On Monday 22nd August at 7 a.m. we were picked up from our campsite by Chomley Tours to visit Cape Leveque, about 200 kms north of Broome. This was a large splurge for us but something we really wanted to do. Unfortunately the first 100 kms was dirt and very corrugated and sandy, therefore we thought better not to try the trip on our own. There were 13 of us on the tour but there was sufficient leg room for us.
Our first stop was Beagle Bay, and it's famous church. The alter was decorated with pearl shells and if you look really closely you can see two large pearls which form the stem of the urn. The boys weren't really excited by the church but that soon changed when we had morning tea and set off to visit a pearl farm
The Reidy's and in the background Cygnet Bay pearl farm. Cygnet Bay pearl farm is 100% Australian owned and run and has been running for over 30 years. We conducted our tour and learnt that this little outfit competes with only one other major competitor which is owned by the Japanese. It harvests about 70 thousand pearls a year. The boys did enjoy the tour but there was more to come. Staff live at the complex and are rationed 3 beers a day and are feed like kings as the cleaning of pearl shells is a regular and physical job. The complex also has 3 full time chefs as a result.
Sue was very impressed with the pearls, this necklace priced at a lazy $15,000.00. I politely told Sue that she was "dreaming". After the tour we sat down for lunch in the outdoor cafe. We ate a fantastic lunch which the boys polished off with much determination.
Our next visit was to Cape Leveque's Trogus hatchery. They housed baby turtles, adult turtles, clown fish, barramundi and blue bone fish and many sea urchants, sea cucumbers, star fish and pencil urchans. We all got to handle the sea creatures and feed the turtles and fish. The baby turtles were a highlight they were only 6 days old. Apparently they were seen by locals shortly after hatching at a local beach about 600 in number but due to lots of seagulls, other birds and fish their numbers quickly dwindled to less that 10. A tough start to life but they are in good hands now. As we had no luck catching Barramundi this was our first experience of its loud slap as it catches its prey. We video taped the boys feeding them and it was truly frightening, luckily they have no teeth and are very gentle but the noise is bloody loud.
Next up was a swim at a secluded Cape Leveque beach. The water was very warm and comfortable and we all, including Sue, swam in it for just under an hour.
We then sat down and had afternoon tea and watched the sunset and watched numerous humpback whales jumping out of the water from a couple of hundred meters away. Fantastic, we also have this on video. A great end to a great day. After this we headed back to Broome and on the way had a break to enjoy the stars, they were amazingly bright as a result of not having any lights around. We were dropped off at our campsite just a bit past 9 p.m., late but a great day.
A short political note, which will be the first and last. Although I did grow a beard and occasionally go without a shower I have not turned into a hippy. But my rant is about a proposed gas plant being planned between Broome and Cape Leveque. You may have seen or read about ongoing protesting at the proposed sight at the moment. It's a beautiful spot and I would hate to see anything that would destroy it. Why they don't go down south a couple of hundred km's near Port headland which is heavily industrialised I don't know. I guess its always about money, but if you haven't yet heard about this issue, you soon will.
A couple of days later the boys and I thought we might try some fishing, I had been told that the pier was a safe and good place to catch fish. They weren't wrong, we spent about 6 hours fishing and caught 10 fish. We kept one which was of eating size and according to our book tasted 'good'. The smaller fish were blue bone fish which are said to be great eating but they were too small, damm it. We also saw numerous turtles and sea snakes and a couple of large squid. The boys loved it and the fish tasted alright. Unfortunately the fish above colour had faded after spending a few hours in our iced esky. It was called a Banded Sweep.
We all really enjoyed our ten day stay in Broome.
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