Made a reasonable early start and headed off towards Derby for a look even though most of the travel things I had read said don’t bother unless you are planning on doing the Gibbs River Road which I would like to but have the wrong bike for that trip.
As you get near Derby the Boab trees start appearing. Something different and then on the way into Derby had a look a the famous boab tree that used as a jail cell years ago. Apart from that the reviews were pretty right, just a reasonable little town but not alot outside that. You could see it was geared to support the Gibbs River Road traffic with a few 4wd places and some pretty heavy duty recovery vehicles. Think they might charge a bit for their services though.
On the way out of Derby, I checked out the scenic flights over the Buccaneer Archipelago that I got a brochure in Broome for that leave from Derby. Was not that interested but thought I would ask, seeing I was there anyway. First issue was the price of $685 and then, wait for it, they now fly out of Broome and not Derby. It was old brochure. So bye bye Derby.
So off to the next town along the way to Kununurra which was Fitzroy Crossing for a fuel stop. After an issue at the servo changed my mind about staying there the night, I headed off towards Halls Creek.
As was getting late, the plan was ride until it starts getting dark and then stop at one of the campgrounds along the way. The first was a pile of rocks so headed for the next one which was at Mary Pool on the Mary River about 100km short of Halls Creek. Used a bit of fuel to get there before dark but one of the more pleasant surprises of the trip. Road in was not very inspiring and you then crossed a long concrete causeway and here was the campground. Lots of large trees, slashed grass areas and three septic toilets. There was about 10 caravans and 5 tents spread about the place. Thought this will do for the night and after pitching the tent, started to make tea when I remembered I had not restocked the food bag for a while so it was the “interesting” combo of Chicken and Corn Soup and a can of Tuna in Springwater for main course. Desert was some dried apricots and a coffee. That left me the Fruit Salad, a Muesli Bar and more coffee for breakfast. Very peaceful campsite as not long after dark everone seemed to turn in for the night until daybreak.
The only catch with this campsite was it had the first “beware of crocodiles” sign for the trip. Not a real issue at present as the river is virtually dry but still followed the guidelines and did not camp close to the river. Kenneth was very nervous about the whole crocodile thing and Wuffy did not help when he suggested that he would OK as the crocs being Australian would probably go for the chinese takeaway option for tea. Kenneth calmed down after a while but he still insisted on sleeping in the top box.
The plan for the morning is to make Kununura by around 2 and see if I can find a cabin for the next three nights and organise some tours of the Lake Argyle and the Bungle Bungles. Could not organise anything as campground had no phone coverage.