The World of Kevin
We’re on holiday here at Cable Beach Broome! We arrived on Thursday after a four hour flight from Melbourne to Perth and then two hours from Perth to Broome. David chose this destination for our holiday because this month ( the 21st actually) we are celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary, which is known as a “Pearl Anniversary” so here we are at the home of the South Sea Pearl.
The apartment here at The Frangipani Resort is really nice with an unusual twist. The shower room is actually outside and we get to shower under the stars or in full daylight - whatever.... any way on our first night here DH went off for necessary supplies, toothpaste, bread, fruit, champers.... and I thought I’d try out the shower. I was not alone - was most surprised to see my shower buddy ready and waiting on the tap! But he was little and even though he was quite obviously taking in the scenery I decided he looked harmless enough.
Went out for a wander around the resort during the evening and found some more cute froggies. In this first photo I had just touched him (to see what he felt like) and the look he is giving is rather startled I think.
That was Thursday.
Friday and another beautiful warm day. The flowers and foliage around the resort are beautiful.
Took a drive down to the Broome Port this morning. It’s more industrial over this side but still very picturesque. The colour of the water is really very intense.
Into the town of Broome and a leisurely stroll around the pearl jewellery shops. Not sure exactly what I want yet but apparently I’ll know when I see it. In the first shop I tried on a string of beautiful pearls and they looked magnificent but DH wouldn’t fork out the $48,000 for them.... LOL. In another shop saw some even more magnificent strings for even more magnificent prices up to $130,000! and I am sure if I had looked harder I would have found even higher priced pearls. Very enlightening. I have always loved pearls and really each and every one I saw today took my breath away. The most prized pearls, I understand, are those that are as round as possible. This trend is driven by the asian market. Personally (and luckily as it turns out) I have always really liked the baroque pearls and they are quite a bit less in price. I like their kind of funky chunky look. After a morning looking at all these pearls my head is spinning .....
Lunch at a restaurant looking over Cable Beach.
Returned to the beach just before sunset so we could see the sun go down. It is like an open theatre atmosphere with so many people all standing and watching this fantastic light show.
Saturday and today we are going to tour the Wille Creek pearl farm.
We drove ourselves to the farm (there was an option to be picked up by bus and driven).... well I am very thankful that we have a four wheel drive vehicle as we had quite a jaunty journey.... we were driving on roads right in the middle of mud flats and they looked wet...... and amidst signs warning of flooding and crocodiles in season... luckily not this season. The signs told us to follow the “red dots” to get to the farm (with one detour because part of the route was under mud).
Was pleased to see Willie Creek farm at last..... and..... the signs that warned not to go too near the beach alone because of crocs and to watch out for falling coconuts. What! there are crocs here and we are doing a boat trip in croc infested river.... but wait - it’s OK only one croc apparently (how do they know for sure) and we probably wont see him as he is seldom around (saw him TWICE).
The tour started with a very interesting talk on the oyster’s anatomy and how he is farmed and I was really surprised how much work (not just by the oyster) but by so many people goes into pearl farming. Really the prices are starting to look very fair (dangerous thought). These oysters are tended to regularly starting with inserting the base of what will hopefully be a pearl into the oyster and then rotating the shell under the sea every couple of days and then x-raying them to make sure that the pearl base has not been rejected and then leaving them but for every couple of weeks when the shells have to be cleaned and trimmed of barnacles and worms and other things that might muck up this little pearl factory. I think the price is perhaps more than fair..........
see the lovely little pearl in the oyster below straight from those clever clever oysters
The Jetty at Willie Creek Farm oysters ready for de barnacling (is that a word) and deworming
Yep definitely needing a bit of TLC and back to the jetty
And to the showroom.........
now we had decided we were not going to buy our pearls until Monday (anniversary day) but that flew out the window in about the first few minutes here at the Willie Creek pearl showroom and I am now the proud owner of a beautiful string of 33 South Sea baroque pearls and two matching pearl ear studs.... and two very beautiful and not yet made up pearls .... one for Claire and one for Ella.....so pleased to be ahead with their 18th birthday presents.... LOL
Sunday
I hate sandflies! They are just loving me and my ankles are well and truly a sight.... sigh..... guess there has to be one little problem wth this tropical paradise. What is especially annoying is that they don’t even bother with David - just straight for me so he has not even one bite! Went into Broome this morning to do the Pearl Luggers Tour. It was so interesting to hear what the shell and oyster divers at the turn of the twentieth century went through. Shocking to hear too that the merchants and owners of the luggers used to force the indigenous population (including children and pregnant women ) to dive for the shells - going to some amazing devpths and for equally amazing lengths of time... extraordinarily cruel.
Then came the Asian divers who had to wear huge bulky clothes under huge bulky lead weighted cumbersome diving equipment - surprising that they could move enough to pick up an oyster. And then when the government decided that the Asian population was getting to like living here too much and getting a bit too settled and because of the “White Australia” policy there was the disastrous decision to bring in 12 British Royal Navy trained divers. Bought a book written about this actually whilst looking around the showroom before the tour. It is called “The White Divers of Broome” the true story of a fatal experiment by John Bailey. Looks very interesting.
Sunday, 20 May 2007
Pearler of a week!
