The time had come to drag Cheryl kicking and screaming from
her beloved swimming spot and move on. The sweetener was that we had booked a
trip out of Derby to see the Horizontal Waterfalls – more on that later. I had
travelled part of the last section of the Gibb River Road (GRR) five times now
– twice on the mission for a new battery, twice to see Bell Gorge and now our
exit trip. The road itself was akin to the old curate’s egg, good in parts.
There were still your bone-rattling corrugations but then strangely you would happen
across a stretch of super-smooth dirt road and you find that your speedo had
leapt up to 100 km/h. Of course reuniting with the real GRR could come as a
surprise if you weren’t watchful and you could find yourself airborne no matter
what sort of rig you were driving. Speaking of camping rigs, just sitting in
one spot like Mt Barnett gave us the opportunity to watch lots of people move
in and out around us, in every conceivable mobile home ranging from “take it
all with you” super-big caravans to camper-trailers to tents to minimalist
swags, and not least the Britz and Apollo hire motor-homes, so favoured by
Germans in a hurry (they mostly swoop in to Mount Barnett, see the gorge, tick
the box, and then move on at speed to the next Lonely Planet attraction).
Seeing all these rigs, I don’t believe that there is any perfect camper – all
have flaws and fall short in places, but work well in other situations (you
just don’t want to have the one that shakes itself apart and you leave it
twitching in its death throe on the side of the GRR).
Aerial view of the tidal flats out of Derby
It’s about 340 km on to Derby, a town that appears to me to have
been unduly maligned over the years and the word you hear down the road is to
avoid Derby because of this issue and that problem, but it seemed quite a neat
little town, well stocked and with good facilities - and no more or less issues
than any other northern town that we had been in. It’s not worth starting a
world movement over, but Derby deserves a fair go!
One of the horizontal falls from the seaplane - lot of turbulence there!
We waited outside of our caravan park on Friday afternoon,
to be absorbed into the well oiled machine that is the Horizontal Waterfalls
tour; a bus to Derby Airport where a seaplane whisked us north to Talbot Bay,
the site of this remarkable phenomenon. The landing was nothing short of
spectacular as the aircraft followed a path between steep hills (much like
landing at the old Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong) and then onto the bay itself.
The seaplane taxied up to the large pontoon complex where we were welcomed,
shown our cabins for the night and then invited out to feed the sharks and have
a swim (in cages). Maurs and Cheryl were the first ones in swimming of course.
The group (about 20 of us) then boarded a large and zippy speedboat in which we
toured the bay and the horizontal falls. Safety is the tour operator’s main
priority and we were issued lifejackets for the trip. Some of the more
“age-challenged” guests did have a little difficulty working out the
intricacies of donning the garment for some reason. It did amuse to watch the struggle.
Women swimmin' with sharks!
The shore - Talbot Bay
I should explain that the falls are a result of the large
tidal variation in the area (up to 10 or 11 metres) with water rushing in and
out of three adjoining bays as they drain and fill. There are two narrow
openings between the bays and the water just can’t leave in an orderly fashion.
This results in “jumps” in the water levels between the three bays causing the
water to rush through the narrow gaps. Apparently David Attenborough coined the
phrase horizontal waterfalls many years ago and it stuck. They can be quite
dangerous to negotiate when there are really big tides but we were able to jet
through them several times much to the thrill of the passengers (although the
next morning was considered too dangerous for the smaller falls).
"Yesh! That is a fast ride!!!"
The Horizontal Waterfalls with one water level higher than the other
Back on board the pontoon we pondered the sunset with the
aid of a glass of wine - barramundi for dinner. The waters around the pontoon
were floodlit allowing an intriguing variety of sea life to be observed all
night long. We spent the night in
air-conditioned cabins (the first time we had slept in air-conditioned anything
for months!) and after breakfast and the second trip to the falls area it was
back on the seaplane for the trip back. Well recommended.
We had all agreed to give Broome a swerve as we had all been
there before and we knew it was full of “snow geese” from down south who sit
out the southern winter by the beach. However the vehicle was crying out for a
service so we booked into Broome for two nights in order to achieve an oil
change. It gave us an opportunity to catch up with old friends Kevin and
Shirley G who also had no intention of staying in Broome but who had lost their
caravan door on the way north and had called in for possible repairs. If anyone
does happen to spot a door without a caravan attached out on the highway, let
me know and I’ll put you in touch with Kevin.
With clean oil and a full mainsail this reprovisioned unit
wheeled out of Broome heading south in pursuit of Vic and Cheryl – first stop
would be Barn Hill.
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