A Pearl of a Trip

After our return to the Cable Beach resort from our trip around the Kimberleys we had one full day before our direct flight back to Sydney and home. It wasn't difficult to book a trip to look at Broome's famous industry developed during the 19th century and still going strong: the pearling industry. We were picked up from the resort by a bus that transported us to the Willie Creek Pearl Farm about 12 km to the north of us. There we attended what amounted to a lecture on how to grow pearls commercially before taking boat trip to look at the industry's  'coal-face' out on the bay.

We heard about the different kinds of oyster and what encourages them to produce high quality pearls. We looked at good examples of high quality and pricey pearls and saw what dimensions determine price: shape, size, colour, complexion, and lustre. The boxes shown below deal with each of these dimensions

We looked inside a pearl-growing oyster and were told about the early days of the industry where Asian workers - for example Japanese people - were hired to dive in the sea or estuary to find oysters with pearls inside. We were also told about contemporary processes for the delivery of cultured pearls and so on before being escorted to our little boat to see where oysters were held and harvested.





Here's Dot on board our vessel listening to the crew's commentary about where we were going and what we'd see. The picture below shows a chain of buoys from which hung metal nets containing the oysters.










And the crew hauled up some of the nets that encaged the little critters. The boat trip also explored Willie Creek






 And we saw one of the company's boats returning from harvesting the oyster nets with, presumably decent pearls inside.



We left the vessel we were on and headed to the company's store to try on pearls ... well, Dot did rather than me.










This little necklace cost, if I remember correctly about A$25,000, which was one reason why we walked away without a purchase. Still, the trip was entertaining and informative.

And so to home!

AS

Queen Victoria's Head!

The last post wasn't quite the last post! Travelling between Bell Gorge and the port of Derby we saw a remarkable geomorphological feature. It was called Queen Victoria's Head and the picture below is very much like her image I've seen elsewhere - just quite where I can't recall, but my readers might let me know where the real image resides.

Good image, eh! I had instant recognition as we sped along the Gibb River Road.

But, as we drew alongside, the image deteriorated markedly! Does this look like Victoria to you? Sadly, no. But one must give credit to the region's pioneering European settlers for perceiving the stunning likeness in the first photo above. I wonder if she ever got to hear of her name being used to designate a lump of dark rock!

AS

Last Post

Sorry about the title. It's the last post I'm making about our Kimberley trip, not a kind of remembrance ceremony. We spent our last two nights on our tour of the Kimberleys at Bell Gorge, an attractive spot in the shadow of the Precipice Range, itself part of the King Leopold Ranges. The latter, believe it or not, were named after King Leopold II of Belgium! Again we were Glamping in tent-like accommodation, as shown here, and our abode was named after the nearby range.










We even had our own veranda and chairs to sit on.






The nearby Bell River looked peaceful and we saw termite mounds like the one below. During our trip we must have seen a thousand or more such mounds built by the busy little critters.







Our path to the gorge and waterfall was well wooded, although, as you will see below, rather rocky and hazardous.







Eventually we arrived at the pool at the top of a lovely, though not particularly high waterfall. At this point, our party split into two because the route to the bottom of the falls involved a lot of rock hopping up and down very steep slopes. I joined the agile rock hoppers, while Dot held back at the top of the falls.







We rock hoppers also had to navigate a creek crossing at back edge of the picture on the right, but none of us fell in!






But before we began our walk to the bottom of the falls we explored the views from the top. Quite a lot of people reached the bottom of the falls where the sunned themselves on rock ledge before daring to plunge into the pool




















The rock ledge where Dot stayed is shown here and, on the right, is an example of the rock hopping terrain some of us negotiated.








The bottom of the falls, which we eventually reached, proved to be a nice swimming hole and guess who the dude in the front happens to be ... me!


Perhaps I shouldn't have posted the exhibit on the right, but I'm doing so anyway in the hope it will force me to lose a few kilos!











After our adventure at Bell Gorge we climbed on our bus to take a look at some of the views from the King Leopold Range. The left image looks across to the Precipice Range - our glamping was on the far side of it.

And here's Dot admiring the scenery, and also the pile of large boulders dotting (excuse the pun) the slope in front of us.











That evening we had a lovely meal at our lodge, including this dessert which was so creative that I had to take a picture of it! And below some of our party are at one of the dining tables having eaten that dessert.

After finishing the evening meal we headed to the camp fire for drinks and a quiet natter among ourselves.


The following morning, we headed back to Broome on our bus travelling through the King Leopold Range. By the way, the King never visited Australia. The range was named after him by explorer Alexander Forrest on 6 June 1879 - nearly 140 years ago - on account of Leopold's great interest in exploration. I wonder how many Belgians are aware of that!

 And so, eventually, we arrived back in Broome after an eventful and generally very happy tour. A trip to this outpost of humanity is highly recommended.

AS

Home Valley Station to Bell Gorge

After the trip to Emma Gorge we travelled to one of the Kimberley's large cattle stations where we spent the night. It's huge - 3.5 million acres (1.4 million Ha.) and now in the hands of the local Aboriginal community. And, like many of the region's large farming properties it has tourist accommodation.

Our accommodation was located in some impressive scenery and was comfortable.

You can see Dot, below left, in the garden area around where had our meal. And nearby there were many relics of past agricultural activity on the property.

And as dusk enveloped us we watched the surrounding countryside slowly darken and grow redder. And the setting sun made the thin layer of cloud sparkle












By the way, Home Valley had some lovely Baobabs:


































The following day saw us on the road again, but much of the countryside was not so spectacular.
It was flatter, criss-crossed by many creeks and waterholes, and a little sparser in vegetation.






















                 


Road conditions frequently worsened as our bus tried to cross some of the creeks and, at one point, one of its tyres was punctured, as shown below. And members of our tour group assisted our driver to replace it withe spare we fortunately had with us - hidden underneath the back of the bus:





















The whole task took quite a while, as readers can quite imagine. My role was more that of official photographer and I left the dirty work to those who knew something about changing tyres. Our driver,   , must have experienced a few such tyre changes and remained composed.

That task completed we headed to Galvans Gorge, home to an attractive waterfall and swimming hole ... not that I took the opportunity on this occasion. And we saw a few more lovely baobabs.
















One could haul a raft to the opposite bank with these ropes.




































AS