Fall by the Side: The natural wonder of Horizontal Falls

03/06/2018 0 Comments read Travel

Horizontal Falls. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Horizontal Falls (Western Australia), 03.06.2018 (The Indian Express): A starlit sky and a lone street lamp are my sole companions as I wait for the Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventures (HFSA) tour bus outside my hotel in Broome. At 5am, the bus arrives, packed with travellers — some excited, others wary of boarding a small Cessna Amphibian seaplane.

At the airport, young Tonnia meticulously weighs us and our bags, and assigns seats, before fastening herself into the pilot seat. It is a picture-perfect day to fly low over Broome, the Dampier Peninsula, and hundreds of islands of the Buccaneer Archipelago in Australia’s pristine north-western Kimberley region.

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A Tryst with nature in Broome

02/05/2018 0 Comments read Travel

Myriad shades of the Broome landscape. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Broome [Western Australia], 02.05.2018 (The Hindu): In Australia’s north-western coastal pearling town of Broome, the Mangrove Hotel’s garden bar is packed with visitors and there is no room near the deck overlooking Roebuck Bay. The excitement is palpable as the sky begins to turn ink blue. In anticipation, the crowd cascades into silence as the swaying branches of frangipani and palm fan the gentle autumn breeze.

STAIRCASE TO THE MOON: A silver line appears on the horizon bathed in a reddish-orange glow. A golden stairway begins to appear as the full moon makes its ascent. Immersed in the spectacle, I am almost oblivious to the photo frenzy ensuing around me. Staircase to the Moon is a natural phenomenon visible from March to November when the rising full moon, reflecting off the exposed tidal mudflats in the bay, creates this optical illusion.

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The pearls of Cygnet Bay

20/04/2018 0 Comments read Environment & Development, Indigenous, Travel

By Neena Bhandari

Cygnet Bay (Western Australia), 20.04.2018 (liveMint): A four-seater Cessna lands on a pindan (red soil) airstrip near a narrow dirt road that leads to Cygnet Bay. It is tucked in at the tip of the Dampier Peninsula on Australia’s remote north-western Kimberley coast, where the Great Sandy Desert merges effortlessly with white beaches and the azure waters of the Indian Ocean.

It was here, in 1946, that wheat farmer Dean Brown entered the pearling industry, collecting the world’s largest pearl oysters, Pinctada maxima, for their mother-of-pearl shells. A decade later, his sons, Lyndon and then Bruce, joined him. They began experimenting with farming pearls and established the first all-Australian owned and operated cultured pearling company, Cygnet Bay Pearls.

The company is still leading the way in harvesting some of the largest and finest pearls under a third-generation Brown, James, and welcoming visitors to experience the making of the Australian South Sea Pearl.

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