Starting the day with a ride out to the port. Disused cattle loading yards, disused mineral ore loading sheds and gantry and a closed cafe but a new picnic shed. As at Wyndham there is a huge tidal rise and fall at Derby to the extent that ships serving the port were specially designed to site on the mud at low tide which fortuitously gave enough time to unload/load the ship before the tide came in.

A bit of shopping, more washing of clothes, some eating of icecreams and in the afternoon another ride out to the port to compare tide in with the morning tide out.

Derby is a town suffering loss of purpose as the tourist centre of Broome 230 km south-west takes over a lot of its regional functions. So it is surprizing that Derby has an excellent off road bicycle path. Be careful using it at night as saltwater crocodiles might come up the creeks.

The cattle had a less appealing chute to run them up to the ship. Apparently the bush bulls were fierce fighters and needed to be contained as much as possible.

I also took time to stagger the half kilometre up to the Derby District Hospital where the doctor said (see day 6) ‘Oh, this is interesting ‘ as he diagnosed the blocked popliteal artery. On the side while waiting for the doctor to do a telephone consultation with the vascular specialist at Royal Perth Hospital, the nurse measured my blood pressure to fill in time. Systolic at 189 mm Hg was a new personal record. Doc not impressed. It was back at 135 mm after a few days rehydration, restarting the blood pressure tablets and easing of the physiological stresses of the ischaemia in my leg.