GORV - Digital Magazine Issue #21 | Page 51

RV TRAVEL The Horizontal Falls – a natural phenomenon on the Kimberley Coast – are often seen as a bucketlist item for those travelling Australia. They are an experience that should not be missed. Filmmaker and naturalist David Attenborough once described them as “one of the greatest wonders of the world” and he was not wrong. There are a number of ways to experience the falls, which are in Talbot Bay as part of the Buccaneer Archipelago, but they all include a seaplane ride, a jet boat ride through the falls and a swim with sharks. There are full-day, half-day, overnight and 24-hour experiences, and they all offer something different. We were on the overnight experience, so we flew out of Derby at 2.30pm on a seaplane. Now, we have been in helicopters and planes of many shapes and sizes, but we had never been in a seaplane. We were all excited to have the experience of landing on water in an airplane, and of course experience a runway on water. VIEW FROM ABOVE We flew over the Kimberley and had a bird’s-eye view of pristine, natural, untouched, isolated landscapes, areas that are well known to be inhabited with crocodiles, abundant in birdlife as well as fish and other fauna native to Australia. To describe the view in words is impossible. To say that it was breath-taking, awe-inspiring and simply stunning is not enough. It was so much more. At the end of the 45-minute flight, standing proud in the isolated inland sea of Talbot Bay, we were able to catch a glimpse of the spectacular Horizontal Falls in all their glory. The plane flew over and around them, giving us a bird’s-eye view of a late-afternoon tidal change that caused a waterfall of epic proportions. gorv.com.au 51