Managed the bumpy ride from Cape Leveque to Broome. We stopped in at Beagle Bay to check out the Beagle Bay Church. It's altar is made from pearl shells, designed by the parish people and local aboriginal people in the early 1900s. The church has recently featured in the movie Bran Nue Day.

Rolled into Broome and felt instantly relaxed-a lovely (but busy) sea side town. Booked into a van park-right next door to camp kitchen-score and beside a family from Mackay!! Small world. Walked off to check out Cable Beach, and was not disappointed. A beautiful beach, full of life and loads of people from many different places. Might have been the shock of not seeing anyone in Gnylmarung -but it was fun to sit and people watch. Kids couldn't resist a swim to catch some waves in-bit cold for me though. That evening we headed out to dinner and ended up at the Roebuck Bay pub. Great spot, great food, and live entertainment. Funny-Emma and Coen no longer look at the kids menu-so it was 4 mains for our family, all of which they managed to eat!

Next morning we woke jumping out of our skin with excitement!! The day had arrived for the "horizontal falls adventure". Firstly it meant that we had to be somewhere at a certain time-after 2 months of no deadlines-I really struggled knowing we had to be ready by 1130!!! It all worked out- and the bus arrived to take us to the airport spot on time. We were greeted on the Tarmac by our sea plane pilot-Steve. A quick safety talk, and life jackets around our waist-and we had begun our adventure. The plane took us from Broome, up the coast, to cape Leveque across the Buccaneer Archipelago. We spotted whales, and Steve turned and caught up to them for a better view-was an awesome sight from the air. Flying low over the Buccaneer Archipelago was incredible-so close to the mountain ranges and islands. Watching the water swirling around in whirlpools and all the currents. The area is renowned for its difficult water ways, and many pearl divers lost their lives trying to negotiate these waters. I started to feel a bit motion sick at this point-but couldn't keep my eyes off the view. Barb spotted a massive crocodile-just floating by. Then Steve banked hard right-and we flew over the horizontal waterfalls. Incredible sight of water pouring out of 2 gaps-a 7meter gap,(the other 15m) moving at 12 knots all the way down its 40meter depth. Just spectacular! I had the sick bag out at this point!!!! Then Steve did some quick manavues and we squeezed between the mountain ranges-to land in the calm waters of Talbot Bay! So exhilarating, and feeling like the only people in the world! We then idled up to the house boat/ platforms and were welcomed by the crew. There were sharks swimming all around the platform, and we could see loads of fish. The kids were looking a little green at this point-but once on the house boat-were fine! Next was the boat through the falls. A larger boat, with massive ouboards-was thrilling to go through the falls. First time around we were only able to go through the wider fall-as the tide was too high for the more narrow fall. Back to the house boat for a swim in the shark free cages. An awesome sight to see the lemon sharks through the Perspex. The shark handler-Brynn, gave us all the info on the sharks, kids got to pat and feed them. A massive groper also came to visit, and was more impressive than the sharks. Lunch on the houseboat was followed by a cruise in cyclone creek in Talbot bay-then more rides through the falls-both the larger and now narrow one!! The day went so fast-kids loved every second of it. The flight home was over King Sound then overland to Broome. A big thrill for me as I got to be co-pilot!

The next day was spent exploring Broome, markets, pearl shops and generally soaking up the atmosphere. We then walked down to Cable Beach for a swim and to watch the sunset-another tough day at the office!