We indulged ourselves on an outing to Horizontal Falls in the far north, seeing as you don’t get to pass this way too often.

On the map below you can see there are no roads to Horizontal Falls (in green font at the top of the hatched area), it’s a long way in a boat from Derby, so flying in and landing on the water is the way to go!

We’d heard great reports about this day out, and couldn’t resist the opportunity to go. We booked it when we were way back in Derby on Monday. The first available trip was on the Saturday, so having been up the Dampier Peninsula and down to Broome, we left at stupid o’clock to drive the 220km back to Derby from Broome (not using any of John’s short cuts this time) and met our sea plane pilot at the Derby Airport at 8.30am.
After a short briefing and donning the lifejackets, it was up and away over Derby, across the mudflats, the amazing river systems, and finally to land on the water right next to a massive pontoon of floating houseboats.


The plane takes 14 passengers, and we all had a great view.

It’s a flash setup out there in the middle of nowhere. Sitting on the glassy water are two massive houseboats, pontoons, swim cages, shark feeding pool, bars, three seaplanes tied up, two high powered jet boats, a tinny, a jet ski and to top it off – a very slick chopper flew in and landed on the roof. I wouldn’t like the insurance bill for all that.

We had refreshments on the upper deck, then a swim in the cages. There are plenty of sharks about.

Unfortunately the visibility in the water was poor, so it was easiest to see the sharks and Gordon, the groper, from above water.

A couple of hours before high tide we all boarded the jet boat loaded with 600hp and zoomed around the corner and into the first of two gaps that are The Horizontal Falls. We whizzed through here a few times and then on to the next gap, which is narrower. The water was already rushing through, and this smaller gap can’t be negotiated at the peak of the high tide. You would get through at high tide – but not back till the next tide.

The skipper (young enough to be my son) spins you round and zooms through time and again. It’s huge fun!
The force of the water rushing through the gap is jaw dropping.

There’s a million litres a second pushing through.
We also went and explored Cyclone Creek, where the river gave safe harbour to many ships in the past. Some of the staff live on a barge up there.
Back to the houseboat and it was barramundi for lunch. The helicopter came and went a few times with guests doing heli-fishing in remote locations.
Then right on high tide we went back to the Horizontal Falls to see the peak of the flow. Here’s a few more photos…

Then it was back on the seaplane for the flight back to Derby. We went right over the Buccaneer Archipelago at low level where the pilot showed some great skills as we curved our way through the peaks surrounding the water. Truly spectacular.

Things certainly look different at high tide.

And below is a barramundi hatchery.

We arrived back in Derby with huge smiles after one of the best days we’ve had – worth every cent.