We had a lovely day today, even though I felt a bit exhausted for most of it. For some reason it felt very hot to me today.
This afternoon I went swimming with Cooper in the pool, which was lovely, and he really enjoyed being thrown underwater, something that's new to him. I'd throw him up, let him go underwater, then pull him up, and as he was coming out of the water he would say " again, underwater"
Joseph has run out of books to read and is getting a bit desperate. Tonight he started on the "Creation" magazines I brought with me - but they won't take him long to get through. I have ordered his English reading book to be mailed express from Perth because we managed to forget to collect it from school before we left. Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow, because we are leaving Broome on Friday. What Joseph doesn't know is that I also ordered the latest Skulduggery Pleasant book, and the last Ranger's apprentice book at the same time. Might keep them for his birthday...
Katie is doing well at my parents' house, and said she hasn't missed too much schoolwork by being back a week late. It would be nice to still have her here, but her grade 11 marks were also important. She'll fly back to Perth after the end of year exams in November.
We took two trips out to the lighthouse at Gantheaume Point today. The first was at high tide, and the view was beautiful. The water was clear and light blue, swirling around the red rocks at the point. Boys were jumping in off the rocks, but it looked a bit scary and dangerous for me. There were some ospreys nesting there in the lighthouse frame, which had a sad, mournful cry
The second time we went at low tide, when you can look for dinosaur footprints. The dinosaur prints we saw were three toed bird like prints but big. We saw about three in the rocks. They were very clear, facing away from the shore. It looked like they had been made in mud. The rocks were sharp and slippery, covered in barnacles and other slimy creatures. they were very impressive colours, red, yellow, orange, and layered in thin layers like filo pastry. Joseph slipped over and bruised his hand. After about half an hour clambering over them with Cooper and Nadine hanging off me, I was ready to get off. Cooper loved to look in the little rock pools at the crabs and fish, but I'm sure there were stone fish in there.
Apparently there are fossilized seed ferns and fir trees here also. Today the area is pretty desolate with red dust and rocks...
On our way back from the dinosaur footprints this evening, we walked out on the deep water wharf at Entrance Point, where a P&O ship (the Pacific Sun) was docked. The full moon rising behind it looked very impressive. There were people fishing along the wharf, but only the ones using squid were catching anything worth keeping.
Two people fishing off the wharf were Paul and his son Liam. They are from Melbourne and Paul and his wife Bronwyn and their four kids have been driving to Broome for their annual three week holdiay for about fourteen years now. They get here in five days, driving about 1000 km a day. He said September is the best time to come because the weather is good and it is not as busy. In june sometimes the caravan park is booked out and they put the overflow on the school oval until a vacancy occurs.
Coming home from our evening wharf walk, Oskar and Cooper fell asleep in the car, so we just popped them into bed then sat down to dinner. it was probably the most peaceful dinner we've had yet.
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Shopping and other things
The children got up this morning about 6am, and decided to get stuck into their school work. Oskar read with me outside, and when it got a big boring, we watched a seagull who came to find the leftover breakfast under the table. They worked pretty well all morning, and then swam in the pool for a while.
Since we'd run out of food, we headed off into the town centre for some shopping. Grant's replacement prescription glasses arrived, so now he can see! We bought Cooper some more sneakers - he's worn holes in two pairs since we've been away. He likes the new ones because they light up when he walks.
The shopping centre was right beside the airport runway, so we watched some planes land and takeoff. We saw another customs plane land, I wonder where they come from?
Grant's finding the gas tank for the van difficult to get refilled. here at the van park it is ridiculously expensive, other places don't refill, they just swap bigger bottles, and today the service station we asked normally would refill, but they had run out of gas! It's just not meant to be.
We had a nice time on the beach again, watching the sun go down over the water. I decided I really like the beach. It's booming, crashing waves are very relaxing. Everyone gathers at the beach at sundown to take photos of the sunset. Tonight I was watching the big, red ball of the sun move closer to the sea on one side, while behind me, the big white ball of the moon was rising higher in the sky. Dom was amazed at how quickly the sin slipped below the horizon once it got close.
