Derby

N: The first thing in Derby that we did was visit the hollowed out Boab Prison Tree, it was used when transporting aboriginal prisoners from surrounding places to Derby.

Our first stop for accommodation was the Kimberly Entrance caravan park to see if they had cabins as a special treat for mum for her birthday but they didn’t have any available (because of the Rodeo that at the time we had no idea about) so we went to the Derby Lodge for a cabin but it wasn’t very inviting (all they had was 3 beds a broken TV and a tiny fridge) so we headed off to the Boab Inn who had two adjoining rooms (they didn’t actually adjoin).

We stayed there for the night throughout extreme partying because of the rodeo which was on that weekend (we surmised).

We then went to the caravan park until Monday when we headed off down the Gibb River Road (a treacherous, bumpy, corrugated road with river crossings) see next entry.

That afternoon we went to the rodeo to see the Buckjump and the Open Bull Ride, at one stage in the bull ride an angry heifer got out of the stockyards and ran around the rodeo grounds while every one climbed on or higher on to the stands to get a look at the cow and also to get out of its way, the only people who weren’t running away were a few station workers and the recovery team who chased the heifer everywhere and then finally cornering it in the stockyards opposite to where the other heifers and bulls where kept.

The next day we attended a special church service in the local nursing home for the disabled aboriginal residents, 2 Mowanjum people had come to attend and also to sing to them. Our two friends Wally and Margaret (Margaret was also mum’s old high school teacher) were conducting the service.

After the service we went shopping and then had lunch which was just sandwiches(as per usual), we then had a great swim at the Derby Memorial Pool.

We had dinner at Wally and Margaret’s accommodation and then slept, unsure of what lay ahead.