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It was only a short drive in to Derby from Willare but we wanted to find somewhere to have a shower because the water was off at Willare. We checked one of the local caravan parks and after paying $5 had a luxurious shower. We also found a hairdresser on site and each of us got a haircut.
Before the pick up for the trip out to the airport we had time to visit the Derby jetty plus check out the wharfinger museum (a wharfinger is a person who manages a wharf). The museum turned out to be the history of Derby for the last 100 or so years and was quite interesting. Georgi got excited about various bits of information relating to some research she was doing on property ownership. Ask Georgi about it.
After a quick lunch, we travelled out to the airport with six other fellow travellers and found that there would be about 30 people travelling (in three seaplanes) to the Horizontal Waterfalls Hotel (a houseboat plus various attached pontoons for the boats and seaplanes to moor against).
Our pilot was Steve and we were first to leave Derby (with Georgi as co-pilot). It
was less than an hour to travel to Talbot Bay in the Buccaneer Archipelago. Steve banked and swerved in and out of the mountain ranges to let us all have a close look at the waterfalls and then we lined up and landed gracefully on Talbot Bay before taxiing to the Houseboat Hotel. The seaplanes had another trip back home to Derby to make with day trippers.
After we were shown to our rooms and unpacked we had time for a drink or snack before being introduced to some of the locals (these were sharks that were hand-fed in a cage next door to where people swam). Georgi changed in to her bathers to have a swim "with the sharks" but said the water was too cold. After seeing the sharks fed, we boarded one of the fast boats to tour "the backyard". Our boat was smaller and had two 300hp engines. The other boat was larger and had three 300hp engines. The tour included our first run through the Horizontal Waterfalls. There are actually two horizontal waterfalls that are formed by the rapid movement in the tides through narrow gorges (about 15 and 10 metres wide respectively). Because
Our first view of the houseboat hotel
Our seaplane docks at the Horizontal Falls Hotel we had chosen to visit on a very high spring tide (full moon) the tidal movement was almost ten metres and we were unable to get the boat driver to attempt the second waterfall. He said it was unsafe to try as it required a drive up the waterfall of approximately four metres. After a few drives through the smaller waterfall (including a drenching from a big wave that came over the front of the boat), we went back to the houseboat where we got ready for dinner of saltwater Barramundi. We shared our Jansz with one of the crew who was from Strahan.
After dinner it was time for chatting and organising activities for the morning. We chose the chopper ride.
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