Heading west again this morning, for Derby. We’re passing through more and more burned country as we go. Not sure if this is deliberately burned or otherwise but it’s interesting to note, from time to time, signs urging care with fire and that we prefer our lizards frilled to grilled!
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| Burnt Country |
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| Boab Tree Rest Area |
Arriving in Derby about midday, Helen made a beeline for the laundry while I got set up. While the washing was getting done, we had lunch and then over to the laundry to hang it all out.
A drive down to the Wharf which until 5.00pm you can drive around and we did. Lots of lines being dangled in the tide but nobody catching anything. Back into town and a call at the ANZ hole in the wall for some funds, then to the Windmill Cafe to order fish n chips for a 6.30pm pick up.
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| Derby Wharf and Loading Conveyor |
With a couple of hours to spare until dinner time, we made a trip out to the Boab Prison Tree and The Long Trough.
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| The Derby Prison Boab Tree |
On the way, we spotted a sign to the Derby Wetlands and decided to leave that for tomorrow. Back into town, we stopped off at Woolworths for a bottle of wine to go with the fish n chips. As it turned out, the wine was the best part of dinner! The Windmill had been recommended by the park manager but I think fish n chips is better from a shop specialising in the meal, rather than a place where it’s on a long list of menu items.
Day 71—Tuesday, 3rd September (Derby)
After breakfast, we drove down to the Information Centre and collected the key for the Wharfinger Museum, which turned out to be well worth the gold coin donation. Heaps of information on the history of the town and wider area, all looked after by volunteers, we assumed from the local Historical Society. What great reading all this would make in a book!
After the museum, we took another quick drive down to the wharf but no action here and the tide well out but not as far as we were later to see. So we thought we’d follow up on the wetlands we’d noticed last evening. Turns out to be a man made wetland, part of the water reclamation system. After going through the ponds system, the water is fed into a small lagoon system, which the ducks enjoyed, there were hundreds of them and water hens too! The lagoon provided great cover for the birdlife, with great thickets of reeds and rushes and there were a couple of spots where benches were provided for birdwatchers. They need to think about hides though because by the time you get your backside on a bench, all the birds had scattered.
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| The Water Board Lagoon |
Back at the ponds, there were Ibis and kites and lots more ducks. On the way back to the caravan park, we stopped off at the old Derby Goal, a very depressing story of terrible conditions for prisoners, mostly Aboriginal.
After lunch, we just rested until just before 5.00pm when we again drove down to the wharf to enjoy the sunset, then back to the park for dinner and bed.
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| Derby Sunset on King Sound |
Day 72—Wednesday, 4th September (Derby to Broome 220kms)
A beautiful clear sunny sky and after a quick dash down to the servo for a diesel top up, we managed to get away by 9.00am. The highway backtracks some 40kms to rejoin the Great Northern Highway at Roebuck Plains Roadhouse. The highway is in very good condition and we may have had a slight tail wind, the Patrol just seemed to cruise without much pedal pressure. A feature on this stretch of the highway, were the single lane crossings over the Fitzroy River at Willare and Minnie Creek, closer to Broome.
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| The Single Lane Bridge Over the Fitzroy River |
We made the journey non-stop, arriving just after noon and checking into the Broome Caravan Park, which we had rung earlier and booked. The parks are nor all that busy as the season approaches the end, in fact this particular park was very nearly empty.
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| Broome Caravan Park |
Once lunch was taken, we decided to visit the Broome Hospital as it’s now over two months since my last blood test and venesection. At the hospital emergency department, we were directed to PathWest and soon had the blood taken. Results would be available in about three hours but we said we’d return in the morning.
With that little bit of housekeeping done, we went back into town to locate the AEO and do our civic duty by voting. This was a very easy, painless exercise, we even had a bloke outside the office, handing out how to vote cards. Next we found Coles and a chemist, before taking a walk around chinatown.
