Today we got
on our scooters and rode into the town of Broome to look around. Broome is famous for its pearling
industry.
We went on a walk on a
historic jetty called Streeters Jetty.
The jetty was used for unloading the pearl shell.
In the old
days the pearl divers wore old diving suits and fossicked for pearl shell on
the sea bed. I had my photo taken inside
one of the helmets. It smelled like the
sea inside it.
After that we went to
China Town and I saw an Indigenous man playing a didgeridoo and I gave him some
money. He was very good at playing the
didgeridoo.
After we
finished walking around China Town we had a look at the town of Broome and we
had a look at a pearl shop. It was
really beautiful and had lots of rings, pearls, necklaces and earrings. While we were at the shop they gave an
information session on Broome and pearling. We sat down and
listened to the man. He said that pearl
shell was bred on a farm and he showed us how to get the pearl out of the shell
and when he got the shell open, inside it looked disgusting! The man showed us how to pick out a nice
pearl to buy. The price of the pearl
depends on how shiny it is, its size, its shape and whether it has any marks on
it.
 |
| The pearl inside the pearl shell |
 |
| Me looking at different coloured pearls |
 |
| The world's largest best quality round pearl |
While we
were having lunch near Roebuck Bay I saw a man cutting down coconuts and I
asked him “why are you cutting down the coconuts?” and he said “because they
are yummy!” and he asked me if I would like one and I said “YES PLEASE!”
 |
| View of Roebuck Bay from the park |
 |
| Boab tree in the park where we had lunch |
After lunch
we rode to Cable Beach which is where the old telegraph cable came across to
Australia from Asia. I had a real treat
because I went camel riding.
When I got
on my camel I had to lean back to stop myself falling over the front of my
camel as it got up. My camel’s name was
Zoran. The camel train went right along
Cable Beach and back. The beach was
beautiful and had lots of nice shells on the sand. It was REALLY REALLY FUN!
 |
| Cable Beach |
 |
| This camel was groaning and getting cranky when two big people got on him. It was really funny! |
The next day
we went back into Broome to see an old convent where the Sisters of St John of
God looked after Aboriginal children that were taken from their parents in the
old days. I think it was really sad that
the children were taken by the Government!
I saw lots of photos of the Sisters and the children’s lives at the
convent.
After seeing
the convent we went to the Broome Museum and saw a big old pearl diving
suit. I also saw a big decompression
chamber which was used to help the divers who had become sick from diving deep
and coming to the surface too fast. This
causes sickness and sometimes death for the divers. The chamber forced oxygen into the diver’s
blood and removed nitrogen which was making them sick.
 |
| Rock formations near the Port at Broome |
In another
part of the museum there was lots of military artillery and I read about the
Japanese attacking Broome. I had my
photo taken with a big machine gun. It
was the tail gun from a plane. I thought
the museum was fantastic!
Later in the
day we went down to the port and saw big cargo ships unloading big
containers. We then went down onto the
beach where there were massive big orange rock formations. I climbed all over them. I also kept falling into rockpools which was
very annoying and uncomfortable.
Just before
sunset we drove to Cable Beach to see the sunset over the ocean. The sun sets over the ocean because it is on
the west side of Australia.
 |
| Sunset over Cable Beach |
The
following day we left Broome and drove southwest heading towards Port
Hedland. On our way we drove through the
Gibson Desert. There were hardly any
bushes but just scrub and red dirt and messy red dirt termite mounds. These termites must be lazy because they look
scrappy! On the side of the road I also
saw a huge eagle eating a dead kangaroo.
At lunchtime
we decided to turn off the highway and go to Eighty Mile Beach. We went for a walk about 3 kilometres down
the beach. The sand was pure white and
the water was aqua blue. Nan collected
lots of shells and Pop found a mummified dead baby shark. It was very cool but really stinky! I threw it into the ocean before Nan could
take a photo.
 |
| Eighty Mile Beach |
We are now
at Port Hedland which is a big iron ore mining town. Port Hedland also produces salt. We drove past large salt pans which are the
areas where the sea water dries out leaving the salt behind. I saw the salt coming out of a shoot into a
massive pile. There were also salt
trucks going up and down the road carrying salt to the port to load onto the
ships.
Last night
we went to a lookout and I saw the huge iron ore ships through a
telescope. I could see men on the ship
and I think I saw the captain because he was wearing a captain’s hat.
That’s all
for now. Till next time goodbye :)
