Well, a frustrating electronic disaster just occurred. I had just complete the draft of my latest blog posting when I lost every word of it. After several desperate but unsuccessful attempts to recover some of it I received our travel-mate’s daily posting. Brian methodically produces a daily log, as opposed to my more cavalier timing. Reading his blog made me realize his was a better description of the day’s activities than was mine, I’ll simply use his write-up and hope he forgives me. I’ll use my own pictures. He has a better camera (it can’t be the photographer’s talent, of course) which I don’t want you to get used to. 😏
Brian’s write-up:
“Another good day yesterday. We arrived at the Horizontal Falls right on time for the full flow of water from the upper pool to ours. To call these falls is a bit of a misnomer but in fact at times there can be a very significant drop from the upper pool to where we were in the zodiac. It can be about a 13’ drop at times and ours was about 5-6’.
The falls are located in Talbot Bay and are a natural phenomenon where tidal currents create the illusion of waterfalls flowing horizontally. This occurs due to the region’s large tides (up to 33’ difference) forcing massive amounts of water through narrow gorges in the McLarty Range.
With zodiacs we could only approach the falls and feel the force of the water and the whirlpools created by the current. Which was plenty of fun and action. There is a jetboat company that is quite an operation. It actually goes through the falls and onto the next level of falls about a half mile away. Then it shoots through the falls again on the way out. It’s the Horizontal Falls Company out of Broome. They fly you out of Broome in a seaplane, it lands at an artificial island where, for even more money, I’m sure, you can stay overnight and probably make several rides through the falls.
Just checked, it’s about $1000 for a half day adventure and over $2000 if you want to stay on their floating island overnight. Not cheap so glad it was included in our cruise, even if we didn’t jet through the falls.
After all that excitement of the falls, we then cruised through Cyclone Creek. This was a beautiful cruise through canyons of rock that clearly demonstrated how active geologically the area is. While on the King George River we saw rock formations that were strictly horizontal. In this creek you could see how the rock uplifted and folded and just how massive amounts of rock and earth move over the thousands of millennia. Our zodiac driver was Keith and he gave excellent talks on the geology and also on all the little critters one can so easily miss. He’s a big fan of those mud skippers and, while we didn’t see any of them, he did point out several little crawly things and crabs along the shore.
He also explained why the creek got its name. It’s a series of winding turns that go farther and farther into the canyon. And thus it provides quite a good shelter for even large sailing vessels when there are cyclones. Each time we came to a turn in the creek, we’d look forward and there would be another one.
Later in the afternoon several of us in the higher suites got a very nice private visit to the bridge. We got nice explanations of the equipment and how the ship navigates through the tidal channels and narrow passages. The staff captain had a nice Irish accent and came from Cork. He spends three months on a ship and three months at home.
For dinner we invited the Dallens to join us on our veranda as we sailed through the narrows and watched a beautiful sunset and then a clear star filled night sky. An excellent end to a very good day.”
