9th September 

We moved on from Fitzroy Crossing and made our way to Broome, before getting there we went into Derby to look at the famous boab prison tree that is said to have held prisoners on the way from Fitzroy Crossing to Broome, it is not known if this is true but what is known to be true was that this was a stopover for the prisoners, usually indigenous people that were held in chains and made to walk the distance from each place.  

  We have been in Broome just over a week but have been keeping it fairly easy as I have had an injury to my shoulder, let’s just say you don’t want to get an injury in Broome.

From the doctor to a chiropractor to the hospital and back to the chiropractor a few days later is not my idea of a holiday.

Anyway we have done a few things while we are here and expect to be here for another week.

Before my injury, we went on a double decker bus tour of the town and some of the places we might have a closer look at during the time we are going to be here. One of the more interesting places we saw and stopped at was the Japanese Cemetery, which holds many of the Japanese pearl divers that had died whilst collecting pearl shell in the early years of pearl farming for which Broome is famous for.

There were other points of interest along the way such as the churches of the area of which we visited the Catholic church later in the week, and the local prison which is right in the middle of town, it appears that the prison was built first and was out of town first and the town has been built around it.

On the 5^th September we went on a fishing charter. We were picked up at 7.30am and taken to the beach area where we were ferried out to the boat that would take us out to where we were to catch our fish for the day, this was a mixed success day as for the first hour I was not very well but after this the fish started coming, as soon as we put our lines in the water we were pulling them in again. We were able to bring home five good size fish but we put back at least 50. We also seen a pod of whales and dolphins in the distance, all in all it was a good day.

We had a day rest on this day we went to Ganthium Point to try to find the dinosaur foot prints that were in the area and could only be viewed when the tide was really low, we could not find them and after reading the some info on them we found out they were not easy to find but we still found the area very pretty and even had a walk along this part of the beach. 

Then we went on another 4WD tour, this one was to Cape Levique, a very beautiful part of this area.  Our first stop was to Beagle Bay, where we were able to take a look at a church that was built by some catholic monks with the help from the indigenous people in the area using materials from the area. The alter inside the church was made from mother of pearl and the history surrounding the church was very interesting.

 We stopped off at Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm. Here we had a guided tour of how  pearl farming has evolved through the years, from collecting the shells mainly for the mother of pearl and then how pearls were made by inserting a small piece of another shell was placed inside a live shell then placed back into the sea for 2 years so as a pearl could grow. As they also raise the shells to harvest the pearls the period of time between growing the shell large enough to take the implant and harvesting the pearl is 7 years. This farm has been in the same family since its start for three generations. After a lovely lunch it was onto the next destination an aboriginal community that had become fairly self sufficient in that they had set up a few business ventures off their own one being a shell farming operation where they are farming these shells that they can use in many different ways.  One of the ways is to collect the meat inside and sell it off and then polish the shells themselves and sell these as well. The other is a camping venture, they have set up deluxe tents throughout the area to take advantage of the views over the ocean and rent these out to tourists who want to get away for a few days. This is a very popular spot and booking way ahead is essential.

Our day ended with a swim in a quiet bay close by followed by afternoon tea and the sun setting in the horizon, great day. We would recommend this tour to anyone visiting this area.