The tides of Talbot Bay
An overnight stay on Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventures’ Jetwave Pearl is a rare invitation to connect with the Kimberley in a way few get to know.
WORDS Catherine Best
When the seaplane lands in Talbot Bay, billowing white ribbons across a turquoise runway, it’s nearing high tide. The great gravitational forces that appear to lift and lower the Buccaneer Archipelago’s 1000-odd islands are about to hit reverse. “Take a photo of the bay around you,” a Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventures crew member grins. “It will look very different in a few hours.”
And he’s right. Cruising through Cyclone Creek from the arrival pontoon to the secluded Jetwave Pearl, a floating hotel with only 10 rooms, we funnel through a corridor of rust-red cliffs. Come late afternoon, the tide drops eight metres, exposing the cliff’s charred underbelly thrusting out of the water. Bands of colour indicate the changing high-water mark. Black and barnacled beneath the ‘oyster line’, dark grey where the big ‘spring’ tides peak twice a month, and white where the twice-yearly equinox (king) tides wash the iron oxide from the sandstone.
This is Dambeemangaddee Sea Country, home to the Dambeemangaddee (saltwater) People, the Traditional Owners of this part of the Kimberley, whose connection to these tides and islands stretches back tens of thousands of years.
Most people who visit the Horizontal Falls (Garaan-ngaddim) come on a half-day tour. But the benefit of staying overnight is that you get to experience the full 24-hour cycle of giant tidal movement – witnessing the sea swallow exposed mud flats, sea cliffs and mangrove trunks before spitting them out again.
In the morning, a seaplane lifts us off from Derby and takes us straight to the heart of the falls. The crew has reviewed the schedule to ensure overnight guests have box seats to the best show in town. First, we enjoy some downtime on Jetwave Pearl – our luxurious home for the night – and then join a fishing expedition in Cyclone Creek, where we birdwatch, keeping our eyes peeled for crocodiles. We cool off in the predator-proof pontoon enclosure next to a shiver of tawny nurse sharks that come thrillingly close as they thrash at hunks of barramundi.
ON COUNTRY
Garaan-ngaddim (Horizontal Falls) is located on Dambeemangaddee Sea Country.
Set within Garaan-ngaddim, Jetwave Pearl’s mooring in Cyclone Creek offers visitors the rare opportunity to experience one of the Kimberley’s most sacred cultural landscapes. The Dambeemangaddee People are the Traditional Owners of this Country and continue to lead its protection, guiding how visitors engage with its stories, places and living cultural heritage.
TIDAL THEATRE
The shadows are long, and the day-trippers have all but departed when we board the powerboat to the falls. The anticipation is now at fever pitch. And the timing has been meticulously planned. It’s an hour and 45 minutes before the tide changes, and the water movement is at its peak. During this ‘sweet spot’, seawater surges between the two gaps in the gorge faster and stronger than at any other time in the tidal cycle. It’s mind-boggling to witness, but a simple hydrology lesson explains the phenomenon.
Islands and ridges that form part of the McLarty Range dissect this part of Talbot Bay. Over eons, the sandstone eroded, creating two gaps in opposing ridgelines and flooding the valleys on either side. These gaps are the only link to the ocean. Between them is a 7km-long ‘middle sea’ and behind the small gap, a wider inland sea. With the constant push and pull of monster tides – nudging 12 metres on the equinox – these inland seas have no hope of keeping pace with the bay’s ebb and flow.
“It’s a constant game of catch-up,” guide Taylor Cox says, explaining how sometimes the water flows through the falls in both directions simultaneously. Beyond this no-man’s land is a deeply sacred part of this Native Title site, protected by an impassable moat.
As the late afternoon light drains the sandstone gorges of colour, we shift in our seats, preparing for the most incredible nature cruise of our lives. There’s a collective buzz as the powerboat navigates through the moving water. We watch, transfixed, as the boat ‘squats’ at the mouth of the wide gap in the cliffs, where silken eddies of seawater swirl before disappearing between the gorge walls.
The colossal volume of water gushing horizontally through the gap seems to defy the laws of physics. Even more so at the narrow gap, a seven-metre chink in the cliffs about 300 metres further inland. Here, the force of the tidal movement is so great that the water plunges three metres down an invisible precipice. Today, this is a no-go zone for tourist boats. It’s a sacred area for the Dambeemangaddee People, who tell how the writhing body of the spiritual serpent, Woongudd, created the falls.
There’s an energy here that feels supernatural. Being in Talbot Bay – pinched between two-billion-year-old sandstone ranges, mudflats and the infinite expanse of the Indian Ocean – is a raw-wilderness awakening. And staying here overnight offers a rare glimpse into the daily rhythm of one of the least populated places on Earth. It’s a water world ruled by the second-largest tides on the planet.
“As the late afternoon light drains the sandstone gorges of colour, we shift in our seats, preparing for the most incredible nature cruise of our lives.”
ALL OUR OWN
As we motor away from the falls, the advancing twilight sets the clifftops ablaze, and we have the bay – glistening like polished hematite – all to ourselves. Back on Jetwave Pearl, canapes and bubbles await. I join fellow guests on the top-deck balcony as we recount – wide-eyed and breathless – the day’s adventures as the aroma of seared eye fillet steak drifts from the barbecue downstairs. Dinner is an extravagant three-course affair prepared by a private chef and shared at two intimate communal tables with beer, wine and soft drinks. It begins with a barramundi entrée served with homemade basil oil and pistachio and olive crumble, followed by eye fillet with butternut cinnamon puree and Café de Paris (whipped butter with fermented garlic). There’s hardly room for dessert, but who could resist pavlova with coconut and vanilla bean whipped cream and fruit salad, served with mango and apricot puree and topped with mint sugar and coconut flakes?
When the meal is over, we retire for a nightcap to the lounge, where guests chat in fervent anticipation about tomorrow’s activities. There are just 10 cabins on the all-inclusive Jetwave Pearl, each with a distinctly ‘Kimberley’ name and furnished with luxury linens and riotous views of Talbot Bay. Mine is the Pearlers Cabin, with a private balcony overlooking the helicopter pontoon and a stylish bathroom befitting a boutique hotel.
In the morning, I wake before sunrise. Outside my cabin window, the bay slowly emerges from the darkness like a Polaroid picture. I slip outside with a steaming cup of tea and breathe in the quiet stillness as the boat gently pulls at its moorings. The tide is out, and the landscape wears a new mask. There are 22 other people on the boat, including four crew, but right now, I feel like the only person on Earth.
Before breakfast, we cruise back out to the falls, making several passes through the wide gap. It’s been half an hour since the tide turned, and the middle sea is refilling. Slowly, more gently than yesterday. Peak activity is still two-and-a-half hours away. Today’s encore voyage is less an adventure and more an opportunity to slow down and quietly revel in this extraordinary place.
Before we depart, we have time to head out on the powerboat to explore Slug Island, spotting shy rock wallabies and osprey wheeling above the cliffs. One last cruise before the seaplane spirits us back to civilisation.
THE DETAILS
Experience the Horizontal Falls in a way few do. With the Horizontal Falls Luxury Overnight Stay package, you’ll fly by seaplane to Talbot Bay, cruise the falls at their most powerful, spend the night aboard the Jetwave Pearl and wake to one of the world’s most remote sunrises. This all-inclusive overnight adventure departs from Broome or Derby (Boodolar), with prices starting from $2,220 per person for a Main Deck Double Room.