Day 32 – Fitzroy Crossing to Derby to Broome

This morning we took a one hour boat cruise along the Fitzroy River and experienced the magnificent Geiki Gorge. The tour starts from the National Park about 20 mins out of town. The boat trip is run by the Department of Parks and Wildlife, hence its reasonable cost ($65 for a family). About a quarter of the price of Katherine Gorge). The ranger explained the history and wildlife of the area.

We spotted many freshwater crocs, both gliding through the water, and sitting on the bank. We were also interested to see the delightful little fairy wrens making their mud nests along the underside of the limestone cliffs.

 

The cliffs are made up of several colors, from almost pure white limestone, with a distinct line where the flood level sits. Some of the cliffs have turned a beautiful pink color. It was a very pleasant trip which we all enjoyed, even though it was nudging 30 deg at 8.30am this morning when we left. The boats have no shade cover (for safety reasons).

 

Then it was back to the caravan park to pack up, and check out, and drive the couple of hours to the small town of Derby. On the way into town we stopped at the huge hollow boab tree (estimated to be over 1500 years old!) which was used as a prison lock up in years gone by.

 

Nearby is a huge cattle trough, which at times can feed up to 500 cattle all at once along its great length of 120 metres. It is fed by an underground bore which was sunk in the 1890s. The bore is 322 metres deep.

 

Next we drove into town and grabbed lunch at the bakery and headed down to the huge Derby wharf for a picnic lunch. Built in 1894 it was linked to the township by a horse drawn tramway, the tracks of which are still visible. Wool and pearl shell were the major exports in the past, but now live cattle are still exported, along with zinc and lead from the mines at Fitzroy Crossing.

 

The tides are Australias highest, with tidal variations being as much as 11 metres. We walked out on the wharf and felt the huge amount of water rushing in around us, and over the vast mudflats.

 

Then it was off to the Visitor centre to pick up the free key to the museum, held in the nearby Wharfingers House (a wharfinger is the name given to the man that managed the wharf). It had interesting displays on aviation (the huge mudflats were a great place to test flights), communications and shipping.

 

Unfortunately the Flying Docs no longer have a visitor centre open here, and the School of the Air was closed this week due to school camp, so off we headed to Broome.  There are only two caravan parks in Derby, one doesn’t accept children at all (the first we have come across), and the other was a dustbowl, so we pressed on to Broome.

250kms down the road, we tried the Palm Village caravan park where we had stayed before, but it was totally booked out, so we luckily got a place at the Cable Beach caravan park just down the road. As the sun was just starting to set (5pm), we parked, then walked the 7mins down to the famous Cable Beach to watch the sunset.

 

Yes, that is Lily, upside down (which is her absolute favourite place to be right now) on the beach, while the rest of us are admiring the pink sky behind her. The camels were shutting up shop for the night, as the sky darkened. When the sun sets here it doesn’t muck around, it gets dark very, very quickly. A walk back to the park, and then a quick tea, then off to bed.