Derby - Day 39

Fletcher :  Today we drove from Roebuck roadhouse to Derby.   We had a ice cup for breakfast.  Mum and I went to the toilet block this morning and a green tree frog was in the toilet that mum went to, it was in the toilet watching mum.  After that mum and I had a little dip in the pool then a man said look over there t that lizard, its a frilled neck he told us, he was trying to get it to do its frill but it just looked at him and walked away.  When we got to Derby we drove on a jetty and tried to look for crocs.  We had to get some stuff from the shop that's where my mum found her favourite chocolate flavour which is pineapple.

Mackenzie : Today for breakfast I had a ice cream and on a tree was a lizard, it was a frilled neck lizard.  Then we got in the car and drove for a while. When we got to Derby we set up the caravan and then we went into town.  Me and mm went in to IGA and had a look at a jetty and we tried to find crocodiles.  We couldn't find any.  For dinner we had chicken and it was yum.

Well after my early morning scare by the backpackers, I didn't think it could get worse.  But a quick trip to the loo, lift the lid to go sit down and a green tree frog is staring back at me....... little scream, more an oh my goodness but it had dan coming in for a look, I wanted him to take a photo but as he did he hopped down the toilet, yep into the toilet.  Well of course then I'm too scared to go just in case the s bends are joined and he pops up in another of the loos, the kids think its hilarious but are just as cautious as me to go!  We had a dip in the pool and looked at the little bananas on the trees, such a beautiful park and after speaking to one of the staff there is more money being spent.  There is 15 staff rooms all with big flat screen tvs and foxtel and they have their own pool and bbq etc.  Many are long time employees of between 5-8 years, their conditions are great so I can see why they stay.   We saw the best frilled next lizard camouflaging itself on the tree behind us.  The grounds keeper was trying to get him to frill his neck for us but he wasn't interested and just looked at the kids poor attempt to scare him.   He didn't miss a thing and his sight and hearing must have been amazing.  We stopped in at the roadhouse to return the key and the food in there is great for travellers, they do little lunch packs for truckies and travellers, nibble boxes which have cherry toms, cold meat, cabana, cheeses, gherkins etc. Hot meals like lasagne and casseroles, cold meat and salad boxes and pieces of cake.  The biggest ribs I have ever seen, she wrapped them in tin foil, they would have been the length and thickness of my fore arm.  We travelled on to Derby and crossed over the Fitzroy River, I am positive I saw a croc so we stopped to inspect but couldn't see it where it had been, could have been a log but logs don't move when you go to take a photo of them?!  It was a pretty easy and uneventful drive.  We set up in the park, which is huge and has had so much money put into it.  The park is owner/operated which is pretty unusual, there is long term employees here too that live on site and are very proud of their "backyard"  All 3 toilet blocks have been gutted and renovated over the last 12 months at a whopping cost of over half a million dollars - ceiling fans again in the bathrooms and he has added 71 extra sites which are now grassed and water, power and trees are in the making.  There is a big aboriginal presence in town but like all the other towns they are yelling and abusive, but only to each other.  There are very strict alcohol sale rules which we soon noticed only applied to the aboriginals, it seemed to be discriminating against them but it was easy to see it was for their safety and to try help & control the situation up here.  I went into IGA and Dan had them trying to sell him fruit or something, he couldn't quite understand but as they kept coming over to him he took a quick drive around the block with Fletcher while he was waiting for me.  As it turns out our friends who did the same trip had a similar experience in exactly the same spot.  We did a drive around town and realised we wouldn't fit everything in so we did what we could and decided we would definitely stay another night.  We drove around the jetty and the kids did their best to try see some crocs.  We got some great meat at the butcher to cook up for tea.  It is crazy hot again, although the locals are saying it was hotter last week, thank goodness we missed that! The air con in the van is getting a work out and worth every cent it cost to install.  We are cleaning the filters weekly because of the red dirt, we could do it more often.  We are doing pretty well with what we have in the van and still haven't needed to buy anything yet other than food, although a long handled broom or mop that collapses down would save our backs using the half pan & brush a few times a day, will be packing one when we get back.  We have under estimated the dirt and dust and don't have enough  cleaning stuff to get us through the whole trip, lucky I have a few contacts!!