Broome Day 2

29 degrees planned for today, but as we are heading north, may be warmer.
My kittens have all been provided with their box breakfast last night, so all know that they are expected to have eaten before our 6.50 am pick up. There were a few grumbles about the early start but I did politely tell then that they didn’t have to come if they didn’t want to. Needless to say they all showed up on time. As we had a long day ahead of us I went through the checklist to remind them to check that they all had a bottle of water, sunscreen, a hat, towel and if they had bathers that were a two piece, that they had both pieces! Our 4 wheel drive coach arrived right on time - 5 minutes later than I told the kittens to be ready, and on board we got. It was a full coach with 7 other people. Poor buggers, they had no idea what they were in for.
Sean is our driver and he certainly kept us informed on our big day ahead and other snippets of Broome history. Our first stop was Beagle Bay Aboriginal Community where we were able to see the almost 100 year old Catholic Church - Sacred Heart, (it turns 100 in August 2018.)
The Aboriginal community have actually asked the church to stay on in their community, even after it stopped being a mission, so the church also runs the school. It certainly is better maintained than many of our smaller Aboriginal communities in the Pit Lands.
Inside the church, the altar is covered in mother of pearl and in its own unique way, was quite beautiful. I know I’ve seen pictures of it in books and maybe even in a travel show. Unfortunately the limited internet access I have won’t allow me to upload photos til I get home so if you are interested enough, check back on this page in a couple of days time for the photos.

The road to Beagle Bay was red clay and we were expecting really bumpy roads but it wasn’t too bad at all so we were pleasantly surprised. Sean prepared morning tea while we had a look in the church and that was really pleasant to have a hot cuppa, cake and/or biccies in the shade of some lovely trees. Back on the coach and off we head again, to Cygnet Bay pearl farm which is the only working pearl farm open to the public. We had been to their gallery shop in town yesterday so it was really interesting actually seeing the process up close and personal. We even got to see one of the oyster shells being opened to extract a pearl. They have no real idea of what to expect when they open the shell at the 2-3 year mark so we were very pleased to see a large pearl with good lustre (they rated it B+ which is quite good) in our shell.

Time to get back on the coach and head north to the One Arm Point community to view the Buccaneer Archipeligo where they experience the world’s largest tidal flows in the Southern Hemisphere of some 12 metres. The local Aboriginal community have created an aquaculture hatchery complete with reef fish and snapping barramundi! A couple in our travel group were prepared to have a go at feeding the fish, but the rest of us backed up quick when we saw fingers getting bitten in the process!

Sean had set out a lovely cold meat and salad lunch for us at the adjoining undercover area so we were all very happy to sit and enjoy our lovely lunch, right on the coast line watching the swirling waters of the Kimberley as the tide rose.
We then head to Cape Leveque where we can go for a swim in the ocean if we want, but I’m happy to wander along the waters edge as the tide keeps coming in against me. The sand was pristine white and the water lovely so it really was a lovely way to walk along the beach.

In the mean time, Sean is setting up afternoon tea consisting of huge slices of watermelon, but I’m happy to give that a miss. Then back on the coach as we head to the western end of the beach for a quick photo stop where the blue of the ocean, against the white sands that run into the red rocky hills and outcrops are simply gorgeous. Photos don’t do it justice.

It is now about 4.20 pm and time to head back to Broome.
I will leave you here for now as we have been on the go for 12 hours and I’m pooped! Plenty of time to catch up on the rest of our day after I’ve had some sleep...
Here I am back again to finish our day. We have about a 3 hour return trip ahead of us, and it isn’t long before we hit the really bad rutted, corrogated red clay sands so have a very bumpy ride home. Thankfully everyone was in good spirits so no grumbles from anyone. I kept asking when the drinks trolley would be coming through and that helped lighten the mood too as we bumped, rocked and rolled our way back to Broome. At times all we could see ahead of us was red dust from a vehicle some distance ahead of us. Thank goodness Sean knew what he was doing as we truly could not see more than a metre in front of us, and this was in the dark! We were finally dropped off back at our hotel about 7.15 pm and as I had our dinner booked for 7.30, most went straight to the restaurant for our dinner.
Our evening meals have generally been of a very high standard, but sadly the pre order list must have been mislaid as 2 of my kittens didn’t initially get a main meal and then another didn’t get dessert, but it eventually was sorted although a couple of the kittens left before dessert was even served as they were too worn out to wait for it. It certainly was a very big day out, but all agreed that it was a good one. There weren’t any misadventures or incidents of note apart from at Beagle Bay when my demented kitten called me aside to tell me that in future she would never again share with her roomie as she was just too cutting with what she said to her. I really had to bite my tongue as this kitten was meant to be sharing with another lady who was ill at the last minute so had to cancel. Demented kitten was not prepared to pay the extra money now required for a single room and the only other kitten prepared to share with her, as the others know that she really is ditsy, is the one she is now complaining about! I tried to be most tactful which does not come naturally to me and reminded her that it was her choice to share, but she was adamant that next time she does a trip with me, if her other lady friend can’t come, she will have a room to herself. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that there won’t be a next time as I won’t travel with her again as she simply takes too much effort and time to keep her on track with the rest of the group!
Mind you, later the next morning I threatened to slap her current roomie as they all knew that Monday was a free day for them but there were a number of optional tours they could do if they wanted. As it turned out I had 7 of them say they would like to do a Monday afternoon tour that took them to a native bird place, a Mango farm and a crocodile park. Demented kitten and her roomie were two of them. I happened to be sitting with the roomie on the coach as we headed back to Broome after our very big day out and she decides to tell me that she has changed her mind and now won’t go on the tour tomorrow(Monday). No problems says me because I’ve had no phone coverage since we left Broome and so have not been able to call to book the tour for the 7 of them. All is right with the world until next morning when I book the tour for 6 kittens first thing, to minutes later be told by said roomie who is sitting having breakfast with demented kitten at the time that she would now like to do the tour as she has only just realized that demented kitten is doing it so wants to do it with her!!! It was at that moment I told her that I wanted to slap her.....
And that was how I spent Sunday.