Cyclone Creek and the Horizontal Falls

Today I woke up to this view outside my window.

We were at the horizontal falls. They’re two narrow holes like a kebab stick joining two parallel sausage shaped bodies of water. Because the tides here are about ten metres, a lot of the water in both sausages is pulled through the holes twice a day, creating reasonably sized waterfalls. There are immense sheer rock walls on each side of the falls, and the first hole is at least twice the size of the second. Since some people died going through the second hole, people only go through the first one, which is definitely tamer. To make it even less of a thrill, people don’t go through at the height of the tidal swings, and since there were a fair number of us, it was pretty flat by the time the last zodiac went through. I went on the second 

and the last, 

and the difference between them was quite noticeable. You can see it was low tide in the first pictures as the black rock from the Cyanobacteria in the water goes quite high. We went up to the second hole both times, and the first time it was a raging fall, whereas it was flat the second time. We had to hang on with both hands, so I didn’t have my camera, but the crew took photos of each boat. 

I managed to get a picture of both holes later.

To me, this is real Kimberley country. Red sandstone 1800 million years old that has been folded and eroded over the ages. After lunch, we cruised through Cyclone Creek to see the formations. This is dry country, as you can see from the saltbush and sparse vegetation, although there are some pockets where it’s moister. 

It was high tide, so the mangroves were underwater. This area has seventeen species and you can tell them by the different colours.

We didn’t see any crocodiles, although a lot live here even though there aren’t any of the sandy areas they prefer. But we did see and hear a number of birds, including doves, pigeons and the greater bower bird. I managed to get a picture of an egret.