MAY 2019 : KIMBERLEY, WA : DAY 1 : DAMPIER PENINSULAR : Broome - Beagle Bay - One Arm Point - Cygnet Bay

All quiet at the Kimberley Klub at 6am. All 150 backpackers fast asleep.

A black kite perched on the hostel fence. These birds dart and glide all over the Kimberley.

Waiting in the cool for our 7am pick up.

Only half an hour into our journey we hit the Pindan or red dirt highway as we head north up the Dampier Peninsular, directly north from Broome.

First stop was Beagle Bay Aboriginal Community (Nyul Nyul people). The original community was established in 1838 and the present church was built in 1917 by German Trappist monks.

The Dampier Peninsular is famous for its pearl industry. The church is adorned with pearl shell.

Morning tea in the shade. There are 10 in our group. Two ladies from Sydney, originally friends growing up in Gulargambone NSW, a tradie from Perth, a young psychologist from Melbourne, a Brisbane couple leaving their camper trailer for two weeks, a couple from Sydney who have just completed a Darwin to Broome backpacker trip and us. 

The Beagle Bay community

More kites. Very intelligent birds who pick up burning sticks and light further fires to route out small creatures.

Then we visited the One Arm Point Community. Originally they harvested trochus shells for the production of pearl buttons.

With the introduction of plastic buttons the industry folded. Now they polish up the shells for sale.

The guide entertained us with fish feeding.

Clown fish

Turtles

Clams

Poison stone fish

Frog fish 

Lunch on the shore

Our dynamic guides, Luke and Storm

The rushing tide

Mark created a crocodile sculpture

Our public first loo. 0/10. Hopefully they improve.

Arriving in Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm. A very impressive operation begun by the Brown family in the 1940s. The cafe and restaurant with real coffee.

Complete with infinity pool

A boat trip on a Sealegs boat adapted to cope with the extreme tides on King Sound

Our illustrious group bumping on the waves for a two hour cruise

This is an algae reef and drains at a furious rate due to the giant tides

Fake killer whales - an unusual sight in the Sound

Sunset

A permanent Kimberley Wild camp set up in the Cygnet Bay Pearling Resort

M&M

MAY 2019 : BROOME, WA

Our Australian adventure this year is to The Kimberley in North-western part of the country. We have booked a two week cultural/walking tour with Kimberley Wild, a local WA company. We flew from Sydney directly to Broome.

Leaving Sydney and the eastern coast

It was not long that we had left the green coast and the Great Dividing Range that the desert country with its salt lakes appeared below for most of the journey.

Arriving in the small town of Broome on the western coast of Australia. In the wet season it has a population of 14,000 but during the peak season, May-September, it has 300,000 visitors.

Our backpacker hostel was 10 minutes walk from the airport.

We have a basic double - share bathroom. It is full. 150 backpackers, all about 25. There is a pool but no way I’m getting in with my black Speedos amongst all these ravishing girls in their bikinis.

We’ve spent the last day and a half exploring the township. There is some excellent indigenous art being sold on behalf of distant communities.

One section of Broome is called Chinatown with many cafes, restaurants and the main commercial centre. Along Jimmy Chi Lane there were signboards listing Broome’s aboriginal past, the influence of island migrants from the north, the coming of the Chinese for trading, the Japanese for early whaling and then as pearl divers, the colonial push and the disappointment that the hopes for Broome as a thriving northern city weren’t realised.

Street art. Broome is home to many species of birds.

We had hoped to go to the open-air cinema but ran out of time. It holds a dark past with its segregation policy during the White Australia era.

A scaled model of the cinema in the Museum.

We walked about 20 minutes to the Museum. A voluntary organisation but full of excellent displays and fascinating historical information.

Chinese rickshaw

The range of languages spoken in early Broome day’s

For thousands of years pearls have been harvested in this region

One of the reasons Broome proved to be an unsuitable permanent settlement was the perishing weather and Broome’s susceptibility to cyclones. It was also isolated and very exposed, as was found when it was bombed by the Japanese during WW2. Broome was named after the 1880’s Western Australian governor. When he realised that Broome would not be the thriving metropolis he expected he tried to have his name removed but the Surveyor-General, John Forrest, refused his request.

The Kimberley coast has a pre-historic dinosaur past, with footprints found as nearby as Cable Beach.

The Chinese cemetery 

Next door the Japanese cemetery, ordered and artistic. Many of these were divers who died from injuries or exploitation.

Boab trees line the streets

Their exquisite flowers

The nuts are large enough to be carved and the flesh is used as bush tucker

Lush flowers abound. Broome is situated on a subterranean aquifer, which provides a constant source of water.

Excellent meals today - breakfast and dinner at The Aarli, at the end of Frederick Street.

We had lunch at Zander’s at Cable Beach.

We became very adept at using the local bus service. $2 a trip for Seniors.

 Cable Beach warning

The long flat expanse of white sand, complimented by the azure ocean

Beach open and running

Rocks along the shore which hold dinosaur prints 

Sunset camel rides

Plovers join in the throng

Breathtaking sunset

Off on our bus tour early tomorrow morning.

M&M