DAY 14 ~ Saturday
Well, we decided that we would just have to take it easy and relax today. Ian fulfilled his dream and we had a four-wheel drive along Cable Beach. It took us about half an hour to figure out to get the damn thing into 4 wheel drive mode!
After a few runs up and down, I had a go, and of course, as soon as I started to drive, we almost got stuck! For some reason the sand was a lot softer at that spot and the wheels would not go forward. Fortunately, I managed to reverse it out. Of course, I will never live that down, but it just happened to be ‘Murphy’s law’ that I was driving at that particular moment! It was such a shock to think we could’ve got stuck that we got the jitters and decided to head back for the last time.
Then we visited another historical site, the Japanese cemetery (a majority of the pearl the divers had been Japanese), which was a very melancholy and lonely place. I don’t find that cemeteries are necessarily sad or austere, but this particular one had such an air of desolation and neglect. I think this was because of it’s lack of care. Some of the headstones were cracked and broken and some had been mended but in such a slap dash way, with concrete oozing and splashed. The vases at the base of the headstones had long ago been smashed. It felt ravaged!
Most of the headstones were solely in Japanese, with no dates that we could read, so it was difficult to understand the significance of the deaths in relation to the dangers of being a pearl diver. Maybe, this
was for the best, but it seemed to be the only tangible connection with the Broome of the past. It felt like the place that Ernestine Hill had written about 60 years ago was totally divorced from the town now. I know change is inevitable and generally for the better, but it seemed so sad that probably half the towns inhabitants didn’t even know about its history. But then I expect I am just as ignorant about the history of my own town.
To cheer ourselves up we headed back to the beach for some sun, sea, sand and reading trashy novels! It was bliss. We had a swim, relaxed and enjoyed the warmth for about 4 hours, till sunset. This sunset was made all the more spectacular for the appearance of a pearl lugger in full sail, on the horizon – fantastic!
As we drove back to the campsite, we saw them bringing in the camels. What a funny site, I’d never have associated camels with Australia, but apparently there are some roaming wild now. Anyway, it’s the thing to do in Broome, a camel ride along Cable Beach, but we just weren’t in the mood, I guess.
Jump to the days…
Week 2
Saturday
