Day 25 Derby

Much to our surprise, we had a midnight visitor. I heard a noise and sat up in bed, I looked around, jumped off the bed and pulled the curtains aside to see a member of the local community rifling through our esky, which we’d left at the door to the campervan. “What are you doin mate”, I called out. He kept hunting through the esky. “Hey, what are you doin”, I called again. “Got any Beer mate?” he asked. “No mate, I got no beer” I said. “You sure Mate, How about smokes mate. Got any smokes mate?”. “No mate. I got no beer and I don’t smoke, so bugger off” I said, and sure enough, off he went, to the next caravan.
Sleep was a little difficult to come by after our visitor and just as I drifted off, the sunshine, departing planes and barking dogs brought me back to reality.
The plan was always to start the day slowly. We didn’t have far to go with Fitzroy Crossing only 270km away so a casual morning was in order. A Raisin toast breakfast was followed by a relaxed pull-down and we piled into the car at about 8:30 for the journey west.
We got to Fitzroy Crossing at about 11:30 and headed straight for the town Information Centre. Nothing on this journey had got me more excited than the chance to have a look at Gieke Gorge, Tunnel Creek, and Windjana Gorge. While not the sole reason for visiting the glorious Kimberleys, the reputation of these three attractions combined with the Bungle Bungles made the challenge of the Tanami worth the effort. You can imagine my disappointment when the information attendee advised us that we’d missed the opportunity to see all three Fitzroy crossing highlights by 5 lousy days. The WA state environmental department responsible for these three national treasures had closed all three to the public last Friday. I’m a shattered man! The journey has been fantastic until now, and I have no doubt the rest will be equally fantastic but I can’t hide the disappointment I’m feeling at missing out these three.
We decided to head down to the local for a counter lunch and to work out what we’d do. There was no real choice to be made so we piled into the car and decided to push on to Derby.
At the local servo, we got an inkling as to the lifestyle of the locals. Any time the school bus has extra high clearance, two spare tyres and comes equipped with a UHF radio, rescue winch, and all wheel drive, you know the kids get a different type of education.
As we drove to Derby, Jacqui and the boys could sense my disappointment and while Jacqui suggested we could fly back to the Kimberleys at some time in the future, Zach, Tom & Jake all agreed they would pool their pocket money and contribute to the cost of the trip. I was touched by their sensitivity.
We stopped along the way at a huge Boab tree for some pics. These magnificent trees only grow naturally in this small corner of the world and we felt so rewarded to be able to see them as we cruised along the highway.
We arrived in Derby at 7:30pm and while we found the caravan park we’d planned to call home for a few days, the owners clearly weren’t expecting us. The office was shut and they weren’t answering the after hours phone number so we just pulled in to a site and tried to set up for the night. Getting the van off the ball was a problem with the uneven slope until Jacqui came to the rescue and we finally called it a day at about 9:30pm.
Cheers
Jorg