After driving through some nice scenery we got to Broome and had a look around to see what was happening and it was not much. If you like fishing it would be great I think but apart from that we couldn’t see a whole lot more to do, so after a bit of planning we decided to rock into Derby a little further on to see the largest tidal shift in Australia which can come in at around 6klm and hour so it is pretty fast moving. When we arrived in Derby we organised to stay in a CWA place that was old fashioned but really nice and the hot shower certainly didn’t go astray. It was the first time since we started travelling that I was able to cook a roast and vegetables which was pretty yum (although I did have a mishap with the pork being too close to oven element). The main street had Boab trees down the middle that looked great and very different to what we normally experience here. While we were getting to our accommodation for the night a young Aboriginal guy showed us a Boab nut that he had carved and it was amazing with staggering detail of 2 stingrays on one side and some trees on the other. We settled down for a relaxed evening and had a really sound sleep before waking and making our way to Katherine the next morning. We also came across a lot of old abandoned equipment and I loved the crane sitting by the water and took photos accordingly.
On the way out we came across the prison tree which had a story all of its own, and history that we were unaware of until we read the plagues. It was a huge Boab tree that had become hollow in the middle and it was used as a rest spot for prisoner transport by the local police. The tree also has some significance to the local aboriginal people with 6 different sing giving the history of the area.
We arrived in Katherine later in the day and it was a pretty little place and when we arrived we were told about some hot springs that sounded inviting. They were right as we wandered down and saw what they had been talking about. The water was crystal clear and warm enough to relax aching muscles and we had a foot spa while we were their. It is funny that you can swim in here but less than 50 metres away is a croc infested river. After the hot springs we found a great little pop-up cafe within walking distance that was really nice and made a great coffee. We settled in for the night and our minds while enjoying our time were thinking of family as our Rachel had an accident while we have been gone and is ok but it still doesn’t make it easy to be away at times like this.
After a great nights sleep we packed up and were ready to head further north only to find out due to residual water that many of the areas we wanted to visit were not open and may not be for 3 weeks so we changed plans and headed south toward Sandfire. It is amazing that we could go from not much water to too much of it, but we live in an unpredictable country after all.
A lot of water around here