DiNo's Travels Around Australia - 2014/2015/16/17: Day 86 - Horizontal Falls and the Dampier Peninsula

It was cold this morning - very cold. We awoke at 4.30am to be ready for pickup for our one day tour of the Horizontal Falls and the Dampier Peninsula. We took off from the Broome airport at around 6.00am in a Cessna Caravan floatplane for the 45 minute flight to the falls. For 25 minutes we flew over flat plains until we met King Sound. On the other side of King Sound the land changed to become mountainous with ranges trending NNW to SSE. Then, out of the blue, we flew over Talbot Bay and for the fist time saw the Horizontal Falls. Minutes later we were landing and tying up at the pontoon system which services all the activities. It is self contained with electricity generation, accommodation, food preparation, boat moorings, shark cage etc.

We breakfasted on bacon and eggs before boarding "Full Throttle", the 900hp boat which was to take up to the falls. The falls were "cranking" as one of the staff described.

A short three minute boat trip had us confronting the Horizontal Falls. The Horizontal Falls are caused by the huge tidal movement through two gaps in the McLarty Range. The gaps in the two parallel ridges and are about 300m apart. The water depth at the gaps is around 40m. The first and most seaward gap is about 20m wide and the second, and more spectacular, is about 10m wide. We were able to navigate our way through the turbulent, foaming water of the first gap, after being jostled about by the resultant eddies and whirlpools. What a heart thumping experience this was. We couldn't make it through the second gap, where we were confronted with a 3.5m wall of water as it tried to squeeze its way through the gap. This was much too dangerous to navigate.

Morning tea followed and then we took a sedate 30 minute boat trip up to Cyclone Creek at the head of Talbot Bay. This creek is so named because it is a safe haven mooring during cyclones. There were mini horizontal falls between the rocks in the creek too.

Next we partook of feeding of the tawny nurse sharks from the shark cage. There were seven, the largest about 2m long.

On to the plane then for a thirty minute flight over Slug Island in Talbot Bay to One Arm Point on Dampier Peninsula. This is 220km from BroomeWe flew over the Buccaneer Archipelago which comprises 800 - 1000 rocky islands. If you saw them you would know why they have difficulty in deciding the number of islands.

We inspected a trochus shell "hatchery" at One Arm Point before heading off, now by bus, to lunch at Kooljaman at Cape Leveque. Cape Leveque is quite a sight with red cliffs melding with white sands, both washed by a gentle Indian Ocean. So we dipped our feet, for the first time, in the Indian Ocean.

We lunched on grilled barramundi at Kooljaman before heading off the see the Sacred Heart Catholic Church at Beagle Bay. It was built by German missionaries while under house arrest during the second world war and is famous for its pearl shell alter. The whole church is adorned with pearl shell inlays.

Our day was nearing its end but we had to undergo our first disappointment for the day, a shake rattle and roll drive over 90kms of terrible road to get back to Broome. We survived.

This was a wonderful, wonderful day!