Saturday...20 August 2011

Wow, lots has happened since last entry. To begin with, remember the scenic flight? Well they originally said we would  have to wait until Thursday to get on a flight, unless we could be ready in two hours for that particular day. We took the there and then offer.
On Thursday one of the scenic flights gave a bit more adventure than the tourists paid for.
It fell short of the runway on landing and crashed with one pilot and six paying passengers. They are all ok, but were ferried to the local Kununurra hospital to be checked out. They are very very lucky people. The official reason is being given as engine failure on landing.......hmmmmmm. All I know is I am glad we took the earlier flights as there was no way I would have gotten in to any plane after that event on the Thursday!!!! Or to quote  Himself, I would be still screaming hysterically even now if that had been me....
Well done the pilot who did well enough no matter what the reason to have seven people walk away from that one. To quote a saying I once heard...Any landing you walk away from is a good  one!
So on Friday we  packed up and left Kununurra, we went further than planned and ended up in a free camp at Mary River. Getting in and out of that particular camp was a bit hairy as it involved crossing a causeway over running water in the Mary River and the bitumen on the road is badly broken up and full of shakes and shudders to cross. But once on the other side there is a huge camp beside the river and us and about fifty other caravans made camp for the night. Would have been really really good if the people with the four loud dogs bothered to keep them quiet. They made camp right near the one and only toilet and every time some one went near the toilet building the blasted dogs all set up barking and growling. Up early this morning to continue southwards. We discussed our options along the way and decided to pop up to Derby for a look as we had not been here before.
Along the way we went through Fitzroy Crossing and it must have been footy finals time or they are really really into their Saturday footy. We started passing groups of indigenous folk waiting beside gateways a good 150kms out from town, they were all obviously waiting for a pick up of some sort. When we got to Fitzroy Crossing every man and his dog and his mother, mother in law and picinniny were coming out of the bushes and wandering around town in the direction of the town oval and they were all excited and talking about their teams. One was Tigers and the other team was the Crows. No idea who won but golly they were excited. We got fuel and got to hell outta there, one surely does not want to be in an indigenous town after a hotly contested footy match!
Ninety kms from our destination there was an ominous bang from one of the caravan tyres. It blew to bits and took parts of the side of the caravan with it! I walked back along the road and removed the debris of the shredded tyre off the road and found the broken bits and picked them up, maybe somewhere along the way we will pass someone who can fix it. Any one know how I can remove the black marks from the white sides of the caravan? Himself changed the tyre and we came on into Derby but being the weekend we have to wait until the tyre shops open on Monday to get it fixed.
The caravan park we are in is over the road from the local Tyrepower business. So close.......
Anyway along the way I found out where the Curtain Airforce Base is, so I guess the day was not a waste. I am sure there will be other things to see and do here too. Apparently Derby has the biggest tides anywhere in the world, they can go to 11 metres and we are parked right near the beach next to the tidal mud flats. Should be worth a look if we are around when the big tides happen.