Rick and Rae's Travels: Tues, 28th to Wed, 29th June

We had now ticked over 16,000kms of our trip and been away for 130 days. On the way out of Broome we called in to see Darryn but he wasn't back from work on the island, so we rang and left a message and kept going. We continued on for about 220kms to Derby. Derby is a small town with wide streets lined with boab trees. It has the highest tide variations in Australia, reaching over 12metres at times.

We pulled into a very busy caravan park and were told we could have a drive-through site next to 'Graham'. Graham turned out to be a travelling guitarist and singer and was due to perform from 4-6 in the afternoon for a gold coin donation. After settling in we went for a bit of a drive to the wharf which is circular and can be driven on. We drove about 1/2 way around until we saw some people with nets trying to catch some mud crabs. The wharf is extremely high to allow for the huge tides and as the tide was running out, the ropes on the crab nets had to be really long. The water was running really fast and extremely muddy ... definitely not a swimming area! One fellow pulled his net up with a crab in it. As he was trying to get the crab out, it latched a claw onto his finger making him yelp in pain. Eventually he managed to get the crab to let go and it had cut him quite badly even through a tough glove. Rick was keen to find out more and have a go for himself.

We were woken early again the next day ... caravanners like to get packed up and moving early and don't show much consideration toward others who might still be asleep. Rick spoke to some locals and found out that the time to get crabs would be at low tide, at around 8pm and that meat was the best bait to use. We drove down to the wharf again, just in time to see a barge being loaded and unloaded. It was fascinating to see huge a huge mining dump truck being driven off the barge and then a huge dozer and several 4x4s being loaded back on. There is only a small window of time when the tide is right for this type of operation, so as soon as the last piece of equipment was loaded, the barge was on the move out to deeper water. The equipment belongs to a mining operation located on an island just off the north coast. We then stayed and watched as the unloaded dump truck was driven on to a low loader ready to head to Perth. The bed of the low loader could be widened and narrowed hydraulically according to what was being loaded but couldn't be made any wider than the roads would handle. The wheels of the dump truck hung over the sides of the low loader's bed as it had to negotiate several narrow bridges on its journey south ... there would only be 20cms clearance each side when crossing these bridges.

We then drove out to the Boab Prison Tree which is believed to be about 1500 years old. It was used as a staging point for prisoners being walked into Derby in the early days. On the way we looked at 'Frosty's Pool' which is just a small concrete pool that was built in 1944 as a bathing area for troops stationed in the area during the Second World War. It was construction by the 3rd General Trtansport Co and was nicknamed Frosty's Pool after a platoon member, Charles L.V. Frost. Nearby is a cattle trough that is 120 metres long, able to handle 500 bullocks at one time and that was built around 1917. Closer into town is the remains of the old Derby Gaol. Prisoners (mainly Aboriginals) were kept in appalling conditions in this small building with walls on one side only, bars on three sides and a concrete floor.

The local butcher was really interested in our Navara (as were many people on our journey) as he had recently ordered one for himself. After showing him ours he was kind enough to give Rick some Barramundi heads for bait for the crab net ... the butcher said that fish was far better bait than meat. We went down to the wharf that night and Rick managed to pull up two crabs that were big enough to keep, and had to throw back many small ones. At least he had a taste!