A teacher colleague from Dongara told me to keep in touch during our trip as she and her partner would be in Derby and we could catch up.  I hadn’t expected to see my work colleagues for the best part of a year but we had already met up with Robyn and Jock, Peta and Greg for coffee in a parking bay. I know the ladies from school, John knows their husbands from playing golf!

So here we were planning a night or two in Derby. I contacted Liz to let her know. She wrote back saying she had managed to book us a camping spot with toilets, power, barbecue and shade. We were very impressed and when we asked where it was, she said on their five acre block!

John hadn’t met Liz before and neither of us had met Pete but they made us feel very welcome. We had only finished setting up the caravan under the shade of a beautiful tree, when a Britz van pulled up and out came Dana, Rod, Karina and Darryl. Dana is another teacher from Dongara and she was on a trip along the Gibb River Road with her husband, her sister and partner. They planned to camp at Liz and Pete’s for one night but it actually stretched to two. The hospitality proved too good!

Over the couple of days in Derby, we had a look around and also met up again with Leonie and Jim for lunch at the Spinifex Hotel.  We also visited Anne and Peter Brown who have the Desert Rose Bed and Breakfast, a beautiful home in the middle of town. I’d heard a lot about the b and b from Ann when her daughter used to bring her into my shop in Kalbarri several years ago. John and Peter managed to fit in a round of golf. John told me the golf course was lovely, very green, with boab trees instead of bunkers. It costs each player $1 each time they hit a boab tree!

On the way home from Anne and Pete’s, the sun was just setting over the water. The sculptures, ‘Contemplation’ by Mark Norval, and ‘Outback Football’ by Mark Norval and Midge Wilkinson looked wonderful against the night sky.

The Norval Art Gallery was not to be missed according to Liz and she was right. She took us in and we spent at least an hour in there looking at the artwork. The video they had on re-run was about how the gallery started and was very interesting. I went back the next day with John and he also enjoyed it.  (In fact, by coincidence he was partnered with Mark Norval at golf during our stay!) There were a few Aboriginal artists sitting  outside working on their dot paintings which was great to watch.

In the evenings, Liz and Pete lit their big campfire and cooked a barbecue. On the second night, Liz made damper and showed us all how to press it over branches and cook it over the fire.

Another highlight of our stay was the frilled neck lizard that lives in a tree. It usually comes down when Liz calls it. She feeds it and it loves being tickled with a leaf.

In the evenings the bathroom was overrun with very cute green frogs that sat on the leaves of the trees around the top of the corrugated wall. They also placed themselves around the bathroom to watch us, and small frogs poked their little heads out of holes in the metal. They were very cute to see.

Before leaving Derby, we had a good look around. John found the tides amazing. We took a walk along the wharf in the morning at low tide, then came back again in the afternoon for high tide. He was shocked at the difference. Derby has one of the highest tides in the world, and the highest in Australia.

We were sad to leave Liz and Pete’s. They invited his to stay as long as we wanted but we wanted to get back on the road again. We really did have a great visit and enjoyed everyone’s company very much.