Derby and the Horizontal Falls

After spending two and a bit weeks on the Gibb, our finale was a seaplane trip out to the Horizontal Falls. It was the most magical day, flying from Derby over the Buchaneer archipelago. We arrived on a pontoon in the middle of an oasis with the most amazing turquoise water. The Horizontal Falls is created by massive tides rushing in between a couple of narrow openings, which we went through in a high speed boat. The first opening was about 20 metres wide and the second about seven, which was pretty hairy!

Back on the pontoon there was a big swimming cage and they did a shark feeding for some of the local inhabitants… not exactly my idea of fun, but the boys loved it. Given the idealic setting it was a bit too creepy for my liking. Perfect set up for a horror movie…but that’s how my mind works!

While we were all a bit down leaving the beautiful rawness of the Gibb, it was great to be back in civilization. Calling Derby civilized may be a bit of a stretch, but at least it wasn’t all red dirt and crocodiles! Here we met Jacob, a local Aboriginal artist who was carving out animals on a boab nut. We were taking the kids out to the pub for dinner and before we’d even managed to get out of the car the kids were sitting on the side of the road with him watching him carve. We weren’t 100% sure what was going on and could see that it wasn’t going to be easy extracting the kids but we all watched for a while. Of course the nut was for sale and he produced “one he had prepared earlier”. We handed over $50 and like a flash Jacob and the mob across the road disappeared. We suspect we funded that nights slab of beer. Jacob may not remember us, but we will certainly remember him!