Kununurra

Jewel of the Kimberley, largest town in Western Australia north of Broome and just a great place to spend 3 hours while waiting for your plane to be repaired after a rough landing. We didn’t really see the town of course, because the airport people kept telling us that the problem would be fixed within 15 to 30 minutes, but that is obviously besides the point.

Our arrival at Broome Airport was well behind schedule and because taxi’s there normally only drive to the airport when a flight is scheduled to arrive, we had to wait for quite some time before we could grab one. The weather was fantastic, it was hot, sunny and the humidity was low. As our seaplane tour was cancelled (we received an email from the tour company a day before, telling us that they were ‘done for the season’), we tried to arrange a tour or two at the reception of our resort. The Bali Hai Resort is a wonderful place to stay when you’re visiting Broome. We had our own little house with two showers (one indoor and one outdoor), a bath, a kitchen and a barbeque. The receptionist managed to book us onto a scenic flight to the Horizontal Falls and also on a hovercraft tour, both the next day as no other days were available. In the afternoon we visited the local supermarket to prepare ourselves for a nice relaxing barbeque that evening.

The next morning we got up pretty early to go to the airport. A Cessna, or at least the model we had, is not a big aircraft: It will seat six people, including the pilot. These planes are designed to transport normal sized dwarfs or small sized humans, so we had some trouble getting in. While Bernd was doing his best not to knock the pilot unconscious with his knees, Yvo had to cope with a steering wheel moving up, down, left and right, seemingly targeting areas on him where steering wheels just don’t belong. The flight to the falls was rather good, especially the part where we had to descent to an altitude lower than the clouds, whilst being well above the clouds. Small planes like that, or rather, the passengers in them, don’t do well in clouds, as uncomfortable banking and rolling of the plane is bound to occur as soon as they enter one. Like a scene from James Bond, the pilot saw a small opening in the clouds and decided that this was the opportunity he was waiting for. The plane banked 45 degrees to the right and 45 degrees to the ground as we plummeted down to earth. Although this might sound like good fun, let me assure you: It wasn’t, but we did miss the clouds and as soon as the plane stabilized again we were well under them. The falls themselves are pretty nice and after we circled them a few times, we flew to an isolated beach to have some lunch and enjoy some free time. The flight back was not bad, as we flew lower than on the first flight, giving us a better view on the forest and bush.

After we had two hours to relax back at the resort, we were picked up for the hovercraft tour. The whole flying over the ground and water is amazing and while waiting for the sun to set, we hovered through the bay for quite some time. Unfortunately, at the time the sun was about to set, the skies had become clouded, so the tour ended with some nice snacks and drinks, but without the famous Staircase to the Sun.

The following two days we enjoyed our well deserved (no really, all this holiday stuff is very hard) free time. We did some barbecuing, reading, swimming and sleeping.