Sunday morning we drove to Bidyadanga Aboriginal Community about 50kms as we had to go out to the highway then back into the community. We were told they take offense if you go across country and enter the back way being about 20kms, when we got there they said that wouldn't have been a problem.
We went to the Catholic mass which was a special one as 14 youth were being confirmed and the Bishop from Broome was officiating. It was a very special service. We have noticed how dark African priests seem to be to the fore in these remote areas of West Australia, while we from the eastern states seem to be real keen to save Africans.... Hmmmm, maybe we could save on air fares. We were invited to join them for lunch but decided to head on, it was pretty hot and we were a bit concerned about Ellie mixing it with the local dogs.
Stopped a little down the road at Shamrock Gardens, a market garden in the wilderness around 140kms south of Broome, it's cattle country. There's no sign up but we went in, we were welcomed. Not much of a range, we bought 3 pumpkins for $5 (Rose said was really good value) and he said to help ourselves to the cucumbers as we left. A good stop.
Then on to Broome. Straight to the visitors centre to see where we could park. The only place is what they call the caravan park overflow at the PCYC, it's very good we've now had 3 nights here, $30 a night unpowered but good facilities and all proceeds go to extend the Youth facilities, not a bad thing.
Monday morning we went to the Old Convent it was really interesting. Amazing how the Irish sisters were pretty much dumped here and had to make a go of it and were a tremendous support to the locals. The conditions would have been just horrific.
Then out to the famous Cable beach in the afternoon, it is pretty special. The sand is very hard, like driving on a road , but it's white and quite beautiful. A nice place to just kick back.
This morning we went to the Broome Historical Museum, again an excellent display and good value. The place sure has a lot of history.
Went to the deep water jetty in the afternoon. Interesting to see them unloading a smallish ship onto semi trailers out the end. They told us the ship runs supplies to and from the oil rigs. Quite a number of fishermen, one young fellow brought in a really good size fish but after he identified and measured it, it was just undersize, painfully he did the right thing and threw it back.
Back to the overflow park tonight and chatting with a couple they gave us a few what he called Cherubs that he had caught in the Fitzroy River. They looked like really big prawns and tasted even better. We gave them a pumpkin and cucumber, fair exchange.