11th Sept

We finally arrived in Broome after a short hop (compared to previous hops) from Derby.
We booked in to the Roebuck Bay camping ground,a bit scruffy but right on the beach with great views.

It was cheaper than any at Cable Beach and closer to the water and Town as well. The beach is in the back ground and I went for a nice swim the day before we left and the next day the beach was closed because of a Croc sighting. I didn't think I looked like a Croc!!
We did the Camel down the beach at Cable Bay, as you do when you visit Broome and could hardly walk when we got off after half an hour. I hate to think what it would be like after the hour long ride. You would be walking like John Wayne for days after. They are very wide across the back those animals.

                                                             I think we got the pretty one!

 Its a long way down from up there and not very comfortable. I was riding shotgun and Helen did the driving!

                                                       Looking up the line.

                                                    No mistaking that silhouette
                              We hung around and got some good shots of the Camels at Sunset.

                          These are the sort of photos you see in all the Tourist brochures

The beaches up the West Coast have been inundated with these Tomato Jellyfish which made Cable Beach smell a bit fishy. As you can see there was thousands of them. I don't think they were of the stingy type but I wasn't taking any chances.

14th Sept
We did a trip to the Willie Creek Pearl Farm today and decided to save $50.00 each and drive out there rather than take the Tour bus. The road was interesting and very Red.

We finally arrived after a bumpy ride but nothing too serious. The temps were very high 44deg on the car thermometer. Made it a bit sickly but as long as you found some shade it wasn't too bad.
We were given a very informative lecture on the seeding of the Oysters to get them to produce up to 4 Pearls in their life time.

                            Part of the display at the shed where the lecture took place.
  From here we had Morning tea, Damper,Coffee or Tea and Biscuits then
 went  out in the Boat to look at the Naughty farm! These are the Oysters that don't seed, so they use them for making button Pearls. These are half round pearls grown on the shell and not in the gonads (ooh!) like the other Oysters. The actual Pearl Farm is about 20km off shore.
They use a small piece of shell from an Oyster from Mexico to seed the Oyster to start them making Pearls. They are cut into small cubes then put in a Gem tumbler to make them round, then put into the Oysters Gonad!! They have to hide it away otherwise a small Crab that lives in the Oysters shell will clean it out. The Oyster then coats it with a liquid that over 2 years makes the Pearl. This process can be done up to 4 times with each successive Pearl seed being bigger than the last one. They use this particular shell from Mexico because it shows up on an Xray when they check to see if they have fooled the little Crab. The last Pearl is normally the largest, but the success rate is only small for the last one,hence the price of the big Pearls is high. And no I didn't buy one for Helen though the $90,000 string of Pearls was tempting!

The Oysters are put in these frames and suspended in the Ocean for 2 years to grow the Pearls.
They are taken up every 14 days put through a high pressure wash then are manually cleaned of Barnacles and other sea growth. So if you want a job in the Tropics,on a ship 20km off the coast cleaning Oyster shells 10days on 5 days off for $1000.00 a week. Free board and food for a 12 hour day on a 8 week contract come up to Broome. We were not tempted.
More on Broome soon.
Cheers
Helen and David.