Derby

We left Broome heading east towards Derby, a further 220 km away. We had already booked a site at the Kimberley Entrance Caravan Park for two nights.

On our way in, we stopped briefly to take some photos. These included the Prison Boab Tree, Frosty Pool and the Trough at Myalls Bore. All are located 7 km south of Derby and are grouped together within a few hundred metres of each other.

The Prison Boab tree was said to be used as a lockup for Aboriginal prisoners on their way to be sentenced in Derby, but there is no evidence that it was actually used for this purpose.

In 1944, Corporal Frost came up with the idea of building a swimming pool. The pool is relatively small because there were only limited materials available. It's about the size of a modern-day plunge pool. Officers would use it for part of the day, while other ranks would use it for the remainder. The pool was filled from a nearby bore. 

This trough is 120 metres long and was built in 1916/17 for 581 pounds. The trough could water five hundred bullocks at one time without running dry.

Boabs along Loch Street, entering Derby.

After setting up camp, we ventured out and around Derby while I searched for Geo Caches. The search took us to some interesting places, including the Derby Wetlands, the Dinner Tree and the Pioneer Cemetery. 

In the late 1950s, drovers would drive their cattle to Derby to be shipped overseas. They would camp at Myalls Bore before bringing them closer to town, adjacent to this tree. The cattle would graze on the vegetation beside the mudflats whilst the drovers would boil the billy and eat before moving them to the jetty later in the day. That is how it became known as the Dinner Tree.

The cemetery contains graves dating back to the 1890s. It includes that of Constable William Richardson, who was killed by the Aboriginal outlaw Jandamarra.

Story of Jandamarra

We ventured down to the jetty to watch the sunset, which just happened to coincide with the high tide. 

Broome and surrounds

Our original plan was to spend five days camping at Middle Lagoon on Cape Leveque. However, after taking the 4WD bus to the Cape as part of our Horizontal Falls tour, we decided that the road was just too rough to proceed. If tyre pressures had been lower and we had reduced our speed, we could have completed the trip without damaging anything. Ros was talking with a lady at the caravan park on our return, who had taken a tent to Middle Lagoon. She described the 33 km access road into the Middle Lagoon campground as being in much worse condition than the main road. Many vans at the campground had sustained damage due to the poor road conditions. 
 
We are really enjoying our time here in Broome. While we enjoy getting down and dirty, it's also lovely to spend some time in comfortable and pleasant surroundings. 
 
The beach is about 50 metres from our annexe, so we have been enjoying lying on the sand and swimming, although I must admit it takes a while to adapt to the water's coolness.

Sunset over Town Beach beneath the Roebuck Bay Caravan Park.

We celebrated my birthday on August 11th at Matsos Brewery. We both started with a Pale Ale before ordering our meals.

Ros chose the vegetable plate, which consisted of coriander and chilli corn fritters, marinated olives, grilled haloumi, goat's cheese, and beetroot panna cotta, accompanied by a yoghurt dip. The menu suggested she try the alcoholic ginger beer, which she did to her enjoyment.

My seafood plate included hickory-smoked barramundi, Exmouth king prawns, ika mata fish salad, pickled Fremantle sardines and gravalax sauce. My beverage with my main was their Session Ale.

Today, we ventured north to explore the jetty area. The live cattle trade appears to be back in full swing, with at least five B-triples waiting to unload cattle onto a ship.

On another one of our outings, we spent time viewing the Japanese cemetery. 

The Japanese arrived here after pearls were discovered in the waters surrounding Broome. The first recorded Japanese burial was in 1896. The most burials took place in 1914 when thirty-three divers lost their lives to either drowning or the bends.

Today, our Land Cruiser was due for its 10,000 km service. The courtesy bus dropped us off in Chinatown, and we wandered around the shops waiting for the service to be completed.

Streeter's Jetty is known to have been used since 1897.

It was built for pearl dealers and merchants, E.W. Streeter and Co. of London. It was used by the pearl luggers to deposit their 'Mother of pearl" ashore and is the only remaining landmark of its kind in Broome.

The Sun Pictures claims to be the world's oldest operating picture gardens.