Eggy bread for dinner, with salad, then Grant tried out his new speakers and showed everyone a movie.
Something I forgot to mention before - I read on a sign at the prison boab tree in Derby that Boab trees flower once a year at midnight or something like that and are pollinated by some obscure fruit bat or owl or something. I wasn't able to confirm that on Google, but they are a really cool tree.
Since we'd run out of food, we headed off into the town centre for some shopping. Grant's replacement prescription glasses arrived, so now he can see! We bought Cooper some more sneakers - he's worn holes in two pairs since we've been away. He likes the new ones because they light up when he walks.
The shopping centre was right beside the airport runway, so we watched some planes land and takeoff. We saw another customs plane land, I wonder where they come from?
Grant's finding the gas tank for the van difficult to get refilled. here at the van park it is ridiculously expensive, other places don't refill, they just swap bigger bottles, and today the service station we asked normally would refill, but they had run out of gas! It's just not meant to be.
We had a nice time on the beach again, watching the sun go down over the water. I decided I really like the beach. It's booming, crashing waves are very relaxing. Everyone gathers at the beach at sundown to take photos of the sunset. Tonight I was watching the big, red ball of the sun move closer to the sea on one side, while behind me, the big white ball of the moon was rising higher in the sky. Dom was amazed at how quickly the sin slipped below the horizon once it got close.
Eggy bread for dinner, with salad, then Grant tried out his new speakers and showed everyone a movie.
Something I forgot to mention before - I read on a sign at the prison boab tree in Derby that Boab trees flower once a year at midnight or something like that and are pollinated by some obscure fruit bat or owl or something. I wasn't able to confirm that on Google, but they are a really cool tree.
Monday, 10 October 2011
School begins
We seem to keep waking up early, even though we've been in this time zone for a week now and go to bed late enough. Can you get car lag? Other campers seem to go to bed so early. I'm starting to wonder about how sleep deprived I really am...
After waking up, breakfast is always first on the agenda. At our house it's serve yourself for breakfast, as everyone seems to have different expectations. Joseph eats cornflakes, I have muesli and chopped apple, Nadine was having weet bix, cornflakes and muesli, but the last few days has been making an omelette. Oskar has never been able to eat cereal - unless it's sugar laden like rice bubbles or nutrition grain, which don't appear very often on our shelves (unless you successfully sneak them into the trolley like Nadine did the other day... ) so he tends to be a bit harder to feed. This morning when I asked him what he would eat for breakfast,he said he wanted bacon and tomato sauce on bread, and peanut butter on bread. "So cook the bacon now!" Nothing like having a slave to do your bidding. Unfortunately for Oskar we'd run out of bread, so it was an apple for breakfast.
School began today. Everyone beavered away at the work in their boxes and Joseph drew me a lovely still life. It will take a little bit to iron out the logistics of who is working where, but it was a good start.
I think Cooper is noticing the late nights and early mornings. After lunch today he went inside the van, climbed into Dom's bed, and went to sleep.
We had another lovely play in the pool this afternoon, and a visit to Cable Beach to watch the sun go down over the ocean. that's not something you can do on the east coast of Australia. It was very beautiful because the sun turns into this glowing red orb and slides down behind the blue sea. We've decided to skip the camel ride along the beach, though. Although it appears to be the thing to do here in Broome, they look a big awkward. They have long lines of camels, all tied together and saddled up with matching saddle cloths, led by one or two people. You can ride them along the beach while the sun sets over the ocean. There were three lines of camels on the beach tonight, all with about 16 camels in them. That's a lot of camels! I haven't seen a camel farm marked on the map, so I wonder where they all sleep!
