Back on the road again

Wed 27 May… After a trip to the butchers to stock up for the next few days, then a fill up of diesel and we are off. It feels a bit like the end of the summer holidays which of course it isn’t, just as long as we continue north of the Tropic of Capricorn we should have good weather. Having said that we awoke to a cloudy, humid morning and it has threatened rain all day. We have driven up to Derby ( not pronounced “darby”, but derby!) which is the gateway to the King Sound and the Buccaneer Archipelago, which we saw a bit of from Cape Lévesque a couple of weeks ago. Derby itself has some history as a port, it used to export pearl shell and wool, then latterly zinc and iron. It still is a working port but doesn’t seem to be very busy. On the way in we visited a boab prison tree, which is reputed to be 1500years old and is massive. It is virtually hollow with enough room to bang up a few aboriginal prisoners that were being taken to Broome to work in the pearling industry, years ago. It is also famous for it’s tides, the highest in Australia, up to 11 metres, which is not quite up to the Severn Tidal Bore, which comes in at third highest in the world. Anyway we have had a look around and 1 day and a night will be enough here. There are mangroves all around which come with the dratted sand flies, and also crocodiles, so no swimming in the sea. Now we are back on the road it looks like we will have to rely on camp swimming pools to cool off every day.

Thurs 28 May… So after a quick detour up to Derby for a night, we are off along the Savannah Way to Fitzroy Crossing. We have the Kimberly to our left and the Great Sandy Desert to our right which means bush as far as the eye can see. There are quite a lot of Boab trees along the way which must be the most unusual, if not ugly tree on the planet but it’s something to look at amongst the scrub. Sightings along the way are mainly animals, mostly dead. We have seen the usual wallabies, a horse, mule, a few cows and a big pig---- it’s really exciting driving through the bush.
Fitzroy Crossing is a little oasis, nice grassy sites and no water restrictions as they pump it straight from the Fitzroy river. We take the opportunity to hose down the van to get rid of the build up of red sand dust. It all helps to work up a thirst before dinner.