Horizontal Falls Trip

Tuesday 10th June 2014

Today was the big day. We got picked up from the caravan park at 2pm and were taken to the Derby Airport where we boarded a float plane for the flight to Horizontal falls. Here is the picture of the float plane. It has little wheels which come out of the floats so it can land on hard surfaces

This is a view of the tidal mud flats around Derby taken on the flight. These mud flats go for kilometres and in the wet season king tides are covered in water.

This is the float plane landing in Talbot Bay near where the pontoons are tied up

This is the first view of Horizontal Falls from the air as we come in by plane. The gap nearest the bottom of the picture is the narrow falls and the one nearer the top is the wider falls. If you look closely you can see the pontoons anchored in Talbot Bay near the top of the picture

This is another view of the falls.

This is a picture of the pontoons all tied together. There is a sleeping pontoon with 11 cabins and 4 bathrooms. On top of this is an entertainment area where we ate. There are pontoons for the high speed boats to tie up and another for the float planes to dock at. There is also a pontoon for the luxury Kimberley Cruise vessels to tie up so their passengers can be taken through the falls. There are also 2 helicopters for people who want to do private trips.

This is a view of the water swirling through the narrow falls. Waiting to go through was like sitting is a washing machine. The boat was idle but the speedo shoed it was actually doing 32 knots just to keep still in the swirling water.

Another view looking through the falls

When you come back from the high speed boat trip through Horizontal Falls, you can go into the shark cage and the staff feed lemon sharks and a spotted groper of around 200lbs outside and you can get real close from the safety of the cage. These are 2 of the lemon sharks swimming around.

This is a batfish waiting to be fed

Margaret and John with their life jackets on ready to go on the boat ride

Ray and I ready to go

Margaret and John in the shark cage having a swim.

This is George the spotted Groper being hand fed just beside the shark cage. He was about 200lb in weight

The sharks circle the pontoons all night so the staff tell everyone to be extra careful and don't wander around aimlessly at night.
Bull and Tiger sharks have also been spotted in this area.












After the swim with sharks we went on another boat ride further up Talbot Bay in Cyclone Creek, so called because it is a safe anchor when the cyclones are on. There is some spectacular rock formations along the water including this one which is supposed to resemble an Indian head

This is a view looking up Cyclone Creek. It was late afternoon when we got there and it was so utterly peaceful. It was like we were the only people around. The skipper turned the motors off and we just drifted.

Sunset on Talbot Bay. A beautiful end to a wonderful day.

Margaret and Maura up on the entertainment deck of the pontoon just before we had a lovely Crispy Skinned Barramundi Barbeque Dinner with some delicious salads. This was followed by some luscious desserts.

Ray and John ready for another boat trip

One of the helicopters doing some manoeuvres and some showing off.

Ray, John and Margaret with the beautiful scenery of Talbot Bay in the background.

This is a view of the coastline of the Buccaneer Archipelago taken from the plane on the trip back home on Wednesday morning.

This is the 4 of us after we had returned from another high speed boat ride through the falls on Wednesday morning. It was cool and windy so we are pretty wind blown but it was great fun.

This will be the last blog for a couple of weeks. We are going on to the Gibb River Road for 2 weeks and reception is poor so I will Blog again when we get to Kununurra.

 

Katherine to Roebuck Plains via Timber Creek, Kununurra,

Sunday 25th May

We got away early from Katherine and the first thing we saw was a 2 metre black headed python crossing the road. I wasn't ready for it and didn't have the camera ready. But I was ready for the next sight. 2 people riding push bikes west about 160km west of Katherine. I mean it was going to be 35 degrees. They are certainly keen.

As we were heading towards Victoria River Roadhouse the scenery was amazing. Beautiful red, rocky ranges. They are called the Stokes ranges and are absolutely breathtaking. We stopped and took a few shots but really the photos don't do them justice. You really have to see them for yourself.

Here is a photo of Ray leaning on the van with those colourful ranges in the background.

Just taking a photo from the centre of the road.
After this we kept heading west towards Timber Creek. After booking into the caravan park we went and paid our money for the Victoria River Sunset Cruise. Apparently they were waiting for us to show up because another 6 people had shown interest and as the cruise takes a minimum of 8, they couldn't confirm until we showed up.

As the cruise didn't leave until 4pm we had a few hours up our sleeve so we wandered down to Timber Creek and took a few photos of the actual creek and I had a chat to some indigenous women and children who were fishing for turtles in the creek.
This is a photo of the beautiful Boab tree in the park. Usually by this time of the year the Boab has lost its leaves but this one still had some. In the wet season it is a lovely shade tree with huge white flowers but in the dry season it is quite stark looking.

This is a photo looking up Timber Creek. There was a small freshwater crocodile around but he was shy and wouldn't come up for a photo.

At 4pm the bus picked us up to take us about 10km up the road to the boat. This is a photo of an area called Big Horse Creek, which runs into the Victoria River. This is where the boat is kept.
Apparently if a barramundi is caught and it is over 1metre long it is called a big horse, so this is where the creek got its name.

As part of the cruise the captain feeds some kites and sea eagles. He hides a piece of meat in a piece of bread and throws it into the water. This is a photo of a brown kite scooping up the meat and leaving the bread behind.

