3rd – 7th Aug Fitzroy Crossing - Derby

Back on the bitumen again it is wonderful to have smooth road beneath us. The roads here in WA are really good.  In this area they are relatively flat also so driving is much easier.  Only traffic we encountered first day out was about 30 cyclists doing an around Oz marathon.  They had motor homes behind them and ahead of them so quite a convoy.  We looked for Peter Higgi but couldn’t see him.

 Wednesday we travelled down through Halls Creek where we stopped for fuel & provisions.  These towns are quite small and if there were not an indigenous population it would be difficult picturing a reason to even exist.  Not the most comfortable town to be in so the stop was short.  Getting provisions is interesting also.  As expected items are expensive and not a lot of choice.  All the bread is frozen as we have only seen one bakery since Katherine and that was a Brumby’s in a service station in Kununurra.  There was a Coles service station here and there were two long lines of caravans and trucks waiting for the diesel bowsers.  The other service stations were empty.

Wednesday night we stopped at a free stop called Mary Pools.  Good description as it was a series of water holes on the Mary River.  It was quite picturesque and about 70 vans had pulled in for the night.  We have made some short term friends in other vans over the last few nights and they were all here at once.

Mary River - Mary Pools

Crossing the river to Mary Pools camp.

Thursday and we headed 200 klms into Fitzroy Crossing.  We stayed here two nights as it was an opportunity to catch up on the web and phone.  Haven’t been able to do that since Kununurra.  No TV though so still having difficulty finding out what is happening in the world.  Finally got a snippet that while we had been out of contact our nest egg had devalued somewhat.

 FC is another of these Indiginous population centres however it does have a large resort hotel and caravan park for transient tourists.  Just 20 klms outside town is Geieke Gorge National Park.  At the NP we were able to take a short cruise about 3 klms down the Fitzroy River and enjoy some very scenic cliffs and wildlife.  Must admit we are just about crocodiled out now.  Saw some of the impact of the floods from earlier this year.  These were the second highest recorded and while accounts seem to vary the river is reported as rising 16metres at the gorge.  They have floods here almost every year so just before each wet season they remove all of the equipment, boats and transportable buildings and take them to higher ground.  Then when the flood is over it takes them about one month to reinstate it all again.  No such thing as winter and summer here.  Just wet season & dry season.

Fitzroy River through Geieke Gorge in early morning.

The white staining is the history of flood levels. 2011 was higher.

Water was the sculpter - limestone is the rock.

 

This is my pool.  Just move on please.

The grey is weathered stain, the orange is where falls
 have occurred and the white is water stain.

It is all Geieke Gorge.

Next move was Saturday when we moved on into Derby (about 250 klms).  The road was really quite scenic.  The land seemed to be even flatter with wide plains on both sides.  The Boab trees came in more abundance and for the first time we started to see them with leaves on.  We find these trees quite fascinating and some are hundreds of years old.   The local information tells us that this is some of the most productive pastoral land in Australia.  We do not see much stock but there are a lot of roads heading off to cattle stations.  The grass is much thicker here too although one would not class it as lush.

A very old Boab tree

Potential overnigh camp, - not so squeezy!

Into Derby and we start to see more population of European origin.  This is obviously an old town but it does appear to be having a growth spurt as we found a few small estates with new homes being built.  There is an old wharf which is really passing it’s use by date and there is evidence of recent shipping activity.  However it most boating activity appears to be fishing, tourist based or supply to the myriad of islands off the coast here.  One highlight was that we found a Woolworths store. 

Derby main street c/w Boabs

The camp ambassador.

 At Alice’s instigation we tried to find a local bird hide near the mud flats and almost became horribly lost.  The GPS is n good if there are no roads.  We backed out quickly while we still had light.  Then we headed for the wharf again and together with most of the tourist population we watched a beautiful sunset over the water.  The tides here rise and fall up to 11 metres and we were lucky to have a three quarter tide to photograph.

The wharf at sunset.

and soon after

Going out to get our fish & chips.

It has been a great few days, not only for the sights we have seen but for the times relating to others we have met.  Then to add to that we had a few channels of TV too.  WOW!

Dennis & John - new friends we met.