Horizontal Waterfalls

9-July

Our first full day in the Kimberley. We met Michael and Jerry yesterday and today the four of us we will do a long anticipated trip to the Horizontal Falls.

Horizontal Falls, located in Talbot Bay within Western Australia’s Buccaneer Archipelago, is a natural phenomenon where massive tidal currents rush through two narrow gorges, creating a sideways waterfall effect. The region experiences extreme tidal variations of up to 10 meters. Because the narrow gaps in the McLarty Range are too small to let the water pass through quickly, a rapid builds up, creating a “waterfall” between the bays that can reach up to 4 meters in height. The area behind the “falls” is basically a large basin, so the water can’t go anywhere. The “falls” are also a deeply sacred site to the local Dambeemangaddee people, who know the area as Ganbadb.

There are two ways to get to the Horizontal Waterfalls, via the sea or by seaplane. As we will only be here for a few days we opted for the seaplane, it will also give us a great view of this part of WA’s coast.

We boarded the plane, together with 2 other couples for the 1 hour and 10 minute flight to the Horizontal Falls, on its way the pilot showed us some interesting features of the coast by going as low as 150 meters.

We arrived at the pontoon where they showed us some local wildlife (sharks) and prepared us lunch. As the Horizontal Falls are caused by the tidal flow they have to time their visit perfectly to give us tourists the best experience.

They loaded us in to their high speed boat and after admiring some of the most amazing geological rock formations in this area we were ready to go over the “falls”. They hit the throttle on the boat and let all 900 horse powers loose to get us through. They did that a few times to give everybody onboard plenty of opportunity to take pictures and videos. It was an amazing experience, although, as the guide explained to use, the tide today was not that big. There are basically two entries the water has to flow through, one is 20 meter wide and the other is 7 meter wide. Tourists are only taken through the first wider opening. But even that looked small when the boat was powering through. The water flows back and forth with force every 6 hours and 12 minutes!

If you look at some of the pictures you will notice a dark grey band above the waterline, this is how high the water can come up during a high tide!

Here are a few images of the day.