboats were moored where we would fly into. Linda got a great
video of us landing in the seaplane. I don’t think I can upload the video but
will look into it and edit the blog later if I can. The seaplane takes a steep
descent between two ranges, it’s like he just drops out of the sky. The flight
alone was just fantastic.
The skipper of our houseboat and speed boat was Adrian and a
very cool dude (the guy with the glasses, not the woman). He has been working in this area since he was 15, having
dropped out of school and has been doing this work the longest. At 27 he was a
veteran at this. Very blessed to have him showing us around. The group of 12 of
us were on the one houseboat on our own as there was an overflow of tourists
booking at this time and so the company had brought in Adrian with his boat
that he normally does 4 day tours on. It made it a better deal for us, not
being crowded and queuing. This was our houseboat and our fast boat. Everyone
else was on the joined, two houseboats.
He took us up the bay into some mangroves for an exciting
ride. Then back to the main houseboats where these bottom feeding sharks come
up for a feed. We got into the shark cage to get closer. Later that night there
was one of these sharks that just swam constantly behind our houseboat, picking
up what bait fish he could which were attracted by our lights.
We then went through the Horizontal Falls. There are two
narrow passages where the waters flow through at a furious rate and because so
much water is needing to come through the water banks up. It is amazing to see.
Adrian explained that the tide right at that time was not flowing hard but it
would be in the morning and we would be going again then. The photos don’t do
it justice but the videos I have of it help. Unfortunately cannot load those on but I have put a couple on facebook so you can have a look there. My facebook name is Pete Southey if you want to send a friend request.
Then it was back to the houseboat for sunset drinks and
nibbles. Just a beautiful setting. Met some really nice people who were on our
tour. We had a dinner of barramundi and
I had some snapper as well, salad. The nibbles and food was a little
disappointing really. The only small downside
in an amazing day. The moon photo is like a steps to the moon.
Next morning we had a breakfeast of bacon and eggs. Forgot
to get a photo of our room but it was quite nice. I got two pano photos, from
front of the boat to the back to give a good idea of our setting.
Linda and I went the extra mile, literally and dollars wise
and had a helicopter flight. It flew over from the pontoons and landed on top
of our boat to pick us up and we did a big circuit. The photos I am putting on
of the chopper flight don’t include actual horizontal falls photos because we
did videos which again I will edit into the blog later if I can.
Then it was time to do what we came for. We got into the
fast boat again and Adrian took us to the falls and this time the tide was
pumping. We went through the first, wider passage but Adrian would not take us
through the narrower passage as the height difference was to great. There was a
huge wall of water where the water was banked up, trying to rush through the
passage. There was an element of risk involved. He said when he was 15 he used
to do it but not anymore. This, without doubt, was one of the most exciting and
fun things I have ever done. The whole experience was definitely worth the
money.
It was over all to soon. The flight back to Derby was again
awesome. I got to sit by the pilot. The Buccaneer Archipelago is just
beautiful.
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