Category: Bailey Trips

About Horizontal Falls

The Horizontal Falls are a unique experience and a reminder of the incredible power the moon has over the Earth’s oceans and tides. Surprisingly the falls are still little known although they are unique and the experience is unforgettable. (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

The Horizontal Falls trip was one of our “Bucket List” items and should be on anyone’s who visit the Kimberley in Western Australia. We booked the 24 hour trip and it was totally worth every cent! It looked so good that Gwyn & Bill (Merrisa’s folks) flew to Broome to join us on it. The tour only takes 10 participants so the smaller group really works well.

We stayed in Derby overnight the day before the trip began so that we’d be ready for the 9:30 pick-up. Flew by seaplane from Derby to Talbot Bay and then transferred to our own accommodation (away from the crowds) in Cyclone Creek.

Some of our experiences were…

• Trip starts with a fascinating flight out from Derby passing over the falls before landing at Talbot Bay
• Swam with the Tawny Sharks (we were in the cage); which are blind sharks and are similar to Wobbegong sharks in that they suck their food in before chewing it up
• Took multiple trips through the falls – both sets
• Went fishing on the luxury fishing vessel “Category 5” for a few hours and caught all sorts of fish. Gwyn caught a small shark!
• Took a helicopter flight over the area, taking in the falls in full flow, which was amazing (no doors on the chopper!)
• Sunrise cruise at 6:00am to check out the changing colours of the cliffs
• One more trip out to the falls with several passes through them before we left to go back to Derby
• Magnificent Baramundi lunch and Scotch Fillet steak dinner
• Our main guy Louie and the staff onboard were fantastic. Nothing was a bother for them and they really know their stuff
• Made new friends. A small group of ten was just perfect and everyone got on with each other.

I took 368 photos on this trip and have “culled” them down to our favourites (now 50), please enjoy…

A bit more about the falls…

The Horizontal Falls or Horizontal Waterfalls are located in the Talbot Bay in the Kimberley region of western Australia. Although called waterfalls, this natural phenomenon actually consist of a pair of openings or gorges in the McLarty Range through which massive amount of water are pushed by tidal waves, creating temporary waterfalls up to 5 meters high. When the tide changes, so does the direction of the flow.

The twin gaps are located on two ridges running parallel approximately 300 meters apart. The first and most seaward gap is about 20 meters wide and the second, most spectacular, gap is about 10 meters wide. When the rising or falling tide occurs, the water builds up in front of the gaps faster than it can flow through them. This in turn creates an amazing waterfall effect as the water rushes through and then down to the lower levels on the other side of the ridgelines. The process is reversed and it is repeated again in the opposite direction.

The tides in this area have a 10 meter variation which occurs over six and a half hours from low tide to high tide and vice versa. On a slack tide it is possible to drive boats through the two gaps to the bay behind.

The waterfall phenomena has been described by David Attenborough as “one of the greatest natural wonders of the world”.

Some links…

• Horizontal Falls website
• Kimberley Region website
• Map – where is it?
• TripAdvisor