Beautiful Beaches in Broome

There were hundreds of these red jellyfish

Our first day in Broome was a designated – and much needed – rest day. We did not drive anywhere at all. The kids cheered at that news! The day was spent peacefully reading and doing our own thing. Ella spent ages making presents for Marcus for his impending birthday, including drawing and colouring wombat (his favourite animal) wrapping paper. We ventured over to beautiful Cable Beach to go swimming. Red sand hills meet dazzling white beaches, lapped by the sparkling turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean - but the billions of bloody red jellyfish stung and we exited rapidly from the water! They miss that little addendum on the tourist brochures! However, the sunset was glorious over Cable Beach.

Next morning we went to have a look around Broome, following a stop at the information centre for a map. We visited the Japanese Cemetery where 919 pearl divers are interred, most of whom died from the bends. There were memorials to the hundreds of others lost at sea during storms and cyclones. We were relying on Jackson and Marcus to interpret the Japanese script on the headstones for us, but all they managed to recognise was a number 10 and pu (pronounced poo, and obviously the reason they remembered)!

Lachie's Dream Job!

Lachlan was keen to explore the jetty ("Can we go fishing now?" ... "How about later?") so we wandered out along the long and very high jetty. Ella was terrified as the walkway was open grid and we were up about 8 metres from the water.

Ella is not keen on the jetty!

We are considering these for the next
round of school shoes!

Next stop was The Pearl Luggers where we were given a comprehensive history of pearl diving in an air-conditioned museum. Both were enjoyed! Fascinating details of the divers' lives were illustrated with authentic articles including complete diving suits - woollen underwear, pee bottle (the suit took an age to put on, so bathroom breaks were performed inside the contraption!), rubberised suit, weighted boots, bell helmet and weights. Fully kitted up, the divers were carrying 150-200 kgs. The kids were excited to be able to try on most of the gear - they couldn't even walk in the boots!

We said don't come back without pearl!

I was excited to be chosen to model the $7500 pearl necklace for our group. Jackson kindly pointed out later that I was the only woman there under 75! Our guide also showed us a large pearl worth $100 000, which the kids weren't game to swallow (despite our urging!) as Jock told us what happened to the pearl divers who swallowed pearls. Suffice to say it would have been a long wait on the beach!

Two Pearlers!

On Saturday morning, we still had not had any reply from our busking enquiries, so we decided to walk along the beach instead. It was a lively 6 km walk out to the Gantheaume Point as on the beach we saw sea snakes, crabs and hundreds of red jellyfish. We had crab and snail races while Dave went back to get the van to drive around to see the lighthouse.

"Puhleese can we go fishing?" asked Lachie for the thousandth time. He had changed into camo shorts and a blue shirt so the fish couldn't see him! We went fishing to the deepwater port and its fantastic jetty. It was all very exciting as huge trevally and grouper were swimming in on the tide and creating havoc breaking fishing lines as we arrived. One guy told us that there was a grouper the size of his girlfriend's Rav-4 down there! Another reckoned that one caught there last year filled up the back of a ute and had its tail on the road. Tall tales and true! We soon had our new handreels wet and Ella and Marcus started fishing together. Dave observed that we were really just feeding the fish prawns as our bait kept disappearing with monotonous regularity. Suddenly it was action stations - Ella was calling for help and the boys all keenly helped her haul a huge fish up from the waters far below. As her fish was pulled out of the water, a metre long tuna rushed in to take a bite from it! She had caught a snub-nosed dart, which was the size of a dinner plate. One of the local fishermen was very impressed and told Ella that people drive for hundreds of miles to catch a fish like that. We didn't tell him that we've driven 14 000 kilometres!

Ella was quaking in terror on this jetty yesterday!

Ella had to call in some grunt to get the fish 7 m from the
water to the jetty!

So with dinner organised, we headed back to camp to cook it. We can assure you that snub-nosed darts are delicious!

Stay tuned ...