We made the most of our last 5 star morning and ate an enormous breaky in the restaurant before packing up our gear and hitting the road. We wanted to drop in and see Cowboy before leaving and our temperamental air-conditioning belt had started screeching at us again so it wasn’t til after our social visits and a stop in at the mechanics that we actually made our way out of Broome. We headed towards Derby and just before town we pulled in to check out the “Prison Tree” which is an enormous Boab believed to be around 1,500 years old. It has a girth of 14.7 metres and was once used by early police patrols as an overnight lock-up.
I don’t know if the 5 star accom has gone to our heads or if we actually deserved it but as we rolled into town in the sweltering heat we decided not to camp tonight. Our first stop for accommodation was the Boab Inn where we were a bit surprised at the $160 off season rate for a pub room. We joked with the manager about playing a gig for food and board which received interest, just not for a Monday night! Wedrove around the town to check out our options and found the Derby lodge which had a nice little air-conditioned room for only $100. We checked in and had all intentions of taking the owners advice and watching the sun set from the jetty over a nice cold beer, but instead we got comfortable, tuned in to watch our friend Anthony on ‘So you think you can dance’ (sadly we’ve become addicted) then went to sleep ... a nice air-conditioned sleep ...
We spent the morning catching up on some emailing and then met with Peter from Derby pest control who was giving us a lift to the Kimberly diamond mine where we were playing a show for the miners that night. After our little accidental off road experience the week before we had arranged to leave the van safe and sound in Derby rather than taking our chances with the Gibb River Road which is notoriously rough in the wet season (and difficult at the best of times from all accounts)
After a reasonably rough, very dusty and at times waterlogged drive we arrived at the mine site got shown to our VIP rooms and chilled out before the gig. We had a fun night and one of the locals, Fongy, played a set in our break. It was great to get a look into how the mining crew all live, the food was plentiful and really good quality with surprisingly great vegetarian options. We made friends with some of the local wildlife, well I got bitten by some bugs, but the thousands of Corellas were magnificent so Leesa took a few pics as we hung out the next day to get a lift back to Derby with Wort and Laurie, two of the miners who wouldn't fly in the small planes.
Like most characters from this region Wort had some great yarns to tell us on the drive, most memorably the story of crossing the Nullarbor with a mate in a sign printed promotional truck (hmmm… sounds familiar…) Apparently white line fever kicked in and the boys decided it would be fun to get a self timed photo of them standing butt naked (apart from cowboy hats and boots) in the middle of the plains. After the camera had clicked Wort ran back to the truck and sped off leaving his poor mate running naked up the road behind him. Wort said he left him there for about half an hour before driving back to pick up his sunburned and very unimpressed mate.
We played another show in Fitzroy Crossing that night and were disappointed that we didn’t see our friend Dorothy but had a good time none the less. Before heading east we decided to drive out to Geikie Gorge to enjoy some nature but we kept freaking ourselves out with our crocodile scenarios (and the fact that we were the only car there…) so we spent just enough time to snap off some photos and then we were outta there. On the way through town we stopped in at the Mangkaja Art Gallery where Dorothy and a bunch of local artists paint and display their works. It was an amazing experience, some of the paintings and artworks were absolutely amazing and it was really cool to see them at work. Dorothy was there and showed us which of the paintings on display were hers, but she was with her mob of family and friends and we didn’t want to intrude too much so after we had a good look around we said our goodbyes and left.
LONELY PLANET GREAT GUIDEBOOK MOMENT:
We made one last stop before leaving town because our lonely planet guidebook told us that Fitzroy was home to the oldest established hotel in the entire Kimberley region (1897). The Crossing Inn is definitely an experience… it’s an old shack of a pub that is surrounded by chicken wire and the pungent smell of millions of spilled beers seeping through the concrete. The outside of the building is covered in artworks by the local youth which makes its exterior almost as colourful as the characters inside. We ordered our beers with the gruff barmaid who had to be coaxed into allowing us to drink them from a bottle as opposed to a can. We sipped slowly on our beers and took in the atmosphere of the Crossing Inn, a bunch of local guys playing pool and groups of people huddled around their cans. Obviously being only midday we didn’t get the full effect of the pub, but we enjoyed the experience as long as our senses would allow and then headed off on the road to Halls Creek.
