27 February 2000
Forgot to mention all the bugs at Fitzroy Crossing last night. On the way back to our room from the dining room there were grasshoppers everywhere, all jumping about, and cicadas, frogs and stick insects. Lorraine not at all impressed.
Anyhow, got away about 7:30 a.m. and drove 260 kms WNW to Derby, which is situated deep within King Sound. Drive was uneventful. Weather was sunny with broken cloud. Lots of water lying about (legacy of wet season and recent rains in area and elsewhere). Derby is an administrative centre for several aboriginal communities, and for a hinterland rich in pastoral and mineral wealth. That's what the tour book says. Apparently this means a small, quiet, spread-out little community dozing in the sun. At least, that's all we found after driving all around and through it. Only item of interest for us was a huge boab known as the Prisoner Tree, which used to be used as a temporary lock-up. Apparently this was not an uncommon use with large, hollow specimens of these trees. This particular one was hollow on the inside and could have held a number of prisoners. What particularly struck us was that it was so cool inside. Outside was hot and humid, but when you put your head and shoulders inside it felt like you were entering an air conditioned room.
From Derby it was 190 kms south west to Broome. Again an uneventful drive except for two baby emus we saw playing (?) at the side of the road. "Cute". Lorraine's word, not mine. No mummy or daddy emus in sight. First impression of Broome was that it was a smaller version of Darwin. After a quick drive around to get the lie of the land found somewhere to stay and then went out to look in more detail. While having our initial look-round were flagged down by an aboriginal lady carrying a young girl about eight years old who was crying from pain. The lady explained the girl had been swimming when something stung her and she was already numb down her left side and could we please take them to the hospital. Fearing box jellyfish sting we somehow managed to get them into the back seat of the ute and took them to the casualty department of the hospital, which fortunately was not far away. When we got back to the beach near where we had been flagged down were amazed to see a number of people swimming unconcernedly despite large signs warning of box jellyfish. There was also a large sign warning that a saltwater crocodile had been seen recently in the area, but again no-one seemed much concerned.
After finding a motel drove out to the port of Broome and walked out to end of long jetty and back. What a lovely sight to see once again the refreshing blues, greens and whites of the open sea - this time the Indian Ocean. From there drove out to Gantheaume Point at the northern end of Roebuck Bay. Rocky and beautiful. There are dinosaur footprints 30 metres off the point which are 130 million years old, and which apparently can be seen at low tide. Then went out to Cable Beach (named after the undersea cable which links Broome to Java) a 22 km stretch of white sand beach. Was strange watching the sun setting into the sea rather than rising from it.
On way back to motel checked out laundromat and will go there first thing in the morning to catch up on washing before seeing what else Broome has to offer.