After waking up, breakfast is always first on the agenda. At our house it's serve yourself for breakfast, as everyone seems to have different expectations. Joseph eats cornflakes, I have muesli and chopped apple, Nadine was having weet bix, cornflakes and muesli, but the last few days has been making an omelette. Oskar has never been able to eat cereal - unless it's sugar laden like rice bubbles or nutrition grain, which don't appear very often on our shelves (unless you successfully sneak them into the trolley like Nadine did the other day... ) so he tends to be a bit harder to feed. This morning when I asked him what he would eat for breakfast,he said he wanted bacon and tomato sauce on bread, and peanut butter on bread. "So cook the bacon now!" Nothing like having a slave to do your bidding. Unfortunately for Oskar we'd run out of bread, so it was an apple for breakfast.
School began today. Everyone beavered away at the work in their boxes and Joseph drew me a lovely still life. It will take a little bit to iron out the logistics of who is working where, but it was a good start.
I think Cooper is noticing the late nights and early mornings. After lunch today he went inside the van, climbed into Dom's bed, and went to sleep.
We had another lovely play in the pool this afternoon, and a visit to Cable Beach to watch the sun go down over the ocean. that's not something you can do on the east coast of Australia. It was very beautiful because the sun turns into this glowing red orb and slides down behind the blue sea. We've decided to skip the camel ride along the beach, though. Although it appears to be the thing to do here in Broome, they look a big awkward. They have long lines of camels, all tied together and saddled up with matching saddle cloths, led by one or two people. You can ride them along the beach while the sun sets over the ocean. There were three lines of camels on the beach tonight, all with about 16 camels in them. That's a lot of camels! I haven't seen a camel farm marked on the map, so I wonder where they all sleep!
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Farewell Katie
Another beautiful day here in Broome. Not too hot, not too cold.
Today we went to the Victory Life Church in Broome. None of us were really keen, but Grant insisted, and it turned out to be a really good service. The worship was led by a young guy, Jimmy, who sang really well and led us in some really good songs, and the pastor, Mark Oooman, from India/Figi spoke a really god message about renewing your mind, reading the bible each day, and not being chained up by the past but letting God transform your future. Something like that, anyway. Afterwards they made us a lovely hot chocolate each. It was a good time.
We came back for lunch and a swim (Oskar is always asking to swim) and then took Katie off to the airport, which is right in the very centre of Broome.
After we'd all been through security, we walked through into a verandah area which was enclosed but had tropical plants and a fountain in the middle. It was the nicest airport I'd ever been to! We waited for Katie to board her plane, watching through the lattice as they put her suitcase on board, and waving as she crossed the Tarmac and climbed the stairs to the Boeing 737-800. it was very noisy being so close while they did all the pre flight checks, but we stayed and saw the plane take off.
The airport is so close to the town centre, that Dominic noticed as we drove out, all the street lights on one roundabout are very low to the ground compared to others in Broome. that is because it is positioned right at the end of the runway, and high ones might interfere with planes landing safely.
Afternoon nap over, I headed down to the Beach with the kids to watch the sunset. I was bit late, and the sun had gone, but we were able to watch the sky changing colour from orange to red etc. We were also in time to see the long lines of camels walking from the beach after doing their sunset tourist thing.
There was a group of people gathered on the beach around a car, and all these colored lanterns standing in the sand around them. In the dusk the lanterns on the beach looked very pretty. I wondered if it was a party or a wedding. It actually turned out to be a Leukemia Foundation fundraiser. The lady who organized it was a leukemia survivor, and she read a story about a little boy who is currently battling leukemia in Derby, the town we passed through north of Broome. Jack was three when he was diagnosed with leukemia, and his treatments finish in October 2012, if they are successful. In the story, his mother mentioned that he says he is the next to die, because all his friends from the hospital have died. The hardest thing he finds is not being allowed to swim in the local pool. It is so hot up here, that must be very frustrating for him. They visit the hospital at least once a week - I don't know where the hospital is, but I don't remember seeing one in Derby.
