6th October - to Derby and almost to Broome

We left quite late today, half because it takes us ages to pack up (which is a surprise, because we can do it in less than 25 minutes some days…), and half because we also did a walk around Windjana Gorge.

The sand/blow flies there were terrible - they'd land on you the moment you stopped, and bite like crazy! It hurt like crazy too!

Dad's been telling the boys all the productive things he did in his childhood, like tying flies to a strand of hair and watching them fly around, so of course the boys decided that that would be a suitable punishment for these hideous flies! They used Dini's hair, and a fly I caught, and tied them together, and then videoed the fly!! It was hilarious. Mum didn't stop them, because she was so hopping mad at these irritating flies she figured that such CAPITAL punishment was most definitely called for. As Jo watched it fly around, he yelled, 'I'm taming it!'

At one stage, Jo thought the fly had died, because it stopped flying, but then up it went again, straining at the hair!

Dad decided to take it the next step up, and said at the next opportunity, he would tie a fly to a hair, and glue it to a little paper plane with a dot of super glue, and watch it fly around. Then they all considered the possibility of getting so many flies tied to hairs that they could lift up a person and fly them away… But considering flies only have a lifespan of 24 hours, I think they discarded the idea…

There was a warning sign about freshwater crocodiles there as well, and we saw one or two! Mum couldn't believe how 'out there' they were - just cruising along in the middle of the river!
 We also saw an ibis, which I reckon was taking a huge risk hanging arund water where there're crocs...
(If you blow up this photo bigger, you can see, to the right in the water, the shiny thing that looks like a log is acrually a croc).

We were watching the crocodile, when suddenly it disappeared! We stood riiiiiight back from the edge after that, but fortunately, it wasn't after us and reappeared a few metres away from where it had been. (phew!)
We also saw some fossils on the walk. There was supposed to be the fossil of some sea animal on one part, and Dad could see it, but I couldn't... But on the way back, I saw what looked like the fossil of a fin in the rock. I wasn't sure if it was a turtle fin...

Whether it was a turtle fin or not, I thought it was really cool! :) And I know for a fact that it's not millions of years old! (We've been taking photos of every sign that mentions millions of years for you, Plagio Clase. :) )

We drove into Derby in time for lunch - I volunteered to make the tomatoes and tuna on bread, and I think Mum enjoyed the break. :)
 Cooper was quite funny - I thought he was screaming something about wanting a 'piece'. I couldn't work out what he meant, so I didn't do anything about it, but it turns out he wanted a 'pizza' - a tuna tomato wrap instead of bread! :) He's hilarious.

After lunch, we walked around the jetty, which was a kind of horseshoe shape, instead of one long jetty jutting out into the sea. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see the tide come in, because it came in at 8:00pm, and we wanted to head off before then… Can you believe!?! Derby has 11m tides! Apparently it's the second biggest in the world (after Bristol, I think - Dad said the tides there are 17m!!!).

We went to see the Old Gaol, which, despite being only two cells, at one stage held 106 people! And it was only closed in 1974 or 75!!! We couldn't believe it.

We also saw the Prison Boab Tree on the way out of Derby, which is a 14m around boab tree that was, at one stage, used as a holding cell for prisoners on the way to Derby. We weren't able to go too close to it, though, because it has aboriginal religious significance, and also so you don't compress the roots of the tree too much - yes, it's still alive!!! Wow!

We arrived at our camping spot pretty late - it's just a roadside stop before we get to Broome.

The toilets here are similar to the ones at the place we stayed at before we went to the meteorite crater - pit toilets with a concrete ring for a toilet seat… It looks like a prison toilet!

I have to tell you the funniest story:

Dini was busting last night, and she wasn't game to brave the pit loo on her own, so of course I had to come with her.

Armed with torches and a lethal roll of loo paper, we headed off. Upon arriving, Dini glanced into the loo (as you do), and yelled, 'there's cockroaches in here!' You could hear them chittering really loud - it was disgusting!

After that, she wouldn't sit on the seat (thought I don't blame her). I told her to crouch, and she said, 'How?'

I said crouch, and pee, and she said, 'How?'

As she was sitting down, she said (with venom), 'I'm gonna outwit those cockroaches! I'm gonna pee on them!' I nearly fell over laughing.