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Today was the start of the Broome to Darwin tour. We had already met our tour guides Nick and Rich as they were staying at the same hostel as us, and we were travelling with the same group from the Perth to Broome leg of the journey, so there was no need for introductions this morning, instead it was straight on with the job of packing the bus. This bus is a little larger than the last in terms of size of the vehicle as it needs to be able to deal with the dirt roads that cover much of the area we'll be exploring, but there is less luggage space and we are also carrying all our swags with us, so it was a tight squeeze to get all the luggage on the bus and three were a couple of bags that had to be squeezed into the two spare seats on the bus too.
Once all packed up we headed North out of Broome and soon encountered one of the dirt tracks. We had been warned it would be a bumpy ride but I think we had underestimated just how bumpy as we and our bags jumped around
in the back of the bus. But we soon learned to watch for when Nick or Rich braced themselves with their hands on the ceiling at the front of the bus and we followed suit.
We had a light rain shower the previous evening in Broome, but we were now heading out a peninsula where the rain shower had been a rain storm so we found ourselves making our way through some deep puddles that covered the dirt track in a couple of places. Nick and Rich decided the bus was looking too clean as it had been for its pre-tour clean the previous day and so doubled back on one of the puddles to rises rice through at speed - the bus was showered from roof to wheels in red muddy water!
The first stop was at Beagle Bay where there is a church built by Lutherans, and decorated inside with Pearl shells. Nick told us how the local Aboriginal women were being kidnapped and made to dive for Pearls as women can hold their breath longer than men. They would also try to ensure that the women were pregnant as pregnant women can hold their breath
longer than others. The Lutherans decided to settle in the area and try to protect the aboriginal women.
Once we had had a look around the church we had ANZAC biscuits with tea and coffee as it was ANZAC day. Ironically we had a beagle come and join the group whilst we enjoyed our tea and biscuits; he looked like he'd already eaten a box of cookies so Jo had to settle for giving him a pat.
Next it was a short drive to a hatchery which originated from the selling of Trochur shells. These shells are primarily used to make buttons on wedding dresses and the main buyer for the local business was an Italian fashion house. However in recent years the economic downturn had taken an affect and they have now branched into the tourist business.
They had a variety of fish and turtles in large pools next to the beach. We saw turtles and learnt that when they hatch if the sand is above 28 degrees, the majority of hatchlings will be female where as if the sand is below 28 degrees the majority will be male. They are also not able to breed
the turtles fully in captivity as the turtles will always return to the same beach to lay their eggs and so if they are in captivity and unable to reach that beach they will not lay eggs.
We also saw some Barramundi which gave us all a shock as the tour guide through a couple of food pellets in the water and the Barramundi leapt out the water to snatch the pellets from the surface with quite a splash. We learnt that the Barramundi are all born as males and change to females at 5years.
They also sold some jewellery that they made put if the Trochur shells and Jo took a liking to one of the bracelets but decided it would probably get broken on the journey, given that she had already broken her sunglasses that day.
We pulled into a Picnic spot overlooking the ocean just up the road where we had lunch, and we were all pleased to not see sandwiches on the menu as we were having hot dogs for lunch!
From here we drove to our Camp Site for the night at Cape Leveque which is where the Bardi people live
and have lived here for 7000 years. When the westerners arrived they decided that the lands was needed for a lighthouse and so claimed it for themselves - taking advantage of the Aboriginals lack of the term 'land ownership', however with changes in Australian law in recent years the land has been handed back to the Bardi people and they have now built a camp site alongside the beach.
Once we has unpacked and set up camp we went for a late afternoon swim - all keeping outer eyes out for Irikange and Tiger Sharks. We had been given permission to swim in this bay as it was given the all clear for dangerous animals but that could change daily and there had been Irikange at Broome which wasn't far away!
We went down to watch sunset on the cliffs with a glass of wine before returning to camp for Barramundi and couscous for dinner and then climbed inside our mossie nets to get some sleep.
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