Adventures in Derby, WA

Derby

I forgot to tell you a few things. On our trip from Fitzroy Crossing to Derby we got held up by a fuel tanker which had rolled over and they were transferring fuel from one truck to another. They originally said we would be held up for 4 hours but it turned out we were only held up for about an hour or so.  The following photo shows the line of traffic but all we could do was chat and wait.

Long line of traffic waiting for road to open

Now, the afternoon we got to Derby we went to Woolies Liquorland to get some wine. There are some restrictions here. You can't buy any alcohol in casks and you can't buy any fortified wine, e.g. Port, sherry etc. So what does the indigenous guy in front of us buy. Two bottles of bourbon and a large bottle of coke. I ask you, which does the most damage!!!!

The next afternoon we were relaxing at the caravan park. I was inside working on the last blog and Ray called out, we have visitors. It was Bob and Helen, friends we made in Brunswick Heads last year. We knew they were travelling up here but hadn't realised they had caught up with us. Bob had been looking at every Bushtracker van he saw and looked to see if an F250 was towing it. When he came into the caravan park he saw us. So we arranged to go down to the restaurant on the jetty for lunch the next day.
We have been going down to the jetty trying to catch mud crabs. We have got a few but they were undersize until yesterday when we caught a legal size one which we have cooked and put in the fridge for lunch today(Thursday 21st). And it was delicious.

We went down to the jetty on Friday night to watch the sunset and decided to have take away for tea while we were there.

Sunset from the jetty in Derby

Just to give you an idea of the prices. A burger with the lot, bacon and egg etc. $14.00 take away. And
that is fairly normal up here. So you don't have take away too often.

Over the weekend we had some disturbed nights sleep as the local indigenous young people like to party in the marshes at the back of the caravan park and like all young people get a bit noisy after a few drinks. But they usually quieten down by about 4am!!

We went for a drive out to The Prison Boab Tree which has a lot of history. It was quite impressive and about 1500 years old.

Prison Boab Tree, Derby

Then we went for a drive to the wetlands to see what birds were there. It turned out to be at the local waste water facility, in other words the sewerage plant. So we didn't stay there for long. I wondered why there only appeared to be brown birds there.

When we went down to the jetty on Friday night, unbeknown to me I got bitten by sand flies. No they don't usually bother me. I am a mosquitoe type of person. But get me they did. I ended up having to go to the chemist and get some anti histamines and some antiseptic cream. They are just starting to ease off now although I still have some angry red spots on my legs. Ray, who is loved by sand flies got off scot free. I reckon it is because he is not drinking Tooheys New at the moment and is drinking Tooheys Extra Dry. The sandflies don't like the Extra Dry.

Horizontal Falls Trip

On Tuesday 19th July we went on the trip to Horizontal Falls. We got picked up at the caravan park at 2.15pm and were taken to Derby airport, where we boarded a sea plane which flew us to Talbot Bay.



The sea plane

 On the way we flew over the sand flats which surround Derby. These vary in size as Derby has the second highest tides in the world. Anything up to 11 metres difference. When the king tides come the flats are completely covered.

We landed at a pontoon attached to a huge house boat, a fast boat, a large kitchen and eating area boat, another large fast boat and a smaller cruise boat as well as a variety of other small boats.

Our destination from the sea plane

 We were shown to our cabins and then we went for a swim in a shark cage also attached to the pontoon.

 Ray was in first and the  crew attracted these big lemon sharks to the side of the cage about 5 cm from Rays face.

 There was also a huge 200kg groper which came for a look and a feed of fish.

The groper in the process of pulling a fish off the rope

 I did eventually go in also.

The fast boat

Next up we boarded the fast boat. It has 2 x 300hp motors on the back and holds 10 people and the driver. We travelled up Talbot Bay to Crystal Creek to have a look at the accommodation some of the crew sleep in at night.

While there the boat driver showed us some of his pets which they feed.  Batfish, which he lifts out of the water and guests feed bread to. Amazing.

Next we headed to Horizontal falls at top speed as the sun was starting to set.

Aerial view of Horizontal Falls

The Horizontal Waterfalls are caused by a narrow gap at the mouth of a large inlet in the Bucaneer Archipelago. At high tide the inlet fills and as the tide turns the water begins to drain out through the gap. During spring tides the rate at which the water can escape from the inlet cannot keep pace with the falling tide so a horizontal waterfall is produced. There are actually two gaps about 300 metres apart. The first one, the wide pinch is about 20 metres across. The second one, the narrow pinch is about 12metres across.
We went through the wide pinch first. The differing water levels was only about 50cm so the ride although a bit bumpy was quite mild.

Next we went across to the narrow pinch. The difference here was about 1 metre so the ride through was a little rougher. Just like being in a washing machine.

 The inlet on the other side was breathtaking. Beautiful and calm and the sunset on the McLarty Ranges around the inlet was beautiful.

 We admired this for a little while and then the driver took us back through the gap, chucked a fast U turn and came hurtling back through again and then quickly back out again. It was the ride of your life.

We then went back to the wider gap and actually went through it backwards. It had got a bit rougher by now. We then did another run through and back again.


Then back to the houseboat for drinks and dinner. We had barbequed fresh barramundi with salads and the beautiful desserts. There were only 8 overnight guests on the boat plus some of the crew so it gave you a chance to get to know everyone. We had an early night as breakfast was at 6.30am and back on the jet boat for another go at the falls at 7am.

So we went back up to the wide falls and went through. It was pretty turbulent with lots of big whirlpools. Then over to the narrow falls. Now at this time the water level on the other side was about 2.5 metres above the level we were on. The driver went to the edge of the water and although we were stopped the speedo on the boat still showed that we were doing 40kph. We didn't go through as it was too high but we just sat and watched it for a while.

You can see the difference in water levels

We then went back to the wide gap and powered back and forth through there and back to the mother ship to be picked up and taken back to civilisation.

The sea plane picked us up and flew back over the falls and then over the Bucaneer Archipelago, down King Sound and back to Derby.

The circled object is the fast boat sitting in front of the narrow gap. You can see how turbulent the water is

Isolated aboriginal coastal village on Bucaneer Archipelago. No apparent access by road although they do have cars

Barramundi Farm in the archipelago. Apparently needs to expand as the demand for Australian barramundi is getting bigger

Bucaneer Arcipelago Islands.

Sandy Inlet

Such blue water

Ray was the co pilot on the trip back which enabled him to take some good photos. So now not only Captain Ray but Co-Pilot Ray.

Derby jetty from the air

Our caravan park from the air

We got back to the van at about 9.30am after the most thrilling trip we have had. The pictures in the Blog really don't show it like it really was. It is a trip I would recommend everyone do. The scenery was magnificent and the area is so isolated there are places no human has ever been to. It is idyllic.

We went crabbing when we got back and caught a keeper and then went and had "Happy Hour" drinks with another couple we met on our horizontal falls trip, Maria and Stan who are from Perth.
We only have a couple more days in Derby before moving on to Broome on Saturday.