Fri 20 Sept – Pearling, Fishing, and Stairway to the Moon

Broome started because of pearls or, more correctly, because of the shells, which were Mother-of-Pearl and used for buttons and buckles. 

This morning we went to a talk about oysters and pearls, how they're cultured, the difference between different kinds and how they're assessed and valued. It was fascinating stuff and the guy opened a shell for us to see the pearl growing inside and showed us how they're removed. We all went in for a draw to be the person to keep the pearl, and it turned out to be quite a good one, pear shaped with a good lustre. Sadly, I didn't win it, but I bought some freshwater pearl earrings as a momento.

We drove to Town Beach to have lunch, but we couldn't swim as there had been a crocodile sighting, so the beach is closed until they find it. Rodger was keen to go fishing but I wanted to know more about the early days of pearling, so I went to the museum while he fished. It was fascinating stuff and I was engrossed for an hour and a half, then I went back to the beach to read while I waited for Rodger.

To my surprise, he arrived almost immediately but was very glum because his rod had broken when he was trying to free the line from a snag. We decided to go back in to town to get another rod. It was fortunate it happened while we were in Broome, where we can replace it.  The rock in the photo shows where he was fishing when this happened.

High Tide

Low Tide

We whizzed back to Cable Beach for a swim but, as it was low tide and there is a 9m difference between the tides here, we spent more time walking out to and back from the water than we did swimming!

For 3 days every month there's an unusual phenomenon here which they call " Stairway to the Moon". This happens when the moon's full and shines across the mud flats. We are very lucky that we're here for this and it was tonight at 6.30pm. They have a market at Town Beach, which is a good place to watch and so we decided to buy dinner there and eat as we waited. Rodger had Thai food and I had Indian and we had delicious deserts - Rodger had a mango smoothie and I had a mango slushy. 

People were walking out onto the mudflats to see old wrecks of sea planes shot down during WWII.

The moon thing was amazing. We'd just decided that it probably wouldn't happen tonight because it was cloudy, when the moon suddenly rose over the horizon, huge and dark orange/red like the sun. As it rose higher and shone on the mud flats, it really did look like a series of steps reaching up to it. There must have been at least 300 people there to watch, which is pretty good for such a small town.