Grant's doing a very good job on the dinners, and tonight we had burritoes. Everyone loves burritoes, and Oskar had two and an half! Then he told me he felt a little bit full...
A few clouds have come over, but there is a lovely breeze, so maybe they will all blow away and give us another fine day tomorrow.
Tonight we have an empty bed where Katie was last night. She rang and told us she landed safely, so it is only seven weeks and she'll be back again. School tomorrow for everyone, this will be interesting.
Today we went to the Victory Life Church in Broome. None of us were really keen, but Grant insisted, and it turned out to be a really good service. The worship was led by a young guy, Jimmy, who sang really well and led us in some really good songs, and the pastor, Mark Oooman, from India/Figi spoke a really god message about renewing your mind, reading the bible each day, and not being chained up by the past but letting God transform your future. Something like that, anyway. Afterwards they made us a lovely hot chocolate each. It was a good time.
We came back for lunch and a swim (Oskar is always asking to swim) and then took Katie off to the airport, which is right in the very centre of Broome.
After we'd all been through security, we walked through into a verandah area which was enclosed but had tropical plants and a fountain in the middle. It was the nicest airport I'd ever been to! We waited for Katie to board her plane, watching through the lattice as they put her suitcase on board, and waving as she crossed the Tarmac and climbed the stairs to the Boeing 737-800. it was very noisy being so close while they did all the pre flight checks, but we stayed and saw the plane take off.
The airport is so close to the town centre, that Dominic noticed as we drove out, all the street lights on one roundabout are very low to the ground compared to others in Broome. that is because it is positioned right at the end of the runway, and high ones might interfere with planes landing safely.
Afternoon nap over, I headed down to the Beach with the kids to watch the sunset. I was bit late, and the sun had gone, but we were able to watch the sky changing colour from orange to red etc. We were also in time to see the long lines of camels walking from the beach after doing their sunset tourist thing.
There was a group of people gathered on the beach around a car, and all these colored lanterns standing in the sand around them. In the dusk the lanterns on the beach looked very pretty. I wondered if it was a party or a wedding. It actually turned out to be a Leukemia Foundation fundraiser. The lady who organized it was a leukemia survivor, and she read a story about a little boy who is currently battling leukemia in Derby, the town we passed through north of Broome. Jack was three when he was diagnosed with leukemia, and his treatments finish in October 2012, if they are successful. In the story, his mother mentioned that he says he is the next to die, because all his friends from the hospital have died. The hardest thing he finds is not being allowed to swim in the local pool. It is so hot up here, that must be very frustrating for him. They visit the hospital at least once a week - I don't know where the hospital is, but I don't remember seeing one in Derby.
Grant's doing a very good job on the dinners, and tonight we had burritoes. Everyone loves burritoes, and Oskar had two and an half! Then he told me he felt a little bit full...
A few clouds have come over, but there is a lovely breeze, so maybe they will all blow away and give us another fine day tomorrow.
Tonight we have an empty bed where Katie was last night. She rang and told us she landed safely, so it is only seven weeks and she'll be back again. School tomorrow for everyone, this will be interesting.
Saturday, 8 October 2011
Broome
Katie and I visited the old courthouse markets this morning while Grant took the others to Cable Beach. Dominic read the sign that designated the north of the beach a nudist beach and thought it was pretty funny. They got a bit nervous when they noticed a big group of tourists coming towards them from that direction, and they wondered what sort of a sight they were in for. As they drew closer, however, the group of tourists shifted into a train of camels....nudist camels of course.
The old Courthouse markets were very nice. Not too crowded at this time of year, which is essential to the enjoyment of markets! There were a lot of stalls selling pearls, which Broome is known for (at one stage in it's history, Broome was supplying 65% of the world's natural pearls), and the frozen mango smoothie stall was very busy all day.
the wildlife protection group had a stall, and there was a lady there holding a couple of baby kangaroos and a baby fruit bat. they were very cute. the man beside her had a couple of plastic boxes with snakes, including an olive python, which looked just like the snake we saw at Winjana Gorge a few days ago. He said it grows very big, but isn't poisonous. There was another fat snake striped like a zebra with a black head. The stall holder said it would stay hidden in it's hole and just stick it's head out into the sun to soak up the warmth that it would then transfer to the rest of it's body. Very clever design for a snake!
