Wednesday, 3 June 2026
Groan! We were up at 4.30am again this morning for our second attempt at the Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventure. As another passenger boarding with us at the Discovery Park pick-up said – ‘I only get up at stupid o’clock for something amazing’. Although we had EVERYTHING crossed at this stage, hoping that we would get off the ground this morning after our ill-fated experience on Monday.
This morning it was Leslie who picked us up in the minibus. When I boarded, she remembered that I was a passenger from Monday who had been rescheduled. With the morning looking clear she was sure we were going to have a good day today. Phew, after all the waiting around on Monday morning, it was all go today. As soon as we were in the hangar, we watched the safety briefing video again in preparation for our sea plane flight. Then, almost immediately, we were being weighed and ushered out the hangar door to our sea plane by our pilot, Riley.
We handed our small bags over to be stowed in the luggage compartments in the floats of the seaplane and in return we were given a life jacket to clip around our waist. Riley then loaded us into the aircraft in accordance with the seating plan that had been calculated to keep the plane balanced. Very soon after that we were taxiing out to the runway and then, just before 6.00am … we were in the air, on our way to the Lalang-Gaddam Marine Park located within Dambeemangaddee people’s native title determination area along Western Australia’s Kimberley coast.
Our flight path took us across the Dampier Peninsula, over King Sound and past Cascade Bay, Cone Bay and Strickland Bay before Riley landed us in Talbot Bay. We taxied alongside the pontoon that houses the ‘Horizontal Hotel’, conveniently located near Garaan-ngaddim (the Horizontal Falls). Before our feet could touch the pontoon, we were being met by Nick, collecting our bags, handing back our seaplane life jackets and being ushered into one of the houseboats before being issued with a different life jacket to be escorted aboard the boat ‘Full Throttle’ that would take us into the Horizontal Falls. Phew, the tide was running and deckhand, Nick, and skipper, Daisy, wanted to take us in straight away.
We scooted in through the entrance to arrive at the ‘Wide Falls’, a 20-metre wide gap that creates a pinch rapid, which is white water created by tidal flow, rather than gravity, as in a river rapid. Daisy gave the passengers on both sides of the boat a good look at the water surging back out to Talbot Bay on the outgoing tide. Then we powered through the gap and across a relatively calm section of water, before pulling up to have a close up view of the ‘Narrow Falls’ where the tidal flow is more constricted producing an even greater waterfall effect, as all the water is pulled back towards Talbot Bay.
All this excitement was tempered by Daisy pulling the boat into the calmer waters to explain to us how deeply spiritual this area is for the Traditional Owners with the falls being seen as the embodiment of the Rainbow Serpent in their creation stories.
Back at the pontoon, it was time for breakfast. It was only 8.00am, but it felt like we had been on the go for hours. Oh, that’s right, we HAD been on the go for hours! We had plenty of options for breakfast with both continental and cooked breakfast available.
After breakfast we were herded back onto Full Throttle for a slower boat cruise on Cyclone Creek, a narrow stretch of water that took us into the depths of the wild and colourful Kimberley country. Daisy, a self-confessed rock nerd, provided us with a fascinating insight into the development of the amazing rock formations that surrounded us, as we meandered through the creek and mangrove estuaries. The Kimberley region is so ancient and so unique and so pristine and unspoiled. It has been an amazing experience making our way through it from east to west over the last three weeks.
We returned to the pontoon for more food and a shark feeding experience. We packed so much in today, we can’t even remember what order the feeding was done in! Nick summoned some Tawny Nurse sharks to the feeding area of the pontoon, by slapping on the hull to create vibrations. There is a shark cage beside the area that the sharks come into, where you can watch from if you want to, but Nick had said the water was cloudy today and he thought we would be able to see the sharks more clearly from the deck. Bernie decided to go into the caged area, but I opted to remain topside. First to arrive were some batfish, then three tawny nurse sharks arrived with their entourage of remoras. The remoras are sucker fish that form a symbiotic relationship with the sharks. They keep the sharks clean and healthy and the sharks provide them with protection, transportation and feeding opportunities.
How lucky were we today?? After morning tea, we were loaded onto Full Throttle for a third time and we were taken for another run to view the Horizontal Falls again, now that the tide had turned. Where water had been rushing OUT towards Talbot Bay, now water was rushing IN away from Talbot Bay. Daisy and Nick told us that there is about a minute at the change of tide where the waters in the falls are still. We didn’t see that today but we certainly witnessed the tide churning through the pinch points in both directions. We certainly didn’t expect that. We’re not entirely sure how we came to be privileged enough to see the falls twice.
Back to the pontoon for the last time. Riley arrived back in the seaplane with passengers on a different tour. They offer full and half day tours and overnight tours so, while we were enjoying our time at Horizontal Falls, Riley was flying back and forth between Broome and Talbot Bay. We switched our life jackets again, exchanging our boat life jacket for our seaplane life jacket, before being loaded back into the Cessna 208 Caravan … with floats, making it a seaplane.
Back in the air, we were taken on several passes over the Horizontal Falls, before flying over the Buccaneer Archipelago, Sunday Island, One Arm Point (Ardyaloon) and Cygnet Bay and landing at the airport at Lombadina, near the the top of the Dampier Peninsula. Here we were met by our 4WD bus driver, Brenton. We drove to the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm, where we ate AGAIN. So much food needed to fuel our adventures, ha, ha.
After our barramundi lunch, we experienced our second pearl farm tour in two days. Our guide today was Sarah. We didn’t really learn anything new BUT, when Sarah opened today’s sacrificial oyster for the tour group, it contained a pearl. The Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm also has its equivalent of The Don, but it is not kept at the farm, it is in their showroom in Broome. After a couple of purchases were made it was time to pile back on the bus and head back to Broome.
As we started out, Brenton told us he was going to put a video on. He told us there’s no point him giving and commentary as he usually finds most passengers are asleep ten minutes down the road. The video was a documentary about the Kimberley titled: ‘The Kimberley’s Wildwater Country’. It was actually very interesting and, rather unbelievably, I saw nearly all of it.
About half way back to Broome we made a quick stop at Beagle Bay which gave everyone an opportunity to visit the conveniences and the Sacred Heart Church Beagle Bay. Trappist Monks were the first to come to Beagle Bay in 1890, but they abandoned the mission in 1900 to be replaced by Pallottine Missionaries from Germany and in 1907 the Sisters of St John of God arrived from Ireland. Many churches were built of timber and paperback as they were regularly destroyed by bushfires, cyclones and white ants. During WWI, the German priests and brothers were put under house arrest so they turned their efforts to building a more substantial structure of mud brick, decorated extensively with pearl shells.
After this short stop, we were on the final leg back to Broome. When we thought we were doing this tour on Monday, we purchased tickets to see a movie at Sun Pictures – the world’s longest running outdoor cinema, built in 1913 – at 6.15pm tonight. Gosh, it was going to be tight! It was around 6.00pm when we reached the outskirts of Broome. Then we had a drop off at the G’Day Park on our way into town. Then we went to drop off all the people in Cable Beach accommodation. You guessed it, we were last to be dropped off at the Discovery Park at Town Beach.
Undeterred, we dumped our cameras and back packs in the cabin and jumped in the car for the short drive to Chinatown. It was 6.35pm when we parked the car. We rather dubiously made our way to the cinema. The doors were all closed and we thought it might be policy to lock the doors against latecomers, but a staff member appeared when we rattled the door. She told us the main feature had only just started and let us in. Tonight’s screening was of ‘The Sheep Detectives’ which was a bit of fun, but a little bit sad too!
It has been a very big day!
Steps: 5,678 (3.54kms)
