Derby

We arrived at the Kimberley Entrance Caravan Park in time for a late lunch then in the afternoon we took a leisurely drive around the town and spent an interesting couple of hours at the pier which still loads some cargo but not the cattle which they used to ship out in the past.

Derby is on the section of the coast that has huge tides occasionally as high as 11mtrs. There are miles of mud flats which only get covered with water on the very high tides. During our sightseeing around the town next day, we called in at a local art gallery specialising in aboriginal art. There was some very good stuff and we bought a painting from a young aboriginal girl named Jasmine who is just beginning to paint, this was her first sale. If she becomes famous we'll be laughing!!!

Derby also boasts a 'prison tree' boab as well as the longest cattle water trough in the southern hemisphere. This was used many years ago when cattle were walked across many miles before being loaded onto ships for transport to other areas. We had a quiet afternoon as we were booked on a tour to the Horizontal Falls next day which required an early start so we were happy to have an early night.

Horizontal Falls

We had heard lots about this trip from various people that we had spoken with, everyone told us it was a 'must do' so we were excited to have the opportunity! We were picked up early from the caravan park and taken by bus to the airport. It was then about a 30 minute flight by seaplane out to Talbot Bay where we were offloaded on to large floating pontoon/houseboats.

After morning tea we watched shark feeding (why anyone would want to encourage them is beyond me)!! then onto the boat for tour around some of the waterways. We then changed to a jet-boat for our first experience with the falls - which are actually two narrow gaps which prevent the huge tides from moving into the bays quickly enough thereby creating extremely forceful rapids. Our very capable and experienced operator did a number of traverses through both falls and we all were able to get some photos.

Back to pontoon for lunch (grilled, fresh barramundi for everyone except me, I had lovely steak) then aboard the jet-boat again for another ride through the falls before re-boarding the seaplane for the return journey.

WOW, a once in a lifetime experience.

We arrived back at the van about 4pm after a very busy day and did some packing up in preparation for our departure next morning to Broome.