Mid morning we all went to the historical museum which gave us a bit of history of Broome and the big part pearling played. The Japanese and Chinese were great pearl divers and when Australia introduced it's white Australia policy in 1901 (it was abolished in about 1950) Broome had to get special dispensation for employing 'Asiatics' in their operations. Consequently Broome has a very different cultural history to the rest of Australia.
There is a very old 'China Town' in Broome (it's not very big) and a Chinese cemetery where lots of the divers who died swimming down to the oyster shells are buried.
The Japanese bombed Broome as well, killing at least 40 people, many Dutch who were in 14 flying boats on Roebuck bay, ready to be shipped to safety after escaping from the Japanese in Java. A lot of people were taken to safety through Broome.
On their way home, the Japanese also bombed another plane bringing civilians from Java and several people lost their lives. What was also lost in that plane crash was a packet containing £600,000 of diamonds. It's believed a beachcomber found the packet and shared most of the diamonds with his aboriginal friends. They have recovered about £34,000 worth of the diamonds but the rest are still missing, possibly thrown away by scared aborigines when the police went searching their camps. They'd be worth tens of millions of dollars today.
I'm sitting beside the pool writing this blog. Everyone else is swimming except for Grant and Cooper who are having a sleep. They are having a great time swimming. Joseph, Oskar and Dominic are blowing up their sun shirts and are floating around the pool like something out of Willie wonker's chocolate factory.
The rest of the day was equally restful - Grant and the boys cooked hamburgers for dinner with ice creams for after, then everyone watched a movie and went to bed. Only a little more time and Katie will be leaving, boo hoo.
The old Courthouse markets were very nice. Not too crowded at this time of year, which is essential to the enjoyment of markets! There were a lot of stalls selling pearls, which Broome is known for (at one stage in it's history, Broome was supplying 65% of the world's natural pearls), and the frozen mango smoothie stall was very busy all day.
the wildlife protection group had a stall, and there was a lady there holding a couple of baby kangaroos and a baby fruit bat. they were very cute. the man beside her had a couple of plastic boxes with snakes, including an olive python, which looked just like the snake we saw at Winjana Gorge a few days ago. He said it grows very big, but isn't poisonous. There was another fat snake striped like a zebra with a black head. The stall holder said it would stay hidden in it's hole and just stick it's head out into the sun to soak up the warmth that it would then transfer to the rest of it's body. Very clever design for a snake!
Mid morning we all went to the historical museum which gave us a bit of history of Broome and the big part pearling played. The Japanese and Chinese were great pearl divers and when Australia introduced it's white Australia policy in 1901 (it was abolished in about 1950) Broome had to get special dispensation for employing 'Asiatics' in their operations. Consequently Broome has a very different cultural history to the rest of Australia.
There is a very old 'China Town' in Broome (it's not very big) and a Chinese cemetery where lots of the divers who died swimming down to the oyster shells are buried.
The Japanese bombed Broome as well, killing at least 40 people, many Dutch who were in 14 flying boats on Roebuck bay, ready to be shipped to safety after escaping from the Japanese in Java. A lot of people were taken to safety through Broome.
On their way home, the Japanese also bombed another plane bringing civilians from Java and several people lost their lives. What was also lost in that plane crash was a packet containing £600,000 of diamonds. It's believed a beachcomber found the packet and shared most of the diamonds with his aboriginal friends. They have recovered about £34,000 worth of the diamonds but the rest are still missing, possibly thrown away by scared aborigines when the police went searching their camps. They'd be worth tens of millions of dollars today.
