Sunday, June 2, 2013

Derby WA

We had intended to go to Broome after the Bungles, but we decided we needed a break to let our spirits catch up to our bodies, and so be re-directed to Derby where I believe that has now happened. Derby is a quiet. small town on the north coast of Western Australia where the tidal differences are the greatest in the Australia. Yesterday it was a one metre low tide followed by an eight metre high a seven metre difference, but at the right time of the year it can be as much as twelve metres. The water here is never clear as the continual ebb and flow of the high tides just won't allow the silt to settle.
Derby Jetty at Low Tide
Derby Jetty - Flow Tide
We haven't done much whilst here except take a trip back down the highway to see the 1,200 year old Boab Tree that was used as a prison in the late 1800's and near by is the longest watering trough in the Southern Hemisphere, 120 metres, which was built in 1916 to water up to 500 head of cattle at a time before they were shipped out of Derby to Fremantle.
Boab Prison Tree - 1,200 yrs old

Southern Hemisphere's Longest Water Trough 120 Mtrs

Apart from that we have been been taking photos of boab trees at all times of the day, but especially sunset as Derby is renowned for its beautiful sunsets, but some of the locals have been saying that they haven't been having really good ones lately.
Tree with Whistling Kite at Sunset
Same Boad tree in pre-sunset
Also the Jetty is a favourite spot for sunset pictures and each time we have been down there at sunset there have been quite a few touristy people taking photos - like us. We also went down there when the tide was flowing in and it comes in really fast and the currents are very strong - you can see the dirty, muddy, silty water just swirling around the jetty piers and wonder how you would fare if you accidently fell in - then over by the bank where some aboriginals were fishing, one guy decides to jump in and have a swim, so not only was he risking being swept away, but we were told that there is a big old crocodile that hangs around there and was only seen the previous day.
Derby Jetty - High Tide
Derby Jetty at twilight
Today we went to church at the Derby Baptist Church - it is only a small church, built onto the side of the manse, but they have a really small core of dedicated members who also hold services at the Curtin Immigration Detention Centre and practically run "Kingdom Aviation" which was founded to spread the Gospel in remote schools and pastoral communities by air. This morning they had about 15 men from the detention centre (with two women guards) who knew very little English. Apparently, there was to be three interpreters who were also supposed to come and translate the service for these guys, but something happened that meant they couldn't come, so we had a very short sermon because the pastor was expecting it to take a long time due to being translated in three other languages.

So now that we have had a good rest and have caught up with ourselves, we leave tomorrow for Broome where I have an appointment with a local dentist to get my broken tooth fixed on Tuesday and on Wednesday we have booked ourselves a tour to fly by seaplane and then catch a speed boat over the horizontal falls. Ruth made an executive decision that this would be our big splurge for this trip and as it will be on my birthday, well that was a bonus for me.