Talbot Bay - Kimberley Day 10: Cyclone Creek, Horizontal Falls, feeding the sharks, Croc Creek swim and dinner on the bow in Myridi Bay

 29th June 2026

By the light of the silvery moon - for dinner on the bow

We awoke this morning in Talbot Bay and I indulged myself with coffee in bed while reading my book, before showering and presenting myself for breakfast 

We had company in Talbot Bay!

We are surrounded by hills so the topography is quite different to many places we have been and we have company in the bay. A couple of other vessels moored but also the platform for the operators who are permitted to transit Horizontal Falls and to provide mooring for seaplanes.

 

Watching seaplanes land and take off from time to time reminded me of Gerald Durrell's account, in My Family and Other Animals  of Theodore's love of watching the sea plane land.

Cyclone Creek

Morning excursion times had been swapped and by 8am we were in the tenders and heading towards Cyclone Creek.

 

Cyclone Creek

The sandstone cliffs here have been tilted and folded and are rather stunning, creating some rather narrow navigation channels. 

Cyclone Creek - tortuously folded rocks

tilted sandstone layers

In some of the narrow places, small whirlpools form due to the intense tidal movement - this place has huge tidal flow - almost 13m at the maximum!

More fantastic rock formation spam, with a little whirlpool

Back At the Reef Prince we prepared for our tour of Horizontal Falls. Life jackets were required by the sole operator who is allowed to transit the first Falls and these were donned before we boarded the tour boat.

Donning and being briefed about life jackets for the Horizontal Falls trip

I didn't really know what to expect, but it was quite an experience as are our boat driver gunned the motors of the oversized jet boat and transited the first of the Horizontal Falls. An enormous amount of water is attempting to pass through a very narrow passage and the turbulence and water movement was most impressive. I'm pretty sure our  driver had some serious inner hoon that he was exercising.

We were only permitted to transit through the first Fall - and I could see why your average operator or random tourist is not permitted to tackle this alone.  We approached the entrance to the second Fall - and it is even narrower with a huge volume of water pushing through it.

I think this was the second Fall - the one we were not permitted to transit

We were not there at maximum tides, but it was still pretty remarkable!

We transited the first falls a number of times, and once the skipper held the boat against the tide (I hate to think how much fuel that required!) while we appreciated the force of the water flow.

 

A second boat transiting the first fall

Back on a Reef Prince iced coffee and Tini's home baked biscuits were on offer for morning tea.

Then we had a real treat to witness as Lewin attracted the nurse sharks with a fish frame and then these sharks were joined by a single lemon shark.

Leaving Talbot Bay is a scenic passage between the hills and of course very calm.

 

In many ways, the scenery reminds me of Bathurst Harbour in Tasmania's Southwest.

 

And the rocks continue to show the torture of geological history

We pass Koolen island with its open cut iron ore mine and Jasmine gives us a talk about its origins and operations, but it is a real affront to the senses after our past days of wilderness experience.

Its booster tower provides us with internet access for a brief period of time and I manage a few message responses.

tilting, folding and layering of the sandstone

Just more scenic rock spam

We do start to note the areas of rock with different coloration - indicating the mineral deposits.

Our afternoon excursion is to Croc Creek, where we ascend beside a short waterfall with the aid of a ladder and concrete steps which have been put in courtesy of the lads exploring on their days of from the mine. They have also paved the way across to a very convenient entrance to the delightful pool. 

The pool at Croc Creek - a delightful place for a swim, and had some critters to look at

I had my mask and snorkel and one other guest had her swim goggles so we enjoyed sharing what we could see with a couple of different species of fish and jellyfish, including an upside down jellyfish of very large proportions and a single specimen of a fish which initially raised eyebrows for both of us, but we were unprepared to share with the rest what our first impressions were. We were able to get a second sighting and realise that the tail fin did not mean it was a small shark. 

It was a delightful pool in which to swim and some of us could have stayed for quite some time.

tilting, folding and layering in the sandstone

 

From there the Reef Prince cruised on to Myridi Bay, where we were to anchor for the night. It is a most beautiful location with quite fascinating cliffs indicating a complex geological history and has the sunset was complemented across the bay by full moonrise it was most atmospheric. 

Sunset

Moonrise

This was enhanced by tonight being the designated night for dinner on the bow, for which tables had been set up on the bow along with fairy lights and it was truly a magical evening. 

Seated with sundowners as the sun sets

The meal was good too. Starting with fish tartare served with beetroot, and followed by freshly made sourdough in which I didn't indulge. I was offered gluten-free buttered toast instead, which I declined.  The next course was beautifully cooked fish which I had with lemon and capers as opposed to the beautiful lemon butter sauce with cream that everyone else had. The main dessert was eclairs with white chocolate and pistachio and all sorts of delicious bits but I had some fruit salad, for which they have finally run out of my lactose-free cream.

 

Under the fairly lights and the rising moon

One of my table companions, Gary, returned from a short diversion to advise that the majority of the crew were eating in the dining room and when he expressed that it would have been nice if they could join us on the bow they said that had not been permitted. I asked him to put something in his glass and accompany me down, where we offered them a toast for the excellent work they've done in making our trip brilliant.

Just one more photo at the table as the sunset colours start to fade

It seemed the party would continue, but feeling tired, I, along with several others, retired to our respective cabins.