Derby continued

One night at the Mud Crab Motel is enough! It’s only advantage is that it’s cheap! The rooms are basically dongas with ensuites. Last year I stayed at the Derby Lodge, but they are only taking bookings for two nights at a time, which is more than I needed in Derby. I spent a night disturbed by the loud ticking of the clock high up on my wall, till I finally got up and dug out my ear plugs!

The whole place is in need of a bit of maintenance. Apparently it’s leased out to a disabled man who obviously can’t keep on top of things. He gave me two wi-fi passwords, neither of which worked. This morning at 7.30 am I couldn’t unlock the gate to get out. A man appeared with a big bunch of keys and said he was the owner and lived in South Perth! He was dressed in a paint spattered shirt and tatty jeans and said all the keys were from other properties he owned in Derby.

After breakfast I got away and drove down to the wharf again, just to see how much the tide had come in:

… compared with yesterday afternoon:

At 9.00 am there was a lot of activity down there. An episode of a local comedy soap was being filmed. There was a crew of at least 20 and they were filming a fight between two indigenous guys, who had to do it again and again:

They didn’t want me to get any nearer with my iPhone.

I went for a walk along the jetty and chatted to some people from an Outback Spirit tour group. I had seen them yesterday at Mowanjum. They were having to fly to their next destination, Mount Hart, because the Gibb River Road is closed after all the rain. I’m not sure how their vehicle will catch up with them.

My next port of call was the Norval Gallery. There was a big display of paintings for sale, plus a number of Mark Norval’s own personal collection:

Samantha Wungundin-Allies

Milky Way Wandjina. $1300

Mark encourages local artists to come and work in his studio or in the garden outside. Today there were only a couple, because of the poor weather:

This man is working on a dot painting with very small dots.

The gallery also has a large collection of Boab nut carvings.

Info about these at the Visitors Centre.

Two of Mark’s own paintings.

Owl in the Boab 

Charcoal pencil and aquarelle on silk paper