Thursday 23 August – Well it seems we are finally getting used to the time zone as this morning we slept till almost 7.30.  And though there was a bit of an early morning sea mist, it cleared quite quickly and stayed away all day.  So after a leisurely start to the day, our first port of call was the hospital where Grant had to have another blood test – this time a good number, so he has to have another one in 5 or so days to make sure the dosage is continuing to do the right thing.  From there we went to the Visitors Centre and booked a couple of tours – one for today and one for tomorrow, then went to Chinatown to have a look around.  This is a very old part of Broome, with old style, small shops, and a real Chinatown feel to it.  We strolled around, first going to the Sun Pictures building which you’ll hear more about tomorrow, then just wandering along the streets and down the laneways seeing what there was to see. 

The Sun Pictures building.

We found an ice-cream shop that sold mango smoothies, so of course that was a definite stopping point – and the smoothie was yummy.  We returned to the caravan at lunchtime and had some lunch, then sat out enjoying the beautiful afternoon until mid afternoon when we went back into the town (about 5 minutes drive) to do the pearl lugger tour.  They have two early pearl luggers fully restored right in the town, so we were there at the designated time and soon were under the spell of a delightful young Irishman Chris, who was conducting the tour.

He was very, very funny – in the way that only an Irishman can be funny, as well as extremely informative and kept everyone (20 of us) completely captivated as he told the story of the origins and development of the pearling industry in Broome.  It was a tough life, and it didn’t change until the 1970’s when technology started to have an impact.  At the end of the hour session, he invited us to take turns putting our head into the 25lb diver’s helmet and have our photo taken.  Well guess what!!  Grant had a go, I took the photo and then he couldn’t get his head out!  When we called to Chris that he was stuck he made a joke of it before coming over and giving Grant some ‘getting out’ strategies, which fortunately worked!!

From there we went into the showroom where he showed us what is believed to be the second biggest pearl in the world, and we had a hold of it, too.

Once the tour was over, Grant and I drove out to Cable beach to watch the sunset which was beautiful.  As I mentioned earlier, there was no sea mist tonight, so we saw the sun go down in all its glory.  The one thing that surprised us though, was that there was no camel train taking tourists along the beach.  I thought this was a nightly event, but apparently not.

We were back at the camp by about 6.15, after another day full of interest, heat and relaxation.