The last full day of our amazing Kimberley cruise. We skipped an early morning (6 am departure!) zodiac trip to see more rock formations in favour of a sleep in before our exciting fast boat tour to experience the horizontal falls.

As the tour brochure says, this is one of the icons of the Kimberley coast. The falls are a pair of stunning breaks in the McLarty Range, about 300 metres apart. The sandstone, shale and dolomite range is 1.8 billion years old! The first of the gaps is about 25 metres wide and the second and more spectacular gap is just 12.5 metres.

With massive tidal differences of up to 10.8 metres, the horizontal falls — technically termed “pinch rapids” — are a natural phenomenon created as seawater builds up faster on one side of the gaps than the other, creating a waterfall up to 5 metres high on a king tide. With each change of tide, the direction of the fall reverses, creating vast tidal whirlpools on the outgoing side.

The ship sailed for Broome at lunch time and we had the most relaxing afternoon around the pool, cocktails while watching the sunset, and a great dinner with some of our new friends from the cruise.

It was also a chance to farewell our wonderful Expedition crew.