Broome, Australia

Wednesday | December 7, 2017

This morning, we arrived in Broome Australia. Broome, the northern boundary of Western Australia’s 80 Mile Beach, is really a rough and tumble outback area -nothing like the "fun and fancy" Australia one is used to seeing on TV and in the movies.

Red dirt was ubiquitous, reminiscent of what one might expect to find in Georgia. But in Georgia, the red is borne of clay; here it is a function of a high concentration of iron ore.

Broome really found its way onto the map in the late 1800s with the mother of pearl industry. Unfortunately, many thousands of Chinese and Japanese divers lost their lives in the furtherance of this pursuit. For example, the drivers would be lowered to the bottom of the sea in their 28 kg dive suits, including steel helmets and boots.

From a boat on the surface, Aussies delivered oxygen to the divers with one of these devices.

But when a storm would brew and the ship needed to move on, it was not uncommon to just cut the line and leave the divers to die on the bottom of the sea.

On the way into town we met our driver who introduced himself as “Billy the Bus Driver.” Billy gave us an entire lecture on this godforsaken town before we even left the port. And then, all the way into town, he continued to babble incessantly. The only thing of value he shared with us was that his wife, Trish, is the shopkeeper at the local pearl store. Although when we dropped his name when we went there, I’m not sure it did us any good.

I visited a museum housing the actual boats that were used for that trade.

Later in the day, we were afforded the opportunity to taste some of the meat from the pearl oysters. It is nothing at all like oyster, but tastes more like chewy octopus.

Argyle diamonds are also popular here. When a friend said she wanted some argyle, I promised to take her to the store and buy her the finest argyle socks we could find!

Wanting to get away from the madness of the crowd, I ventured off to explore the town. It didn’t take long for me to fall prey to the magnetic pull of the pearl stores. Willie Creek turned out to be our favorite. The first thing I bought was this pearl and diamond necklace.

This is for my daughter, Nicole.

And these cuff links are for my son, Alex.

Me? – I got a golf shirt.

I also came across - and held - the largest fine quality salt water round pearl in the world at 22.24 millimeters.

But one of the other highlights of the day was when we stumbled upon this little restaurant, a Chinese gem in the middle of this tiny outpost.

After ordering appetizers, each of us ordered an entrée and we ate until we could barely walk.

But walk we did, through a local park where Aboriginal people were clustered.

I’m not sure what this place was selling, but it could have been fun!

When we got back to the ship, I had a 5 o’clock workout session with my trainer. As soon as I walked into the gym, he commented that I looked as bloated as a pregnant woman. Then, he proceeded to knock the crap out of me for the next hour.