Sunday 30th May 2021 –The end of the bitumen
Awake quite early again as our van is very close to the truck refuelling area of the roadhouse and some of these truckies like to make an early start. Not to worry, a bit of a lie in and coffee makes everything okay. Packed up and went to take the toilet block key back to get back the $20 bond refund and met the second entitled boomer of the trip. Jenny stood nicely back from the counter waiting for the guy behind the counter to finish what he was writing and be ready to serve me. Meanwhile Mr Boomer charges through the door, straight past me and up to the counter where he proceeds to shove his toilet key in the guy’s face and demand his refund. I have come a bit more assertive in my old age and actually intervened to say “Excuse me, you just pushed right in front of me, I was actually next to be served”. I got the usual “Oh sorry love, I thought you were with those other people”. Yeah right, he’s either blind and/or stupid that I am standing there with a key in my hand quite obviously waiting to be served, or I am still suffering from the invisible Shand gene or else he’s just plain old rude. You decide.
We were on the road by 8ish and time to head further east and then further north to Derby. It was interesting to cross the Fitzroy River flood plain and see the evidence of where the waters had obviously risen to over the wet season and there was plenty of water in various other creeks also which I’m pretty sure had been dry or just puddles either times we have come this way.
Into Derby by about 10 and topped the car up with fuel then popped across the road to Woolies to top up our supply of water and milk as well as hoping the BWS was open. It was closed but we figured that was because of the time. Oh well, looks like Jen might have to drink Larry’s beer after all. Left Derby and turned on to the Gibb River Road with the obligatory stop at the sign for a photo of the van about to start its intrepid journey. We now have this photo three times with three different vans!
Birdwood Downs Station is only a few km’s down the GRR so we haven’t yet left the bitumen and we are still on the cusp of reception due to our proximity to Derby so not the true Gibb experience yet although the station is very nice and similar to others along the way. Due to our early arrival the campground was pretty much empty so we took a while umming and ahhing about where to park the van. We finally found a good spot with shade all around but still a patch of sun for the solar panels, a reasonable distance to the amenity block and with a nice view of the yearlings in the next paddock. They were very shy of humans so it was hard to get a good close up photo of them.
We remembered we had some left over roast beef so heated that and made some gravy and had hot beef rolls for lunch and enjoyed the tranquillity. Well as tranquil as it can be when you are surrounded by two chickens and two roosters who are eyeing off your bread rolls and making the occasional leap of optimism up to the BBQ table! Over the afternoon more and more vans/cars rolled in and we ended up having neighbours but at least they are not right on top of us like in a caravan park. Just hope they put their kids to bed early!!
We sat and chilled for a while and then decided that, as we are still so close to Derby, it would make sense to unhitch the car and dash back into town to stock up on cider (after counting and realising there were only 5 in the fridge to last the 10 days of the GRR!). Alarmingly when we got back to Derby the BWS was still closed but the guy behind the counter reassured us that the bottle shop at the ‘Spinny’ (translation Spinifex Hotel) was open so we dashed round there and Jenny was able to buy cider and Larry thought he may as well get another block of beer “Just in case”!! We drove down to the Jetty: a) to have a look and b) to sit and get the Optus pre-paid mobile phone card activated as it had refused to work when we had tried this morning. So we now have a back up phone number and phone for the GRR as apparently there are a couple of Optus towers along the way and it is one of the few places in Australia where Optus coverage is better than Telstra. We then sent messages to the kids, Miranda and Margaret with the number so hopefully all our bases are covered if anyone needs to get in touch.
Back to the van and saw a Kimberley Explorer bus go past in the opposite direction. Knowing that my work mate Wayne and his wife are on this bus heading back to Broome today after a 2 week trip around the Kimberley I texted him to say hello. Wayne texted back to say they had already gone past and were only half an hour out of Broome so we have ended up being like ships passing in the night! Never mind, they have had an awesome time apparently and we will have lots to talk about when we are both back at work in July.
Back to the van to find more vans had arrived as well as some of the yearling cows now wandering through the campground. They were still wary of us humans getting too close but not scared enough to stay out of this area which was a bit strange. Went for a wander around the homestead and up to the old stable yard as this station used to do horse treks and overnight station rides but not a horse in sight. I wonder whether it is as a result of Covid or due to rising insurance premiums that horse riding no longer happens here. The holding paddock now seems to be used as a holding paddock for caravans people wish to leave here while doing the Gibb in a tent or maybe doing a day trip to Windjana Gorge/Tunnel creek.
We were going to have hamburgers for dinner but had found some sausages at the bottom of the fridge with a use by date of today (I had bought them thinking we would have them for lunch one day but then completely forgot about them). So we had hamburgers with sausages instead of patties and they were still pretty jolly tasty. Finished up with an icecream each as we are really doing it tough then a shower to wash off the red dirt of the station before bed.
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