Tick On Jenny's Bucket List

WEDNESDAY 3 JULY 2019

We did hear some pattering of feet and saw some flashlights shone around the park about 11pm but didn’t disturb us too much and nothing was missing from our campsite in the morning.

We were up, dressed, breakfasted and ready at the gates by 8am for our exciting excursion to the Horizontal Falls.  It’s an expensive trip and we had hummed and hahhed about doing it but it was on Jenny’s bucket list and one of things where you think you have come all this way and might never have another chance so bugger it, let’s do it.  Apparently a lot of people think the same way and there were enough people for 3 minibuses out to the airport.  A quick safety briefing and then the group was divided up and put on to the waiting 4 sea planes.  For once having a surname with a letter at the beginning of the alphabet worked to our advantage as we were first in the first group and on the first plane.  We had seats right at the back of the plane which was actually to our advantage as we had the whole back seat, heaps of leg room as we were next to the exit door and little air vents in the windows.  We also had big windows to look out and enjoy the view – first over Derby town, then over the huge estuarine areas to the north before heading out over the archipelago and being able to see down to the azure waters and the little boats zipping between the gaps in the rocks.  We discovered that up until David Attenborough came here and talked about how the tidewaters flowed horizontally through the gaps the areas where it does so were just called ‘the gaps’.  They are now, of course, known as the Horizontal Falls.

The seaplane touched down perfectly on the smooth waters of the bay and puttered across to where two large boats are moored along with various pontoons etc.  

We hopped off the plane and swapped plane lifejackets for boat ones before our host for the day, Adrian, helped us onto his large jet boat and powered us off to the ‘falls’.  We are very lucky as we have somehow managed to time it for the time of day/month where this a big tide so that the falls flow really well but not so well that they can’t actually drive the boats through.  We found out Adrian has been out here for about 16 years so we had complete faith in his ability to know exactly how the tides behave and exactly what his boat is capable of.  He told us of cowboy stories of when tours first started running out here where three different companies competed for space and hence regularly banging into each other or the rocks and even sometimes throwing passengers (and in one case even the driver!) overboard.

Having seen both gaps from either side, powered through them a few times and even sat in the middle of one revving the engine we were impressed by how much water flows through the small gap and that you can really see the difference in water levels from one side of the gap to the other.  The amazing thing about having two gaps is that you can have a situation where the middle bay has a higher or lower level that the inland sea and the bay depending on which way the tide is heading.  The level difference can get as high as 5 metres – as high as a two storey house – which is truly astonishing.  Adrian knows from (bad) experience that you can’t get the boat up this height of water fall!!

We headed back to Adrian’s own charter boat (which he leases back to the Horizontal Falls company during peak season) called the Barra Shack for a cuppa and cake and a relax.  We then piled back on the power boat and went for a cruise up another section of bay, through some other gaps where there were much smaller water ‘falls’, and past interesting rock formations until we got to the upper reaches and mangrove country where we then turned around and ‘released the ponies’ to zip back to the main pontoons.  Adrian then decided he would take us back out to the main ‘falls’ so we could see them at highest tide when the most water is rushing through.  We could get through the wide gap but the smaller one was running too fast to go through but we did sit at the top and rev the engines to stay on the spot up to about 20 knots apparently.

Back to the main pontoons and time for a swim or to watch the guys feed the lemon sharks which hang around knowing they’ll get fed about lunchtime.  Larry and a couple of the guys decided to pay a little extra for a 10 minute helicopter flight back up and over the falls while they were rushing but Jenny was happy to just sit on deck and admire the scenery and watch the fish/sharks etc.

Larry and the others got back safely and we then headed back to the Burra Shack for a very yummy lunch of freshly caught barramundi barbequed on the hot plate with white crusty rolls and salads.  We all sat around a large table on deck and chatted away and decided there would be very few places we would rather be as it had been such a good day.

Back on the boat and Adrian took us back to the ‘falls’ one last time as it was getting close to the tide reaching its maximum height meaning that the levels of the various bays were much closer to being level and therefore the gaps were wider and the water flowing slower.  So we were very lucky to see the gaps 3 times over the 4-5 hours we were there and see it behave very differently on each occasion.

Finally time to head back to the pontoons and load up on the sea planes.  Because we had been right at the back on the way out the pilot asked Larry sat next to him in the co-pilot seat and me right behind the pilot on the way back so we got a very different perspective  but Larry found it a bit stressful having to keep perfectly still in case he hit an important button!

Safely back to base, back on the buses and back into Town just before 3pm.  A fabulous day and certainly a wonderful experience unlike any we have had before. 

Back to earth and reality and so a trip to a hardware store to restock things like glue and tape, to a service station for fuel and tyres pumped up and a camping store for Larry to buy a new chair as his old one is sinking lower and lower towards the ground so that L has to reach up to his food on the table!  We also did a little drive around town and out to the wharf for a look.  Quite a few people fishing but not too many catching anything.

Back to base and finally got all the blog from the Gibb River Road actually posted and then popped out to the local greasy joes for burgers and chips which were actually very nice and not greasy at all.

More blogging and a spot of Wimbledon watching before bed as it has been a long and eventful day.