Trevor & Jonathans Cruise & Trip to the Far East and Australia 2016

Day 78 - Tuesday July 26th 2016 - Broome to Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia

Well the day started with all the normal chores, showers, shave, teeth cleaning and breakfast but after all the mundane stuff we had to pack up the van and leave the site but make one last trip into Broome before we left the coast behind and headed off inland to start heading across and then up to Darwin.

The reason we needed to go into Broome first was for gas for the cooker. We thought that it must be running low by now as like the van we really do have the smallest of gas cylinders in the outside compartment so it was much better to be safe than sorry.

Trev had found a shop that refilled them right in the centre of town in China town so we headed off to Mitre 10 (a sort of B&Q) to get it topped up. Now we have no tools on board the van so once we confirmed in the shop that they could refill the cylinder we then had to work out had to disconnect it! No one likes messing around with gas, especially when you only have some

vague idea of how to disconnect it so it really was a bit of a stab in the dark but with logic the bottle was removed and taken in to be topped up. It turned out that actually the gas bottle still had plenty in it but as we were here we got it filled up anyway for the princely sum of $4.50

Now getting the gas bottle back on also proved to be a bit of a task as well but only because we didn’t have a spanner to tighten up the valve. The guy in the shop that had filled up the gas had taken the valve apart to fill it and now every time we tightened it by hand and turned the gas on we could hear it leaking. A quick trip back inside the shop to get them to tighten it up with a spanner sorted it out and we were off, well via the petrol station and a quick trip to McDonalds for a coffee.

Our first stop of the day was going to be at a place called Derby. Today’s drive was not a huge one, under five hours but we couldn’t book a campsite either so we didn’t want to get to Fitzroy Crossing too late or we might not get a spot. The two camp grounds in town only operate a first come first served policy so we just had to keep our fingers crossed for now.

The drive out to Derby was pretty much bush and red soil all the way with the only unusual thing being a tree that we had not seen before. They had a really really wide trunk with branches that shot out in all directions, they really did look quite odd indeed. They are called Boab trees and although we had heard of the name before we had never actually seen them before, its best to describe their trunks as bottle shaped.

Derby was a detour that to be honest we didn’t need to make especially as it was a 60km round trip from the main road we would be following.

We stopped off at the Woolworth’s going into town as we need some more pasta and some bread to get us through the next few days. Trev also fancied some more beers but he was out of luck as all the bottle shops that we passed seemed to be closed.

The Kimberley’s is real aboriginal country and a such many alcohol selling restrictions are in place to try and control levels of crime and domestic violence towards women.

We’ve encountered the Aborigine’s before and to be honest they scared the hell out of us. That was back in 2010 when we were driving through the middle of Australia and in particular Katherine (a place we have to go back to this time). It’s not so much them hanging about in large groups, it was at that time the fact that they were all seemingly under the significant influence of alcohol and they were actually sniffing the fumes from the petrol pumps as we were trying to fil up the van. I’m sure this is why the Australian Government are trying to now limit the sale of alcohol in these areas to try and manage the after effects.

So back to Derby, to us it was one of those nothing towns, the guide books had recommended a visit to the Derby Jetty so that is where we headed but to be honest there was nothing there. Just a raised working jetty with a conveyor system obviously used for the moment of aggregate or mineral.

There was a nice café though (and another blue Adams senior bus tour bus) but we had just bought lunch in so no need to use the facilities, shame as the menu looked good.

That was our whole visit to Derby we drove out again via the petrol station and headed off toward our night stop in Fitzroy Creek.

We stopped for lunch in a layby, well actually more like the side of the road to be honest and had a quick stand up lunch of ham and mustard rolls and crisps and hit the road again.

Jonathan sat and used the next hour or so once again trying to catch up on the blog whilst Trev took his turn behind the wheel.

As we said earlier we had not booked a campsite as the places that Trev had found online did not take reservations so when we did arrive at Fitzroy Creek we just followed the first blue sign to a campsite that we saw. It took us to a place over by a river that all seemed very nice, or nice enough so we paid for our pitch and parked up the van and plugged in. Trev went off to the loo but came back to the van and said “come on pack the van up were leaving!” The loos were apparently disgusting and you couldn’t even lock the doors on the unisex cubicles. Jonathan had looked at the camp kitchen and had thought, um that’s not had a clean for a while but we were off down the road trying to find another option.

Eventually we found the site that Trev had rung yesterday, unfortunately tonight all the powered sites had gone so we were on the big grass field for the night. It’s a nice campsite though, huge and we are certainly not the only campers just parked up a bit willy nilly on this huge field. We got as close to the laundry and toilet block as we could and set up home by half four in the evening.

There really was no point going off anywhere to explore, not at this time of the day. We had time to do that on our drive to tomorrow towards Halls Creek as once again it’s another shorter one as again we move inland.

We parked up and sat outside, Trev checking tomorrows movements and what there was to see and do whilst again Jonathan caught up on more blog writing.

As we were at the camp site a little early Jonathan went off to put the laundry in, just a machine load this time thank goodness. The camp ablution block and the laundry were situated up a steep bank and I must have walked up and down it at least nine or ten times checking on that laundry whilst Trevor rustled us up some dinner. Tonight’s meal was sweet and sour pork with rice, I won’t lie and say it was great but it was warming and more than edible, you never know one day soon we might even eat some vegetables!

Post dinner and post washing up we both got our iPads out (what would we have done without them??) and plugged in, me a film and Trevor more of Death in Paradise (he’s turning into his dad).

On Jonathan’s visit to the loo block just before bed he was met with wild wallaby eating the grass on the steep bank. Now it’s just not what you are expecting when you’ve just been for a wee and it does take your breath away a little but they were far more interested in the grass than they were of me and let me just walk on by.

That was our night (ok we had wine as well) with the lights going out not long after 2200.

Tomorrow its explore a bit of Fitzroy Crossing before hitting the roads again….night night.