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Published: October 16th 2009
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Day 169 - Broome
Up with the lark, well in this case the Butcherbird! It looks like it will be another beautiful day in Broome.
We watched the Sharkwater DVD this morning before breakfast, what a shocker that is. It’s very well done and sends an extremely powerful message about the abhorrent trade of shark finning, it really is foul. This was all filmed with the help of the the international marine wildlife conservation group Sea Shepherd which is captained by Paul Watson. He and his crew valiantly fight for the rights of the ocean and the creatures living within it. If it wasn’t for them shark finning would have remained legal or at least ‘ignored’ within areas like Costa Rico and the Galapagos. Sharks are at the top of the food chain within the ocean world and that’s the way Mother Nature intended it however if this sort of butchery continues how long will it be before the balance shifts and the ocean world as we know it changes forever. Despite their unpopularity as a species, sharks don’t deserve the slaughter they are subjected to in the name of soup - how ludicrous. The film was produced without
copyright so can be shared easily and cheaply, try and watch it if you have the time and then sign the petition which is hoping to get the practise banned altogether.
And climbing down from the high horse …..
We had every intention of playing cricket down on the beach this morning but got carried away with a quick visit into the town. We needed some more stamps and then popped in to Woolworths for supplies, then needed to fill up with fuel and by that time we’d pretty much missed the game.
There’s more to Broome than initially meets the eye and this morning we uncovered the inner depths of Chinatown with its pearling memorabilia and exquisite shops! We visited the diver’s monuments and the restored Pearl Luggers before popping into a couple of the boutiques to see if there was anything on ‘special’! Well you never know your luck do you! We were very well received in one particular shop, Kallis which is renowned for the finest Australian south sea pearl jewellery. The lovely assistant talked us through some of the pearling process and showed us some very fine jewels. The first, a string of
Keishi pearls was valued at $14,500 and the second looked so fine I wouldn’t let her remove it from the locked glass cabinet!! Keishi pearls are formed when the host mollusc rejects the implant and the pearl forms outside of the sac. These pearls are not round but are instead all different shapes and sizes, two will probably never be the same. The perfect and rarer pearls are round but only a small percentage of farmed pearls make it to this shape and the high prices certainly reflect that fact! We left with only the advertising booklets but there will be plenty of others willing to go home with pearls of some kind or another.
We check out Streeters Jetty which was built for the luggers to use back in the day, it’s a tiny jetty so makes you realise how things have changed over the years. On our wander back towards the car we find a music shop which just happens to have a cheap guitar for sale, the lad who’s working in the shop actually describes it as a ‘cheap and nasty’ guitar! Interesting sales technique! It’s not tuned so he calls a mate in to do
it for him and I have a bit of a pluck at the back of the shop! It is a bit twangy to be honest but if we can’t find another then we might come back and check it out again.
Another quick stop at Sun Pictures, the very picturesque open air cinema in the centre of town where we were just in time to look around before a tour guide came and closed the doors! Such a shame when that happens but at least we managed a quick peek at the memorablia and got a sit in the deck chairs!
Finally we get back to camp after what was meant to be a quick pop into town for stamps! It suddenly occurs to me that today will be our last chance for a camel ride along Cable Beach. It’s one of the must do things when in Broome!
There are three different companies running camel rides and to make things really easy for us tourists each set has different coloured blankets under the saddles, red, turquoise or black and gold. We manage to get a ride with the black and gold team, the Ships on the
Desert and rather than the 1hr $60 sunset option we’ve opted for the much more reasonably priced 30 minutes $20 ride!
We very excitedly head off down to the beach on our bikes so that we’re nice and early and can hopefully get a couple of good humps! We’re greeted by the lovely Jess, one of the handlers, and she is very welcoming and introduces us to the herd who are all sitting on the sand patiently waiting for today’s jockeys! It turned out that there were enough camels for us to have one each so I opted to ride Apollo and Darryl picked out Zara who was just behind.
We climb onto the seats atop the camels back and then we’re thrust skyward when their 2.15 metre high body (to the hump) stands up! It’s a great view and the best seat in the house right now! It’s a really comfy walk, so easy to relax and take in the scenery. We have a good laugh trying to take photos, very funny when you’re sitting on something that lollops quite a lot!
Darryl had picked the only female from the herd, Zara and she is very
much the leading lady only she is third in the line up and therefore spends much of her time by my side as she tries to get ahead! All the other camels follow her too so it makes us wonder why she’s not tethered up at the front because that’s where she clearly wants to be! Apollo, my trusty stead, is a very well trekked camel. He’s trekked to the most easterly point of Australia at Cape Byron and also the most westerly point, Steep Point. The owner of Ships of the Desert has always been a huge camel fan and was only 13 when he got his first one, he’s since trekked much of Australia with them and some of his camels were used in the filming of the recent ‘Australia’ movie!
Our time is up and we stand in line waiting for the camels to sit back down on the sand which they will either do on command or on their own accord! It’s quite a giggle when they do because you’re suddenly thrust at a 65 degree angle for a moment so if you’re not holding on you’re heading straight for the sand! It was great
fun, we’d highly recommend you try it out, the team were just gorgeous too. A big thank you to Jess for running around with our camera for us!
There’s still time for a wander along the beach as the sun starts to come down but we have been invited to a BBQ tonight so quickly head back to get our stuff.
We had a great laugh with all the different families who came to the BBQ, the connection is the Elliotts who have hooked up with such a lot of people on their journey so far. We ended up having a touch rugby game in front of the café, in the dark! It went very well for the team that we weren’t on!!
Another beautiful day ends here in Broome and we hope for a good nights sleep in the caravan for tomorrow night we’re back in the tent in some remote area on the Dampier Peninsula!
Love to all
Dar and Sar
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Clive
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Kimberley
Hi Guys, Its mad at the moment how close you are to one of my best mates ..lol.. Hes out in kimberely with some conservation group doing species recognition and collecting data on an area thats not been surveyed yet. Apparently it was and old cattle station years and years ago? As far as Im aware they are living under canvas so if you see a tent and the only guy with a sheffield accent thats him ...pmsl! Loving the updates :o) and still very envious! PS Hey shag got me a new land rover discovery well old but new to me ..lol.. with rock sliders the lot, the lift kit and winch going on this weekend :o)