Day 73—Thuraday, 5th September (Broome)
As soon as breakfast was taken and we’d tidied up, we were off into town and the hospital for test results. This too was a painless exercise, only requiring ID proof to receive a print out. This though, turned out to be an interim report as the results have to go through Haematology in Perth before a final report will be available. In the meanwhile, I’ve phoned the rooms of my Specialist at LaTrobe, who’ll receive a copy of reports. Hopefully, I’ll hear from him on the next step. However, from my own reading, my red cell count seems to be under control, so maybe no bleeding will be needed. We then made a visit to another mall shopping centre, where we were both able to buy new shorts and Helen got her hair cut,
Then back to the park, for lunch and a quiet afternoon.
We’d seen a beaut sunset at Derby but everybody raves about sunset on Cable beach, so we decided to head out to Gantheaume Point and the lighthouse and then onto the beach for the sunset. The Point here has very obviously been shaped by the sea and again we were reminded of the power of water to shape the landscape.
As I was taking a photo of the lighthouse, I noticed movement on one of the platforms under the light. An eagle had just landed and on a closer look, I could see a huge nest, about two or three meters wide. Still not sure whether this was an Osprey or a Sea Eagle. We spent a few minutes watching but the bird didn’t enter the nest, just perched and preened. After a while, the eagle/osprey flew off and we returned to the Patrol, ready to head down to the beach. While we were getting settled, we noticed the bird returning but this time, settling on the lower platform which contained a much smaller nest. Again, the bird din’t go near the nest, just perched above it, opening and waving its wings like a Cormorant. Wet wings make mw think Sea Eagle. Or does a Osprey fish too?
Not far from the lighthouse car park, we found a track down onto the beach, where we found lots of others with the same idea, dozens of, mostly 4WD’s parked in expectation, some complete with chairs and wine coolers. There was still half an hour until sunset, so we decided to take a walk down to the waters edge and paddle in the Indian Ocean.
By now, the sun was dropping towards the horizon quickly so we moved back to the Patrol and get ready to take a few snaps of our first sunset on the Indian Ocean. After waiting for the event, it all happens very quickly and soon many of the cars on the beach started to move off. We were not far behind and were soon back at the van where dinner was the next highlight of the day.
The walkway was pretty busy though, there must have been a dozen or more hopeful anglers drowning baits from the railings but we didn’t witness any catches.
Day 74—Friday, 6th September (Broome)
Nice and early this morning, Dr Scarletthe returned my call. Quite happy with test results and when I told him we’d be home early to mid October, he thought any further treatment could wait until then. So that’s out of the way, no need to bother the locals with a bloodletting!
After breakfast, we drove down to the port, which took us out past the Gantheaume Point. We had to negotiate some serious roadworks on the way, looked like grading work in preparation for the wet.
Down at the port, we first went to the public area where the locals launch their boats. There were lots of trailers lying about so there must have been lots of boats out, not that we could tell, the horizon was empty. We noticed an extra warning about entering the water, a salt water crocodile had been sighted earlier in the week. Nice place though.
We drove back to the wharf and found a public car park next to the customs house and went for a walk down the wharf, which has a public access walkway running the length of the pier. There was a ship docked at the one of the berths and some traffic to and fro along the roadway above us but nothing of any great excitement.
We guess the port, like others in the north, is suffering from the slow down in live cattle exports. We had passed cattle yards on the way into the port but only a handful of cattle penned.
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| Broome Pier |
Our next stop was at the museum, this one too, run by volunteers from the local Historical Society and very well set up. Maybe the difference here compared to Derby is the $5.00 per head entry fee. A society member was on hand to take our money and give us a run down on the exhibits. Major exhibits were on the pearling industry and the Japanese bombing raids of WWII.
After driving back to the caravan park and having lunch, we decided on a lazy afternoon before driving back into town for a Coles visit for a few groceries. This actually ended up being a major buy up. Then out to the Woolies petrol station and a fill up of diesel.
On the way to Coles, we took a small detour to the resort end of Cable Beach and took a drive down the north end to watch the camels come and go, mostly they should go, not very nice animals I think.
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| Resort Cable Beach |
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| Giving Way to the Camel Train |
Later, we watched as Hawthorn did a number on the Swans and were quite thankful when the signal dropped out, halfway through the last quarter. I think Sydney paid the price for including two or three underdone players, Hannebery and Jetta looked lost. Hopefully though the run will benefit them and they can deliver next week.
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