I'm sitting beside the pool writing this blog. Everyone else is swimming except for Grant and Cooper who are having a sleep. They are having a great time swimming. Joseph, Oskar and Dominic are blowing up their sun shirts and are floating around the pool like something out of Willie wonker's chocolate factory.
The rest of the day was equally restful - Grant and the boys cooked hamburgers for dinner with ice creams for after, then everyone watched a movie and went to bed. Only a little more time and Katie will be leaving, boo hoo.
Friday, 7 October 2011
Made it to Broome
Up early and straight into Broome today. Arrived at the caravan park before nine o'clock. We were pretty keen to get to electricity and running water.
On the way into the caravan park we drove through a new estate with houses similar to the new houses they build in Brisbane around our place, in Edenbrooke and suburbs like that. The only difference was these were all made of corrugated iron. I asked someone about all the corrugated iron houses, and they said they suit the climate better up here. Not only are the materials easy to transport, they cool easier than brick houses, aren't made of asbestos, and don't get eaten by termites like wooden houses. There is a lot of new development here in Broome.
By lunch time we'd had a swim in the lovely pool and washed three loads of washing.
We went to the shop and collected some post from the post office, some groceries from the grocery store, and found out from the bank why they've restricted my debit card - and it's not an easy one to fix.
More swimming and then fish and chips for tea, with a play on the beach...it was a lovely, restful day.
On the way into the caravan park we drove through a new estate with houses similar to the new houses they build in Brisbane around our place, in Edenbrooke and suburbs like that. The only difference was these were all made of corrugated iron. I asked someone about all the corrugated iron houses, and they said they suit the climate better up here. Not only are the materials easy to transport, they cool easier than brick houses, aren't made of asbestos, and don't get eaten by termites like wooden houses. There is a lot of new development here in Broome.
By lunch time we'd had a swim in the lovely pool and washed three loads of washing.
We went to the shop and collected some post from the post office, some groceries from the grocery store, and found out from the bank why they've restricted my debit card - and it's not an easy one to fix.
More swimming and then fish and chips for tea, with a play on the beach...it was a lovely, restful day.
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Derby
Slowly wending our way towards Broome, we're camped beside the road 100km north Of there tonight, at a free spot with a real mix of other campers - a couple of large buses, some vans, a small motor home towing an enclosed trailer with a Harley, among others.
This morning we wandered along the path to Winjana Gorge, looking at the towering cliffs and the smooth white marble like rock. Aparently they were part of a very old coral reef, but it's a bit hard to imagine it, seeing as it's now in the middle of a great, dry desert.
The lovely water hole had a big freshwater crocodile floating in the middle of it, and a white ibis keeping it's distance on the side. The horse flies/march flies were horrific (Joseph tied a few to pieces of Nadine's hair and 'walked' them along) and we got sick of slapping ourselves every two seconds, so we headed back to the van. On the way there we passed an olive green snake in a tree, twisting in and out of hollows in the trunk. A very fauna full walk.
A little bit more of the Leopold Downes Road and we turned left onto the Gibb River Road, and on into Derby.
Derby has the highest tides in Australia at around 12 metres at different times in the year. We walked out around the curved jetty and looked down at the swirling brown water, and hoped no one would fall in. driving back from the jetty we passed a little white church, with a peaked roof and high bell tower, all made of corrugated iron. It looked very cool.
We stopped for a visit at the old Gaol, where they took aborigines and other miscreants, right up until 1974. There were metal rings cemented into the ground of the two open 'cages', where they would attach the chains that were around their necks. Some of the things we have done to aborigines are very sad.
Next we drove down the road to visit the big boab tree that was also used as a jail. It is about 14 metres in circumference and hollow. Estimates are that it is 1000 years old. Nadine was very annoyed that we weren't allowed inside the tree, but apparently big boab trees like this one are sacred to Aborigines. Termite mounds are also sacred, and some tribes would inter their dead in big mounds and let the ants seal over the hole. Not sure what the ants thought about that. But you can also grind up termite mound with water and drink it to stop dysentery.....might be a useful tip. Bit of a dash to the loo tonight!
