Ride the Horizontal Falls

May 2017

We've been flying for an hour north of Broome when the seaplane arcs across the inhospitable and uninhabited landscape of the Buccaneer Archipelago and dips over Talbot Bay. Below are two narrow gorges: one only six metres wide, the other 24 metres wide. When the mountainous tide changes - the tidal range here is eight to nine metres, rising to an astonishing 13 metres on the summer king tide - the equivalent of all the water in Sydney Harbour races through these gorges. Though they look from the air like white-water rapids, the tide rushing through the gorges is actually falling like a waterfall, hence the name coined by the English naturalist David Attenborough. To experience this natural wonder, Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventures runs the rapids in purpose-built boats each powered by two 186kW engines. The experience of falling from the mirror-calm water above the falls through a boiling cauldron flanked by cliffs into Talbot Bay is exhilarating.