Family Fun and Adventure: Derby 3rd and 4th August 2014

We left Windjana Gorge and headed for Derby to have the long awaited shock absorber fixed. The plan was to only be here for the one night and then move onto Broome to stock up before heading to Cape Leveque. This wasn't to be as you will discover. So we had two night in Derby. Once we had set up camp and had showers (it certainly does help you feel more human when you haven't had a shower few a few days) we went for a drive to have a look at what Derby had to offer.

First stop was the Derby Jetty. The tide was out for this visit and it was interesting watching some of the people fish for mud crabs. There was a lady who had also been on one of our cruises at Fitzroy Crossing and had recognised the kids was talking to us and showing the kids how they catch the mud crabs.

Derby has Australia's highest tides, with tidal variation being as much as 11 metres.
The Jetty or Wharf is as we found a popular place to view the sunset and to of course eat some of the best fish (barra) and chips we have tasted yet. The kids thought the smoothies were pretty good too. There were lots of people who joined us on the jetty to view the sunset (people with tables and chairs, guitars were playing) and were fishing for mud crabs. It was a very pleasant evening.
We also visited the old Derby Gaol. This gave you quite a somber feel with the gaol being used mainly for the Aboriginal people who were waiting to be sentenced or front court. They were chained around their necks and then chained to the concrete floor.
Monday morning Strick had to have the car to the workshop by 7.30am. Once he returned we went for a walk around the town via the post office and visitors centre to get some information about Broome and down the coast. We were also able to read up on the area. Jacob fascinated with the map that was on the wall and he worked out where we had been and were going to next.

The Derby street is aligned with Boab trees. In the Derby shire Boab trees are a protected species so they aren't allowed to be removed. If someone wants to build anything where a Boab tree is they must go around it or incorporate it some how.
We also visited an amazing gallery that had a large number of different photos portraying different aspects of the Kimberly's. The girls purchased 2 small block photos of boab trees and Jacob a blue winged kookaburra, we also purchased a picture with some Boab trees and some old holden cars.

We went back to camp and had lunch (that we had to buy because we left the lunch tub in the car) and pack up camp as we had been told the car would be ready at about 1. While Strick and I sat with our gear (as Strick had left keys including the spare set in the car) mum took the kids to the local pool to swim for the afternoon. The plan was we would pick kids and mum up as we were leaving town. Strick made the phone call and they said it hadn't even been touched (this was 1pm) and it would be more like 3pm. We had to pay for a half day at the park as we were after 1 and we were taking up a site that they couldn't use (which was fair enough and lucky in the end). It was warm sitting around on all our bags with no shelter and fighting with the ants that also wanted the space. It got to 3pm and Strick walked the 2km back out to the workshop. While he was doing this I rang Broome to let them know we were still coming only to have to ring them back to say sorry but the car can't be fixed and we weren't leaving Derby today. This was about 5pm we found this out. So we paid for another night at Derby and had to settle with what we had in our boxes for tea (as we had no car we hadn't had a chance to do our stock up as we were planning to be in Broome).
Our plans now up in the air depending on the car we just had to wait and see what tomorrow would bring.
Tuesday morning arrived and we were up and packed up once again with the hope that we weren't going to have to set up again in the same spot without moving for a second time. Well 8.30 we got the phone call we were anxiously waiting for the car was half fixed. The new shock absorbers and springs had been put on the back but the old front had been put back on. We were able to move on (which was the main thing). So this meant packing up getting to Broome to stock up and drop mum off before heading out to Whalesong on Cape Leveque.
On our way out of Derby we visited the Boab Gaol where they used to hold the prisoners until they were ready to go into town. Unfortunately it is now fenced off as I can remember back in 1982 being able to get inside the tree. We also saw the longest trough. The kids pretended to drink out of it and while doing this I upended Jacob and put his head in the water. It was rather cold. A fun and relaxed way to finish our time in Derby anyway.