The seating arrangement above reminds me of the open-air picture theatre in Parap, Darwin, from the 1970s. Half the theatre was covered by a roof, and if you were enjoying the movie under the stars and it started raining, there was a mad dash to get under the roof.

The pearling museum has on display two restored luggers, which provide tours offering an insight into the hazards associated with diving for pearls.

We had heard glowing reports about a restaurant in Broome called 18 Degrees, so we tried it out for lunch on our second last day. The menu consists of sharing plates similar to a restaurant we have in the main street of Sawtell. The food was superb, and I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Broome. Little Creatures beer was on tap, so we also enjoyed several of those.

Fellow Bushtracker owners Wendy and Peter arrived in our caravan park late this evening. They had driven east to west across the Gibb River Road. They described the conditions as quite rough, with numerous corrugations. They described the condition of the 19 km road into Silent Grove campground at Bell Gorge as very poor. It took them one hour to complete.

We toddled off to the Town Beach Cafe for lunch today after our swim. It's about 500 metres from our caravan park. Unfortunately, we leave tomorrow and will miss this view. 

Horizontal Falls

We booked our tour several weeks ago with Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventures. We were taking the full-day tour from Broome. 

 

The 4wd tour bus picked us up from our accommodation at 05:20, along with another eight passengers. Leaving the bitumen behind, we were soon on the Cape Leveque Road heading north. The first 14 km is bitumen, followed by the next 86 km of rough dirt road with endless corrugations and a road base set like concrete but full of holes and dips hidden by soft sand. Thommo, our driver, was moving from side to side to find the best line with the least corrugations, but that was just a losing battle. He referred to the road as being "very ordinary, " but I would have used stronger words than that. Of course, these tour buses, unlike ourselves, don't bother reducing their tyre pressures because they are all running to a schedule, and we would never end up reaching our destination. I think that speed and not reducing pressure may contribute to these road conditions. The 86 km dirt section took us 1½ hours to complete.

We finally made the bitumen and stopped at Beagle Bay to view the Sacred Heart Church. German priests, who were interned there during World War I in 1914, and with the help of the local community, began building the church in 1918. Modelled on a photograph of a German country parish church, it took two years to construct and another year to decorate. Mother-of-pearl shell has been used extensively around the altar and as an inlay along the floor.

Leaving Beagle Bay, we continued north to Kooljaman Resort for a hot breakfast in their restaurant overlooking the western beach. We spent just over twenty minutes on the beach after breakfast before continuing for another 14 km to One Arm Point for a tour of the aquaculture hatchery. Here, we viewed tropical reef fish, trochus shells, and fed huge barramundi housed in holding tanks. 

We were then taken to the airport where we boarded our 14-seat seaplane for the flight to the Horizontal Falls. We faced quite a strong headwind during the journey to Talbot Bay. Our flight path took us quite low over the Buccaneer Archipelago, which consists of more than 1000 islands.

Our plane was even supplied with a co-pilot:

Aside from the wind during our flight, the weather was perfect with beautiful blue skies and a stunning view. Our pilot made a flawless landing on Talbot Bay, and we motored towards the jetty. 

This entire setup is by no means small. The main pontoon in the photo above hosts the people taking half-day, full-day, and overnight tours. The smaller vessel at the top of the picture provides accommodation for those on one of their four-day tours. After our three planes dropped everyone off who was doing the Broome tour, the pilots were off again to pick up more people from Derby, before returning later in the afternoon to transport us back to Broome. At one point, we estimate there were at least seventy people on the pontoons, and with a full-day tour costing $845 per person, it is quite staggering. 

After lunch, we boarded our boats, which resembled Zodiacs on steroids, with their three motors generating 900 hp. We explored bays and creeks before returning to the Horizontal Falls. We were taken into Cyclone Creek, with its deep anchorage, surrounded by steep hills, making it the ideal spot to moor their pontoons during the wet and cyclone seasons.

Ros also took to the air in one of the helicopters for a bird's-eye view. I declined because I'm not into flying where they forget to install the doors.

View of the 4WDs lined up along Cable Beach just before we touched down after a very enjoyable but very tiring day: