boat does climb up a hill of water,
all around us are giant whirlpools,
cascading waves, and white water as
if we’re on a surf beach.
Gasps and sighs a constant re-
minder of where we are and what
we’re doing. A few circles and then
we shoot across to another opening,
albeit narrower. It feels surreal as
the boat lunges up and almost out of
the water, the boat in front of us, is
tossed about like a cork in the ocean.
There’s more gasps and nervous
squeals of laughter.
We enter a second bay and told
that this is actually the Poulton
Creek. The creeks are big up here.
It’s time to head back to the float-
ing village. With it comes a huge
thump as the boat leaps down from
the high water to the lower level, I
guess what goes up must come down.
We’re now riding the rapids, a com-
pletely different feeling to going up
the water.
As the boat docks there’s an excited
hum amongst our fellow travellers;
some are here just for this experi-
ence, having flown into Broome or
Derby, others are travelling by cara-
van, and like us have spent weeks on
the road yet marvel when they hear
we’re riding bikes.
There’s no time to dwell. Were
again ushered off, now for afternoon
drinks before board another boat
and take a cruise around Talbot Bay.
Amazing colours and formations rise
from the deep blue water, remnants
of what many geologists say is one of
the worlds oldest mountain ranges,
predating even the Himalayas and
Andes. It’s suggested that at their
highest the McLarty Ranges would’ve
been higher than anything else on
earth. Millions of years of erosion
has seen them reduced to little more
than large lumps forming the more
than 2,600 islands of the Buccaneer
and Bonaparte Archipelagos. It’s a
stunning sight and one that anyone
with the slightest nautical inclination
most see.
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