Civilisation!!

26th May - 4 weeks we have been on the road now and we are at Derby, a short drive today and finally on to bitumen. Ray put air in the tyres as soon as we hit the tar and about 10k on it was back to red dirt again but not for long, then one lane of bitumen down the middle so that if another car came the other way we had to slow down and be prepared to go off to the side which, not too gradually, sloped down about a metre (interesting). 

The local High School was having a car wash at the service station we refuelled at so Ray paid a bit extra to wash ours as it was pretty bad (he said ‘you should have seen their faces when he pulled in). Now he’s happy that his car is nice and clean again but found some chips which are to be expected, I guess. Set up camp for a couple of nights in the caravan park and went shopping in a proper supermarket. Nice fresh bread for lunch then a nanna nap before heading down to a local Art Gallery then on to the jetty. 

Just a small part of the mud flats in
 Derby (sorry about the reflection,
most of my photos have to be
 taken out the window and I don't alway notice the reflections)

Mud flats everywhere here as the tide goes down 11metres from it’s highest point but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow night to see the tide in, we didn’t get back to it this evening. 

There are a whole lot of cyclists here tonight for The Gibb Challenge. I don’t envy them peddling bikes all the way along it but it seems to happen every year and I’m sure it’s a great adventure for them though they’d get to eat a lot of dust.  We heard that there were 400 cyclists plus support vehicles for each team so we’re doubly glad to be off there. 

27th - Civilisation? The cyclists were up at 3.30am packing up and a few talking and joking like it was the middle of the day.  A rooster was crowing from then on until dawn, kids down a few sites were woken and started crying and I’d hoped to get a sleep in! No such luck, anyway I got my washing done early and there was plenty, everything we touch is covered in red dust so our clothes get pretty dirty not to mention bedding etc. It all dried quickly in the wind and heat.

We went to the visitors centre which was very interesting with lovely souvenirs, I especially like the carved boab seeds, they are fantastic, the intricate designs done on them, which probably take hours to do, are amazing. We checked out the centenary mural at the entrance to the jetty and watched as many people, on the jetty, threw a line in the incoming tide. 

You should see the cars parked on the jetty and people lined up around the railing with at least 2 lines each but Ray only saw one fish caught, I gave up watching and photographed the sunset, which was pretty special over the water. 

We still didn’t see the water at high tide but it sure comes in in a rush and was higher than the day before. I’d say the mud flats are covered in the wet season and a king tide, there is just so much area for the water to come into.

28th May -  Not much to report today.  

On our way out of Derby we called in to look at the Prison Tree, a hollow old boab that used to be used to house prisoners overnight when they were being transported, it’s huge and just goes to show that even old boab’s go saggy!

We moved on to Broome and are staying 3 days at Cable Beach, the beach is like a postcard, beautiful blue sea with white sand. 

Deck chairs and umbrellas for hire
along the beach

It was all a bit flat but looks very inviting, if it wasn’t for that wind!! Went shopping again (we can only store so much). The handbrake on the camper gave out today so Ray had to go find someone who could temporarily fix it until we get somewhere that we can buy another one, there are no trailer businesses here apparently. 

We went to Sun Pictures - the oldest running garden cinema in the world, opening in 1916 - and saw Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The perfect movie for the setting, half the seats are inside and the other half outside (I don’t know why you’d go to an outdoor cinema and sit inside) it was a beautiful night, a bit cool but we rugged up and took our pillows, as recommended, because the deck chairs get a bit uncomfortable. While the trailers were running a plane flew across over the screen very low - another missed photo opportunity - you don’t get to see that too often!!! It was a good movie and just lovely sitting under the stars to watch it.

29th May - Did some sightseeing today, Ray looking for fishing spots but had the rod in the car and his other gear in the camper boot so was a bit disappointed, maybe tomorrow. We wandered the shops in Chinatown. If you want pearls, here is the place to get them, every second shop seems to specialise in them (Ray’s lucky I’m not interested in them). Broome is a lovely town, I love the old style of the corrugated iron shops especially in Chinatown and it’s all so neat.

We spent a couple of hours driving onto Cable beach to sit and watch the sunset. 3 lots of camel ride companies paraded up and down the beach until after sunset, providing lots of photo opportunities (you may have noticed I like sunrises & sunsets). 

It's not every day you get to
follow camels onto the beach

 I have lots of photos to sort through just from this evening. Ray is happy, while we were waiting for the sun to set, he had his first swim in the ocean in a month and said it felt so good even if the waves were about a foot high. He decided he’s meant to be on the coast, I wondered how he thought he was going to survive the outback! 

30th May - We were going snorkelling today but by the time I got myself organised (I left my boardshorts in the van) and got down to the beach Ray was getting out because the wind was too cold even with his wetsuit on. He did have a good little swim around and see some fish before getting out but knew I wouldn’t be keen so we had a lazy day reading then late afternoon when the wind died down we went for a swim, it was lovely once I got in the few little waves were fun to 'body surf' in.