The jail boab tree was next to the longest water trough in the southern hemisphere. Don't feel too bad if you've never heard of it. It was a long, narrow cement trough built in 1916 near an artesian bore (that's a drill into the ground for water, not a boring artist) and could water 500 bullocks at once without going dry, which was probably a real relief to the drovers who would drive herds of cattle up here to ship out overseas. The Derby port used to be a big cattle shipping port, and they would walk the cattle from the centre of Australia out to the ports. it was only in the 1950s and 60s that landowners started trucking cattle.
Joseph went to visit some cattle in a truck at the petrol station in Halls Creek, hundreds of cattle crammed into double, decker trucks. Poor things.
Derby also has a Woolworths, so we bought a bit more fresh food, 'cause that's what they are good at, and some ice blocks, 'cause we were hot. the weather is getting cooler though, and tonight Nadine put on a jumper and I am thinking of closing the windows in the van. there is a decent cold breeze that might have everyone catching a chill!
-----
Vicki
This morning we wandered along the path to Winjana Gorge, looking at the towering cliffs and the smooth white marble like rock. Aparently they were part of a very old coral reef, but it's a bit hard to imagine it, seeing as it's now in the middle of a great, dry desert.
The lovely water hole had a big freshwater crocodile floating in the middle of it, and a white ibis keeping it's distance on the side. The horse flies/march flies were horrific (Joseph tied a few to pieces of Nadine's hair and 'walked' them along) and we got sick of slapping ourselves every two seconds, so we headed back to the van. On the way there we passed an olive green snake in a tree, twisting in and out of hollows in the trunk. A very fauna full walk.
A little bit more of the Leopold Downes Road and we turned left onto the Gibb River Road, and on into Derby.
Derby has the highest tides in Australia at around 12 metres at different times in the year. We walked out around the curved jetty and looked down at the swirling brown water, and hoped no one would fall in. driving back from the jetty we passed a little white church, with a peaked roof and high bell tower, all made of corrugated iron. It looked very cool.
We stopped for a visit at the old Gaol, where they took aborigines and other miscreants, right up until 1974. There were metal rings cemented into the ground of the two open 'cages', where they would attach the chains that were around their necks. Some of the things we have done to aborigines are very sad.
Next we drove down the road to visit the big boab tree that was also used as a jail. It is about 14 metres in circumference and hollow. Estimates are that it is 1000 years old. Nadine was very annoyed that we weren't allowed inside the tree, but apparently big boab trees like this one are sacred to Aborigines. Termite mounds are also sacred, and some tribes would inter their dead in big mounds and let the ants seal over the hole. Not sure what the ants thought about that. But you can also grind up termite mound with water and drink it to stop dysentery.....might be a useful tip. Bit of a dash to the loo tonight!
The jail boab tree was next to the longest water trough in the southern hemisphere. Don't feel too bad if you've never heard of it. It was a long, narrow cement trough built in 1916 near an artesian bore (that's a drill into the ground for water, not a boring artist) and could water 500 bullocks at once without going dry, which was probably a real relief to the drovers who would drive herds of cattle up here to ship out overseas. The Derby port used to be a big cattle shipping port, and they would walk the cattle from the centre of Australia out to the ports. it was only in the 1950s and 60s that landowners started trucking cattle.
Joseph went to visit some cattle in a truck at the petrol station in Halls Creek, hundreds of cattle crammed into double, decker trucks. Poor things.
Derby also has a Woolworths, so we bought a bit more fresh food, 'cause that's what they are good at, and some ice blocks, 'cause we were hot. the weather is getting cooler though, and tonight Nadine put on a jumper and I am thinking of closing the windows in the van. there is a decent cold breeze that might have everyone catching a chill!
-----
Vicki
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