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Published: August 8th 2007
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Caught up with Amanda’s Mum and Dad in Derby, and have been travelling with them for the last week. Which included travelling to Broome, complete with UHF communication blaring away. Much to our surprise, Amanda’s Mum managed to get us into the Cable Beach Caravan Park. This park has over 400 camp sites, about 70% of them can be booked - seven nights minimum, but the rest are for ‘drive up tourists’ that can only be booked on the day. So about 40km out of Broome we managed to get in for 4 nights, but had to be there within 1 hour otherwise the sites were gone. We then moved sites after a few days so we can now stay as long as we like. Caravan Parks here are busy, but only for 2 months of the year and we checked out the council park for the overflow-ees and it was packed today as well. It will only get worse as a large park up the road is closing this year and will become a new super tourist resort overlooking the beach. Oh well.
We finally managed to wash our car, not allowed to do it in Derby, there wasn’t
anywhere to wash it, not at a servo or anywhere. Good to get the mud off, but it still needs a very good clean but at least we don’t get the famed ‘Toyota Stripe’ across our legs from the mud and dust on the back bumper.
Broome is a nice town, very spread out. Bruce likens the town and the weather to his home, Tauranga and Mt Maunganui. Warm and humid in the day and cold at night with the humidity settling as dew on everything. Considering the town is seasonal and dependant on us tourists, accommodation here is very scarce with rentals going for $500+ per week for little more than a shack. They are also struggling for workers, with nearly every shop having help wanted signs in the door, but with no affordable accommodation there is a catch 22. Bruce has a nice story to tell anyone about what the locals think of this, for those willing, after being cornered in a store by the local owner who was whinging about the tourists. Around us in the ground, there are many small tents with seasonal workers jammed in, but they pay pretty much the same as we
do, so it can’t be that cheap to do it with most tent sites no bigger than the miniature tent. A quick checking into buying or building here was a little depressing with most land going for more than $240K and houses starting at around $650K. If you have the cash, now is the time to get in.
Have done the touristy things; Sunset on Cable Beach, and dinner at the restaurant on Cable Beach whilst watching the sunset - see the trend? Sunsets here are good, but not spectacular. They have camel rides along the beach, but we have given this one a miss. Also went to the pub to watch the 1st Bledisloe Cup rugby match and discovered that they served Pale Ale out of the tap. The least said about the several pints of Pale consumed and the total travesty of refereeing in the game, the better.
Did a tour of the Willie Creek Pearl Farm. Was very interesting to hear how the pearl industry started and how they are cultivated to get the very large pearls. Lots of manual labour goes into making pearls, from divers turning the shells, cleaning them, ‘Pearl Technicians’ inserting
Pearls Anyone
These are some of the pearls for sale at Willie Creek Pearl Farm. Bruce did not open his wallet for these ones. them with a seed, collecting the seeds and starting the process all over again. We did not get any free samples though. The Pearl Technicians can get paid up to $130,000 for 3 months work, and travel to other countries doing the same during each year. You then get a bonus for how many turn out to be good saleable pearls. To keep them in the industry, once you insert the seed into a pearl, it has to be the same technician to collect it, otherwise they do not get their bonus. This can take 2 years.
Have visited China Town, which is nice, but not as busy as everyone has mentioned. Saw staircase to the moon tonight, which happens when the moon rises on full moon over the Roebuck Bay Mud Flats at low tide, and has a staircase effect on the mud. Hundreds of people were there, would like to see how many of their photos turned out though, seen they all had the flash on. If you were unlucky enough not get a good shot, there are plenty of people selling the photos to you. There were also the dickheads that turned on lanterns and such as the sun went down which wrecked a lot of photo opportunities and caused a little stress here and there.
Also popped out to look at the Dinosaur footprints, but got the tides wrong and will need to go back at low tide. Tip for others.
Tried our luck at fishing in Broome today, got lucky when some kids alongside of us caught a Brim and did not want it. We did not even get a byte off of the jetty, will try another time.
With more stops that will be longer than our dual battery life for the fridge, we finally bit the bullet and invested in an 80watt solar panel that is capable of maintaining the charge on the battery as well as run the fridge. Will be testing it and will advise results.
Leaving here Thursday, as Bruce has a phone interview for a job in Adelaide earlier in the week. We will then head out to Cape Leveque for a week and there isn’t any coverage apparently.
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Steve
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Good to see you are "doing it tough!". Sounds like a wonderful trip. I'm so jealous. Am thoroughly enjoying your journal entries.... thanks heaps - wish I was with you to enjoy the big country. Take care