Derby

Well we hadn’t intended to go to Derby but MiniMo had other ideas.  We realised about a 120km from Broome that the odd Boab Tree was popping up and neither of us had seen them before.  I guess it was when we crossed the Fitzroy River that we realised MiniMo had disregarded the right hand turn onto the Great Northern Road as we drove out of Broome.  We still can’t get our heads around how it happened, however it was a wonderful diversion.  Derby proved to be a winner for us and the highlight was without a doubt the Mark Norval Gallery.  I will say more about this when I have reception but I’m back blipping this quickly as we have a little bit of reception at the Sandfire Road House where we’ve stopped to have breakfast.  We’re on our way to the Dampier Archipelago today and have a long 600 plus drive ahead of us.  This is an image of the artists studio where many wonderful Indigenous Artists also created their magic.  Please Call back for more news later as there’s a lot more to say about Derby :)
I noticed Mauzee had struck up a conversation with one of the Aboriginal artists who was sitting outside the studio with her paints and brushes and all set to paint.  Mauzee introduced me to Shirley Yoomarie and we ended up having a wonderful chat to this remarkable artist.  If you go to the link you will see her painting of the Wolf Creek Crater and a little bit about the painting.  We saw it in the gallery and it is truly magnificent.  Shirley was really lovely and seemed to enjoy telling us about her story.  We both felt very privileged to have met her and were sad when we had to say farewell.
Visiting the Mark Norval Gallery has definitely been one of the highlights of our trip so far.