This is another interesting part of the cruise. apparently the Victoria River is teeming with crocodiles, the saltwater kind. This crocodile had just caught the wallaby and dragged it into the river by the neck . You can see his head on the right holding the wallaby's neck. He was waiting until we passed as he thought we were going to take it. When we were doing the return trip he had the wallaby carcass up on the bank and was having a feed

Part way through the cruise the captain pulls up to a pontoon anchored in the middle of the river and we all go on and there is hot and cold nibblies and cold drinks. Ray and I had taken our own beer and sav blanc so it was quite a nice setting for a drink. The captain threw out a line and caught a catfish which he then placed on a platform. The result was this sea eagle swooping down and taking the fish.

This was a brown whistling kite waiting in the tree for a chance to come and get some of that meat.

Looking back at the sun setting over the Yambarran ranges north west of Timber Creek. These ranges are now part of the Bradshaw training area used by the RAAF for training purposes.

The Yambarran Ranges taken from the Victoria River

Ray and I on the boat enjoying a delightful afternoon



Monday 26th May

We got away from Timber Creek about 8.15am. About 25km out of town we saw a dingo wandering on the grass verge. First dingo we have seen on this trip. After going through the quarantine inspection area where we lost all of our remaining fruit and vegies, we arrived at the caravan park in Kununurra at 9.30am because when crossing the border we had to put our clocks back 1 1/2 hours. After setting up we caught up on some shopping, went to the Ivanhoe Café for lunch and to the sandalwood factory so I could get some lovely soap and hair care products. Then back to the caravan park for a swim. Tomorrow we are going out to Ivanhoe Crossing to see if we can get across. The last time we were here in 2011 the water was really pouring across and very deep and impassable.

 When we got out to Ivanhoe Crossing the crossing is still closed but fishermen were still trying their luck. Apparently there are some concerns with the integrity of the concrete on the crossing and authorities are trying to decide what to do about it. In the meantime it remains closed.

This is a view of the crossing from downstream a bit. There was still a fair bit of water going over it. The water was up to the knees of the guys fishing.
The next day Thursday 29th May we headed down to Purnululu National Park. (The Bungle Bungles). We only had time to stay one night but we have booked a helicopter flight for the 10th July and will stay a few nights then.

 

 

 

These are a couple of photos of the Boab Tree and our camp site at Purnululu.

The mountain ranges on the road from the Bungles to Fitzroy crossing are very colourful. Someone told us these mountain ranges in the north of Australia are some of the oldest in the world.

Then on to Fitzroy Crossing for a night. Lots of lovely countryside on the way. Huge termite mounds. This is a picture of the sunrise from the caravan park at Fitzroy Crossing.
Next stop was Roebuck Plains Roadhouse where we stayed for a night so we could get to Barn Hill early the next morning.

We got to Barn Hill about 10am and after we set up we went for a walk down on the beach to look at the beautiful rock formations.

 

On the Sunday we set up the tent and airbed for Margaret and John. The markets were on at Barn Hill so we had a bit of a look at them. We befriended a lovely young couple from Broome who were camping on the site next door. They had come down to Barn Hill for the weekend as it was a long weekend in WA for Foundation Day. Brad and Brooke were delightful and it was lovely to meet a young couple with such a great outlook on life. If you are reading this , good luck for your wedding day in August and we hope you have a very happy future.

On Monday afternoon we went up to Broome and did some shopping and went out to the airport about 5pm to wait for Margaret and John, who arrived at 6pm. By the time we got back to Barn Hill it was about 8pm so we had a couple of drinks, something to eat and went to bed.

When Margaret and John woke up the next morning they were gobsmacked by the view from the campsite. The Indian Ocean was spread out before them.

After breakfast we went for a walk along the beach, we had a bit of a swim, not Margaret though and then wandered back to camp.

Margaret and John on the walk down to the beach.








This is the view along the beach on the north side of Barn Hill



There was a beautiful sunset due to there being a lot of dust in the atmosphere from the volcano erupting in Indonesia.

Beautiful sunset

 

On Wednesday 4th June , we headed into Broome for the day to do a bit of sight seeing. We visited the Japanese Cemetery and then went down to the Port and had a bit of a walk along the jetty. Then went to The Roey Hotel for some lunch then out to Ganthaume Point and on to Cable Beach for an ice cream. We got back to camp about 6pm.

Thursday and Friday we walked on the south side beach at barn Hill and generally just relaxed. The following are some photos taken on the beach and around Barn Hill.

Open to the air toilet block at Barn Hill

Showers at Barn Hill. Water is heated in black hose spread out on the ground and heated by the sun. Water is nice and warm between 9am and about 5pm. A bit colder after that

The toilets. They do flush but you sometimes have to move the green tree frogs out of the way to use the loo. And always leave the lid town to discourage frogs because frogs attract snakes.

What remains of a lobster probably eaten by a turtle

Some red coral washed up on the beach

A jelly fish and an empty lobster head shell

Another unusual piece of red coral

 

 

Margaret, John and Ray strolling on the beach

Margaret and John strolling

Maura and Margaret strolling

Maura posing on a rock

Ray and John having a swim

Some rock formations

Maura and Ray on the beach

We left Barn Hill on Saturday and headed up to Derby. I will blog again at the end of the week. We are going on an overnight trip to Horizontal Falls on Tuesday so there will be plenty of photos of that. Blog you later.