Friday 12^th September

We were transferred at 10.45am today to Cygnet Bay, a pearl farming and tourist resort. It was low key but more openly welcoming and friendly than Cape Leveque. We decided to do a boat trip to see the great tides and it was well worth it. An awesome experience of standing waves and whirlpools as the equinoctal tides of 10+ metres rush in between the islands of the Buccaneer Archipelago and hit the shallow part of the continental shelf. We needed the large engines our boat possessed as we drove through the water as the power of some of the whirlpools we passed alongside was tremendous.

After lunch we had a guided tour of the pearl farm and learnt how they culture the pearls (20,000 this last year). We then joined Roger’s tour which will take us back to Broome this evening via Cape Leveque. It was handy going back for a short while as I had left my mini torch and memory stick behind and was able to retrieve them.

We arrived at our B&B in Broome around 10pm and neither of us was hungry so we sorted ourselves out and went to bed.

Thursday 11^th September

Unfortunately the boat trip was cancelled yesterday because it was too windy but there is a possibility of going tonight if the wind doesn’t get up again. We went on a couple of hours ‘bush tucker’ walk with a local aboriginal guide at 8.30am this morning – very interesting although it got quite hot. It was lovely in the water again. We are joining forces with Alan and Cathy for a Barbie this evening but had an excellent lasagne for lunch as we had missed breakfast.

We were able to have our sunset cruise this evening and although the waves were quite exciting at the start it soon quietened down and we had a great sighting of a mother and baby humpback whale as we were coming back.

Wednesday 10^th September

We slept well after I had discovered a centipede (millipede?) tickling my arm and tossed it out. We ambled up the cliffs to breakfast around 9am and Iain and Alan organised for a bush tucker walk at 8.30am tomorrow morning and a boat trip at 4pm today. It was hot but we soon cooled off with a swim or several at the beach which is very near to our cabin. There is a slight breeze and it is very pleasant sitting on our shaded verandah watching birds and lizards and writing the diary. We had a good dinner at the restaurant which was very welcome as we hadn’t had lunch

Tuesday 9^th September

We had to get up early this morning as we were being collected at 6.45am to go to Cape Leveque for three days. We were awake at 6am so Iain had time to open his cards and present. Margaret had put some fruit, sausage, bacon, tomato and bread together so that we could eat breakfast on the way. This was very welcome as we didn’t get lunch until 2.30pm. Roger Chomley, who runs these trips, was a fount of knowledge about the area and the aboriginals and never stopped talking whilst driving his landrover over incredibly rutted and uneven tracks with consummate ease! There were eight of us on the trip but only four of us are staying over at the Cape. We briefly visited Beagle Bay aboriginal community and saw their church, built by German missionaries and beautifully decorated with pearly shells inside.

We then drove to Cygnet Bay area to go mud crabbing. This involves putting on reef shoes and wading down a creek past mangroves as the tide slowly comes in. It was really lovely; clear water and cool, without being cold. We had metal hooks to grab the crabs with and were accompanied also by an Aboriginal guide, Vincent, who lived nearby and has helped Roger with these trips for six years. Vincent had already caught two and, after finding one crab early on, we didn’t have too much luck so we only had four crabs for lunch. Roger had obviously anticipated this and had chicken and salad a plenty! We lit a small fire and Vincent cooked the crabs (from live, which was a bit gruesome). They tasted sweet and very good.

We then drove to another aboriginal community, Lombardina which is more self sufficient than some, and took a quick look at their bush church and craft shop. Following this we drove to Cape Leveque where he left the trailer and let down the tyres a bit before driving on the sand to the Eastern Bay where we could swim. The tide was out so far that only a couple bothered to get out far enough (including Iain of course!) and I just sat in the shallows to cool off! We then drove around to the Western Bay which is much rockier, with red sandstone cliffs, where we had a cup of tea. Roger comes prepared with hot water in large thermos flasks as well as some camping chairs so it is quite comfortable. He then dropped Alan and Cathy and ourselves off at our accommodation before driving everyone else the three hours back to Broome. A long day for Roger and his passengers, and he’s back again tomorrow! It was an interesting and somewhat challenging walk in the dark (although we had a torch) to the restaurant as we are quite a way away. The restaurant was only doing fish supper takeaways as there was a large corporate function on but we enjoyed battered snapper and chips with a glass of red wine. It is BYO so we had bought a couple of bottles the previous evening on our way to the restaurant. We get on well with Alan and Cathy and are intending to do a couple of trips with them and barbecue together on our last night here. They sell prepared packs of meat or fish, with potatoes and salads that you take away and cook.

Monday 8^th September

It is just over 600Km to Broome, much of it through rather boring scrubland plains. We took it in turns of an hour or so and stopped at a couple of Roadhouses (Aussie equivalent of a service station) for coffee and a snack. We found our way relatively easily to Broome airport only to find no-one in the Hertz office. There was a phone however, and we were told to leave the key in the letter box once we’d parked up and emptied the car. They didn’t seem at all fazed by the need to replace the windscreen – I thought it would be a load of paperwork!

Margaret from the B & B came to collect us which was very kind of her and we have a nice room in her lovely house with the shared use of a sitting room/kitchen with the three other guestrooms.

It took quite a while to pack up our excess baggage that we will send off to Darwin by post to await our arrival as our trip around the Kimberleys has a baggage limit. We then had a fifteen minute walk to where Margaret and Doug suggested we go for dinner. This was a restaurant called Eighteen Degrees (south of the equator) which serves sharing plates, rather like tapas; which were absolutely delicious. We had crispy shrimp cake, barramundi parcels and scallops, all with wilted greens – yummy!