We checked into West Kimberley Lodge caravan park in Derby ($35 power & water) about lunchtime, after driving the latter miles of our journey with yellow wattle trees in full bloom lining both sides of the road. Nothing in the van tempted us for lunch so we drove to a coffee shop in town for coffee and cake or in Pete's case homemade meat pie and coffee!!! We had intended to park somewhere and have a walk around the town centre but the businesses and shops were strung along several roads with large distances in between, so we just drove around for a look.
We drove out to the Derby Wharf, a good place to fish or view the sunset over King Sound. Tides here are Australia's highest with tidal variations being as much as 11 metres, meaning vast areas of mud flats at low tide.
Our main reason for staying at Derby was to do the Horizontal Waterfall Flight and the next day we were picked up at 8.15am and driven to the airport to board our seaplane. The pilot offered the co-pilots seat to anyone and Pete jumped at the chance and spent the flight looking very authentic with headphones and microphone.!!!
At first we flew over the mud flats with the stunning mud colours changing from milky latte to coffee to brown. We flew over some of the islands in the Buccaneer Archipelago and over the falls themselves before landing on the turquoise waters and taxiing to the pontoon.
We boarded a jet boat and took off for the falls where we rode through the narrow gap between the first gorges. The second gap was too small to ride through safely as the water was flowing out very fast., so back at the pontoon we fed the fish and swam in a huge shark cage. The pontoon has a few sharks and a very big groper that hang around the boats and we could see them in the clear water, swimming by the pontoon.
We went out in the jetboat for a cruise around the untouched surrounding bays and creeks and as this is crocodile country, we looked for crocs without success.
Barra burgers seem to be the lunch of choice in the far north and we enjoyed them again for lunch.
We did one last jet boat ride out to the falls where the gap between the second gorges had widened enough for us to ride through so we rode through both gorges several times.
We flew home over the scenic Buccaneer Archipelago and King Sound. It was an excellent day out and one of the highlights of our trip so far.
The Kimberley would have to be one of the most colourful places we have been. The white, yellow, red, black and grey of the gorges, red earth, turquoise, emerald and green/grey waters of the ocean and waterways, dark green scrub and creamy spinifex make for a beautiful ever changing vista.
Next stop. A little R 'n R in Broome.
Cheers
Rhondae (Sam) & Pete
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