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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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The missing school packages from Karijini finally caught up with us so Derby became our homework catch up spot. With some coaxing the girls got through most of it. I got to test out the solar panel – works a charm – we can now stay as long as we like in bush camps. We saw the Prison boab Tree and learnt about the conflicts between pastoralists and Aborigines and the growth of cattle farming. The Mowanjum Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre was very impressive. PL bought a Wanjina spirit etching.
We’d heard that the Horizontal Falls in the Bucaneer Archipelago was a “must see” but expensive. After much thought we decided to do it and got the seaplane from the Derby Aerodrome. We flew low over the mudflats (Derby, with a 13m tide change, has the 2nd largest tide change in the world), the start of the Kimberly ancient reef system and the islands of archipelago before landing in Talbot Bay.
We boarded the “Barra Shack”, luxury houseboat with its own helicopter, took a look at the resident “salty” (salt water croc) and soon thereafter we set off on a fishing excursion in a “tinny”. We just pulled them in non stop – Spanish Flag, Fingermark, Estuary Cod, Sooty Grunter – we kept 3 large ones to cook up for dinner. The scenery was amazing – narrow passages, eroded cliff faces, aqua blue water.
We were greeted by bat fish and 2 large Kimberly Estuary Sharks on our return to the Barra Shack. Our guide gave the sharks a pat on the head, fed them the left over bait and then proceeded to hook a 5kg Trevallie that was swimming with the sharks. It took about 30 minutes to pull it in – a very impressive catch.
After a Barramundi BBQ lunch we set off in a 500 horsepower speed boat to go see the horizontal falls. The falls are created by the powerfull pull of the tide change – the tide goes out quicker than the water can get through a gap in the rocks. The current is massive – the water on one side is a meter higher than the other. The speed boat went though both falls twice – on the second pass of the narrower of the 2 openings we stopped in the fall itself – the boat was doing 38 kph and yet slowly drifting backwards. We all got a rush from the experience. It was then straight back to the seaplane for the trip home.
We watched the sun set on the Derby jetty and got some take away chips to eat with our fish. We still need some practice at scaling and cleaning fish but enjoyed them nonetheless.
PL thought it would be good to use A’s journal for our horizontal falls adventure. The only problem is that her journal for that day runs for 7 pages …
Our final activity in Derby was stocking up for the Kimberly/ Gibb River trip. PL planed out 20 meals and the fridge is fully loaded.
previous travel blog entry
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