Day 37

Broome - Derby

" I went out one morning , I stood on the shoreline again. Maybe I was dreaming, as the light came streaming in. Memory and rhyme, bringing back the time, everything under the sun ...."

Just a short hop up the road today - 230 kilometres. It's getting hotter too - it was still 30 degrees at 5pm tonight!
Derby is the gateway to the Kimberley's and we pretty much did the whole town's worth of attractions this afternoon. We visited the museum - you get given the key from the visitors centre for a gold coin donation and instructions on where to go down the road and to turn the lights and fans off as you leave ! I presume the gold coin goes to Wally the Locksmith for re cutting keys that aren't returned!!
We then drove out and on the jetty overlooking the mud flats. The tides here get to 11.5 Metres! Today high was 9.7 and low 2.9 so massive expanses of water shifting every 12 hours.
We visited the prisoner boab tree and saw the 120m long trough (no,not for blokes to relieve themselves). It's the longest watering trough in the Southern Hemisphere and it's still used by droving cattlemen today. Saw Shorty's Pool as well, built by the servicemen in WW2 to cool off in the artesian bore.
We also drove out to the Mowanjum Arts & Cultural centre which is an Aboriginal arts centre teaching about the spirit of Wandjina - the building is designed like one too! Saw our first indigenous incident for the trip as well at Woolies Liquor. Luckily he was moved on quickly so kids didn't get to see too much. They've now totally banned the sale of cask wine in the Kimberley region - sucks for us for practical travelling purposes, but serves a better purpose so can't really complain . The prices are so much more inflated than those of Sydney though !
We spent the late afternoon in the shadow of a huge boab tree watching the sun set on the horizon and provide a great silhouette of the tree with the magnificent colours. Was nice to see it set on the land for a change - with a few beers naturally.
Tomorrow will be a very early start - we are doing a day trip on the Gibb River Road. The nice clean Disco will turn all rusty red again in a jiffy! Tunnel Creek and Windjana Gorge on the agenda .