Our tow took us through Fitzroy Crossing, and past the Fitzroy River Lodge, it looked OK but sadly we were not going to stay here. We were not going to see the Geike Gorge or the river. We were held up here and had to wait quite a long time as there was construction work going on to build a new bridge. Having the 2way radio allows us to listen and be aware of any kind of happenings on the road. A stop was made leaving the town for us to fill our fuel tanks once again$$$$$$
Driving into Derby we were again greeted with wide open spaces and very happy with our spot at the Kimberley Entrance caravan park, it is an expensive park but the only one around. After setting up Helen went walkabout to try and find our friends Janice and Len... no luck! but they found us. We met Jan and Len at Tumbling Waters and have been travelling the same route, they have a little dog called Max too, unfortunately though they find it difficult to find Caravan Parks that will take dogs. We had a lovely catch up with them and we offered to look after Max whilst they went on a full day tour to see the Horizontal Falls. Helen, really wanted to go on this trip but the price was so expensive, no matter what kind of trip we did we couldn't justify it from our budget. We will put this trip on the list for next time.
Derby, is positioned in the King Sound and is one of only 3 towns in the Kimberley's with populations over 2000. From here we could visit many places like Windjana Gorge NP, Tunnel Creek and of course The Horizontal Falls but, its not to be, we are now on the move and decided to stay here for just 3 nights. Our caravan was facing the wide open space of the salt flats, as night drew in we could see the lights of the path leading up to the Wharf. We took a drive there, where we walked on the very high jetty, we found out that Derby has the highest tides in Australia peaking at 11.8 metres above the low tide level.
There is a very nice little café/restaurant where we noticed all of the tables had a reserved sign on them, people book and eat here especially to see the sunset, we looked at the menu and decided to reserve a table for two for the next night.
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| Wharf Restaurant |
We managed to get some cleaning up done in the caravan, it seemed everywhere was covered in red dust. This afternoon we planned a trip to another Boab Prison tree which is just on the south side of the town, it was quite a sight.
The drive up to the tree we spotted the cattle trough of 120metres long the longest in the world, this was built to water 500 bullocks at a time as so many were brought into Derby. The drovers would hold the cattle up here before they are sent overseas. Situated not far from the Prison Tree and trough we found a fenced off square concrete hole, which had been a pool especially built in 1944 for the troops to bathe in it was named after a platoon member Charles Frost.
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| 120 metre water trough |
Friday saw us checking on Max and Richard taking him for a couple of walks but in between time we visited the Pioneers Cemetry that saw both of us feeling very, very sad, it was so run down and felt very desolate, it was hot, dusty with a terrible awe about it. I suppose the worst thing about it was that many of the metal posts that were used to mark a grave are without any form of identification, no names!! This cemetery would require a lot of money and hard work to make it a more respectful place, although the damage is irreparable.
We had a very nice meal and BYO which is always a good thing, at the Wharf Restaurant and saw another beautiful sunset.
