We arrived in Derby at rush hour as you saw in my last. In fact we were one of eight caravans lining up for entry over a fifteen minute period.
As I commented previously, had we not made a booking I would have been in something of a state, but once inside the park I realised that there would have been oodles of room....this is a large place.
The park office here shares a roof
with the expansive camp kitchen and guest BBQ area. And here I have one of the few criticisms of the set up of this park. This is the only BBQ area. In a park of this size another near the tent area at the back end would be more than appropriate.
We booked in as usual and made our way into the park proper which was something of a challenge. The roads here run off at all sorts of angles. We did make a few false turns before working out the most direct route from our site to the entrance and vice versa.
On our arrival we made our way past the first of the three park ablution blocks
and right around the park perimeter roadway to that which contained our allotted site, the long roadway almost on the rear boundary.
Here we were more than pleased with both the size of our patch and the fact that the row of trees on one side did provide a deal of afternoon shade. This was important. The temperatures in Derby during our stay peaked each day in the mid 30's and despite the fact that this was the 'dry' season, the humidity levels were bordering on uncomfortable.
Ours was indeed a huge site. To take advantage of the trees we hugged one side of it which left enough room to have fitted another van in beside us. And we had grass, albeit a little sparse, but in these climes anything even vaguely green underfoot is a very welcome surprise, particularly this year when all the northern areas of the country have been struggling with a severe drought.
Behind us was another long row of sites and the caravan storage area. Here those so inclined can leave their vans whilst they explore the Gibb River Road, taking only tents for accommodation.
Beyond the boundary fence we could see across the flat expanses
which lay between our park and the distant mangroves of the tidal estuary. This area is commonly used by 'the locals' who would sit out here for hours in communal groups, to what end we could only guess. In the evening these flats became the local speedway.....we spent many a 'happy hour' moment waiting for one of these Derby 'Evil Knievels' to hit a pothole and cartwheel of into oblivion, but none did.
I mentioned earlier that this is a very large park,
and although I have been critical of the fact that there is only one BBQ area, at least there are three ablution blocks, all of which are more than functional. I should hasten to add here, that this shot of the camping area and the toilet block beyond it was taken early in the morning. By mid afternoon the ground under these trees was 'tent city' where those about to 'do The Gibb' would eagerly quiz those who were recuperating in Derby for a day or so after making the trip.
Needless to say, the laundries here were in constant use, and the appearance of local mechanics was a daily event. Our immediate neighbour for a couple of days spent the best part of his stay under his van with various 'mechanical support staff' making extensive repairs to the suspension which had suffered severely as a result of their Gibb River Road adventure. He was not the only recent arrival with problems. This is a great town in which to be a bush mechanic!
Apart from all its human occupants, the Kimberley Entrance park is a haven for bird life. Masked Lapwings (plovers),
Straw Necked Ibis,
pretty little green parrots (with a Crested Pigeon...Top Knots to us...thrown in for good measure),
and flocks of garrulous Little Corellas all made this park their home by day.
To top it all off, there was the park peacock, and a white one at that. This place is a veritable open aired aviary.
And that was not the end of it. Here, as we were sitting under our awing in the pleasant cool of the evening, we had a rare encounter. As the fiery glow of a typical Derby sunset, which silhouetted the park security fence, subsided
and the veil of night descended on the park we heard a low, owl like call. We were instantly on the alert. Could it be? Indeed it was....a Tawny Frogmouth (commonly called Moreporks because of the sound of their call) had perched on a post at the back of our site.
We had often heard these birds before, but never been able to catch sight of one. Now all I had to do was try to get a close up shot in the dark without scaring it off (which meant I was aiming more or less blindly in the approximate direction and flashing away).
After many failed attempts I did manage one reasonable close up of this odd looking bird. This brief sighting (our nocturnal visitor was less than impressed by the constant flashing of my photographic attempts and soon took off) was a first for us and it quite made our night. What a wonderful welcome to Derby!
And we weren't the only ones interested. Our little furry companion aroused himself briefly from his post dinner snooze and was on high alert, for all of a minute! As we have often said, Max would starve in the wild.
So now that we were here and settled, a tour of the town and the spectacle of the Derby tides awaited our attention. We were at it first thing on the morrow....stay tuned.
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