Day 41 – Winjana Gorge to Derby

Today was scheduled to be a short day, so of course not only were we up early, but breakfast was finished quickly (I had cups of tea on my JetBoil) and camp was broken better than ever before. We were on the road well before 8 and deposited our rubbish in the cage near the Gibb River Road. It was a good run along the road which became sealed quickly – then unsealed – and this kept up until not long out of Derby. The interesting thing is that “Ken” (my Hema SatNav) was telling me it would take until 9 in the evening to arrive at Derby, that I should turn back and it was going to take nearly 400 kilometres. I ignored his advice and followed the road signs. It was not long after 10 when we got into Derby. I bought bolts to fix ARTIE’s front number plate back on, but it was too hot to do it then. We called into the Visitor Information Centre and got some souvenirs and information. Suddenly all mobiles were working again. After a quick cruise of the town we booked into the larger caravan park. Our site was supposed to be shady (definition of shady, please), near the amenities (yes) and convenient (it was close to laundry and other things as well). After putting up the tent we went shopping at Woollies (better prices than the last few days – but only this week’s magazines ), came back and prepared lunch. I caught up with missed calls. Lynn did the washing and I inspected the camp kitchen facilities and met up with a few others – a group of whom were going on the Horizontal Falls Overnight flight. Back at camp we met neighbours and then went off just before dusk to see the sunset over the wharf and get fish (Lynn) and chips (Lynn and me) for tea. We ate them in a shelter there and chatted to a couple from Shepparton. We came back to camp, the washing was collected and things were put in order. I wrote up my blog and eventually went to bed.