Balakera stayed at anchor at the mouth of Silver Gull Creek as we went further upstream in Balakerette to the freshwater tanks and to visit Mal and Shelly at the Squatters Arms.

Shelly made us morning tea and Mal took us for a tour of their rustic but idyllic homestead. We bathed in the water tank originally built by BHP to collect freshwater for the nearby Koolan Island mine.

We then had a wash in the outdoor shower before meeting the crew of another vessel, the Kimberley Moon, from Mandurah, Ron, Suzanne and Alan. They had trailered their 9 m motorboat up from Perth to Wyndham and were retrieving it at Derby prior to driving it home. We also filled up some jerrycans of freshwater to top up Baly’s tanks. Mal and Shelly were excellent hosts, they have the personalities that could make them good publicans, we left them a bottle of wine (some of Al’s great Marlborough Sounds white) and bought some souvenirs.

Back on Baly in the afternoon we were visited by the Kiehne family, from Karratha, Greg, Tricia, Will, Patrick and Abby. They invited us onboard their Seawind 1160