Tuesday, September 26, 2017

DAY 70 – HORIZONTAL FALLS – IT WAS ON HIS BUCKET LIST…..


With the mounting anticipation of the Horizontal Falls and not wanting to miss the 
bus for a 5:30 a.m. pickup to the seaplane at Broome airport, we woke to get ready at 
5:00 a.m. We picked other passengers along the way and with a packed busload arrived
at the airport before 6 a.m. where we all were briefed for the flight and each 
given our small self-inflatable life jackets.
Up in the cockpit with the pilot
Check out the co-pilot
Co Pilot  Steve with Pilot Ben
You can't tell they are half excited.
 The seaplane seated about 12 passengers and Steve sat in the co-pilots seat. What a
buzz! The flight was fiary uneventful until we reached the Buccaneer Archipelago
ranges just past sighting where Derby was. We flew at a height of around 15000ft and
much of the flight was automated, allowing the pilot to document and record readings
and check other instruments whilst flying. He assured me it was not easy as there was 
an immense responsibility. 
 
Birds eye view flying out to the falls.
One of the other planes flying in..
On arriving at the falls (~1 hour flight), Ben, the pilot, circle the falls so that 

passengers on both sides of the seaplane could get some photographs (some moments
involved sharp turns where you could almost drop out of the plane if it was not for the
side wall and windows – let alone the seatbelts). The 2nd inlet (10m wide fall) 
contained a lot more body of water and would take longer to empty, thus the larger
fall. 
Flying in over the Horizontal Falls
Horizontal Falls
 We heard Ben talking to other pilots on route and as we approached to land I saw
another plane close to the water surface and under us – I hoped it would be out of the
way by the time we landed – it was. It was a relatively smooth landing on water. We
taxied on water to a group of pontoons that was setup for accommodation and was
given a cuppa & biscuits before hopping on the boat to the falls. It was all rushed. 

The sea plane they arrived in.
 We were taken to the first fall (30m wide fall) and through it several times. There was
a 1m height difference with a depth of 40m – a lot of water flowing out again. The
tides up there are up to 10m difference so you can imagine the amount of flowing
water involved. 
Heading off to see the Horizontal Falls

The water was turbulent however, the skippers throttle work made it more jerky than 

necessary. There were some amazing rock transformations.

The 2nd fall (10m wide gap) was high 2 – 3m difference in height and the boat craft
was not permitted to go through as the boat was 5 m wide, however, we approached
the fall to within ~10m and the turbulence was pretty severe, creating up to 3m 
diameter and 1m deep. After two approaches to the 10m fall, we returned to the
pontoons for breakfast (bacon eggs, cereal, coffee, tea.

Again, after a little while we were invited to feed the Tawny sharks and trevally. Kathy
& I hoped in for a swim in the cage. Visibility was not so clear under the water – little 
disappointing for GoPro shots.
Feeding the Tawny Sharks
 After about 115 minute, we were directed back on the boat for a tour of Cyclone Creek
where the pearlers stored their gear on the upper sand banks through the cyclone 
season (the Wet). The added advantage was to keep the hulls clean from barnacles. 
This tour had some amazing layer formations in the pushed and folded sedimentary
rocks. Just before we entered Cyclone Creek, we saw a small 3m crocodile basking on
a mud bank.
Cyclone Creek
Still crocs around here
Up close and personal

Before we knew it, it was time to depart on the plane so  we put on our life jackets and
took off on a different path at a lower altitude along the west coast. Steve sat on the
Eastern side (under the wing) and saw plenty of coast line formations (sand, water –
incoming & rushing – good fishing spots J ). 
We landed back in Broome by 11:00 a.m. 
and were home (Roebuck Bay Caravan Park) by 11:30 a.m.

Homeward bound again...





Whilst these guys enjoyed their morning flying out to the Horizontal Falls, I got some much needed housework done, and then I enjoyed the lovely ocean breezes as I sat out under our awning whilst I caught up on some photo editing and post card writing. 
I also got to meet our neighbours from behind, and the neighbours next to Ian and Kathy who happened to be good friends with my Dad back in Queensland.  The Haines and Cullens were here with a group of other Gideons who are heading to Perth for the National Convention.  The Cullens live in Caloundra and often pick Dad up and take him to the Gideon dinners in Caloundra as well as join him at the RSL for lunch occasionally.  The Haines are from Eucha in Victoria and Graham has served on the National Cabinet with Dad when we was National President.    It is a small world. 

Steve, Ian and Kathy were home by lunch time, with wonderful stories of their morning at the Horizontal Falls.  They loved it and would all do it again.  It was a little disappointing that I was unable to join them, but that is what it is.  

Steve went for a bit of a fish after lunch, although he wasn’t really successful today, and then later in the afternoon we headed onto Cable Beach to watch the Camels and sunset.  It was quite magical.  I can never get enough of the sunsets over the water.  This is something that is rare in the Eastern States as we are more used to seeing the moon rise over the water…
Sunset on Cable Beach
Our car on Cable Beach

Because I knew we wanted to go watch the sunset again this evening,  I ended up doing a Beef Stroganoff in the Slow Cooker so at least when we got home tonight, dinner would be cooked for us.  
Magical sunset over Cable Beach in Broome WA
The camels heading home after another long afternoon on the beach...

Enjoying another magical sunset at Cable Beach
Feeling blessed to be in such a beautiful spot.
Ian and Kathy on Cable Beach
Tonight was also the last night of “Staircase to the Moon” for this month, and we were keen to see the last one,  another reason to have an early dinner.  The moon was almost an hour later rising tonight, so it was around 8.45pm before it was due to rise. 
After dinner, we decided to take our chairs out to the beach headland, along with some wine and cheese and enjoy the last full moon for September.  We were fortunate that quite a few people had the same idea and the folk just up from us also had some lovely music playing that created quite an ambience for our evening out under the stars and moon. 
Enjoying watching the "Staircase to the Moon" at Roebuck Bay
How blessed are we,  getting to witness the sun setting over the water, and then a couple of hours later watching the moon rise over the water…
Still pinching myself often,  can’t believe that we are living the dream….
Loving life on the road, and can perfectly understand why people do this full time. 

1 comments:

Allison September 28, 2017 at 8:07 AM  

Love reading your blog posts and following your journey. Glad you are having a really blessed time.

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