Day 52 Derby, WA

Another small day for us with just 257 km to travel from Fitzroy Crossing to Derby.  There was no need to leave early but we were still on the road by 8am.  As we drove out of Fitzroy Crossing there must have been one hell of a party last night because near the roadhouse there were bottles, cans, paper bags and any other rubbish you can think of, strewn on both sides of the road.  It wasn't there yesterday.  Can't say I'll be sad to say goodbye to Fitzroy Crossing and I was pleased that our caravan park was well out of town.

The road today was one of the straightest we had travelled on and there were very few hills.  It is almost a surprise when we come to a bend in the road. It is for the most part lightly timbered country with some open spinifex downs.  We are certainly back in Boab country again and they are huge at this end of the Kimberleys.  We stopped at one massive Boab so that I could give it a hug.

We could see Erskine Range in front of us that seemed to break the monotony and the road wound its way between two of the mountains and the red soil that I am still finding inside the van, seems to cling to everything, even roads! 

Today, when we reached Derby on the West Coast of Australia, we clocked 10,000 kilometres since leaving home 52 days ago. It really doesn't feel that far but when I look at the wall map the kilometres are all there.

The van park in Derby is small but quite secure.  The gates are locked at 8.30pm and opened again at 6.30pm.  There is a high fence running around the property with razor wire along the top.  Theft is a big problem in the top end and we were told to call the police if we saw any suspicious persons.  Later this afternoon we drove to the information centre where we picked up a Heritage Walk brochure so we have decided to do that tomorrow.  We then drove out across the vast mud flats towards the circular jetty but it is closed for repairs so no walking there.  I wanted to get a sunset photo looking out over the mudflats so we found ourselves a spot out on the flat and settled in with a chilled beer to see out the day. It was a lovely way to end the day.