Oh My God, It's Been So Long, I really didn't want a week to go by between updates because so much has happened, thankfully we've been pretty lazy so the days haven't been to full, anyway I'll try not to miss too much and I'll try not to be boring. Wish me luck.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent at Quandong Point, about 45km North of Broome, a very isolated free camping spot right on the beach. Amber and Ross (Belinda's sister and husband for those who don't know) arrived last Saturday so we spent a bit of time with them over the weekend before a nice morning at a Cable Beach cafe, Zanders, on Tuesday before heading to Quandong. Darryl and Sarah were involved in all this also and we wouldn't have gone up if they hadn't been with us.

Driving out to Quandong involves driving East for 9km before turning off the HWY and driving North. Once heading North it's about 10km before you leave the sealed road and from there the conditions deteriorate pretty steadily. Our road becomes (like all roads that aren't the HWY out here) a red dirt track badly corrugated with lots of nice soft sand to negotiate also, the commodore loves it. As we approached the turn off from the HWY there was a lot of traffic built up, police cars and fire engines and the road was cut off just past our turn off by a bush fire that was contained but only just. We were held up for a few minutes before being aloud to turn off and continue on our way. Once off the HWY the road actually goes for 200km up to the tip of Cape Leveque, which is apparently very beautiful but the road is to bad for our car so we turn off onto a road which will take us back to the ocean, Willie Creek Pearl Farm (which we save for Wednesday) and on to Quandong.

Darryl and Sarah are a little more set up for this type of road with a neat little 4WD but a caravan that is unsuitable, it gets left behind but the 4WD comes along. Along with the 4WD comes some neat little accessories, like a battery pack compressor so we could let the air pressure down in our tyres, after that it was almost like driving on the HWY again. It was uneventful trip in and the sump has remained fixed, our only drama was 20m from our chosen camp site when I got slightly bogged going up the hill, all we needed to do was unhook the trailer and Darryl pulled it up for us, all sweet.

There was only two problems with Quandong, we were right on the beach so there was no shade and heaps of wind. I was unfazed because as I explained to everyone I have a mega tarp, 9m x 5m and it was bought especially for a hot sunny site like this. So first thing we all joined in and erected the sun shelter, it worked a dream except that the wind was so strong and the tarp so big that it caught the middle from above and kept pushing it down, sometimes to about 3ft off the ground, if you happened to be under there at the time it near broke your neck. Still unfazed I proceeded to erect poles underneath the middle to hold it up, unfortunately they were a little short so I started building the most complicated mess of tent poles you've ever seen, it worked a charm for a while and then a big gust of wind came up and it all fell down. I was starting to be a little fazed by now but was still determined so we sent Sarah off with the kids while Darryl Belinda and I sorted out the tarp. We decided on pulling in down and putting it over our camper which is how it was originally intended so we started on this course of action and then wisely decided to hell with the whole thing lets fold it up and put up the annex, so we did.

On that note we got done quickly and went and enjoyed a swim on a very nice isolated beach before we made dinner. Dinner that night was a joint effort between all with Darryl as the head chef, we had an absolutely awesome sausage casserole cooked in the camp oven with toasted marshmallows for desert, and preparation was only interrupted for some sunset photos over the Ocean. All the while we were setting up and cooking the fire back near Broome was burning merrily and sending the smoke over the sun which made an awesome sunset. A nice evening was had by all.

On waking the next morning we had dough boys for breakfast, soooo nice, then a morning fish, which rapidly turned into a swim and I even got my surfboard out and caught a couple of very small waves but it was fun still, got me keen for Exmouth. We then emptied Darryl & Sarah's 4WD and drove to Willie Creek Pearl Farm. During the drive we were stopped by a traveller who had attempted to get back to Broome only to be turned back by the emergency services as the road was blocked by the bushfire. We carried on and went just past the Willie Creek turn off, over a little rise to see what we could see, about 2km distant the road was obscured by smoke and as we watched we saw the fire cross the road a little further along. My next few minutes were spent reassuring Lachlan that the fire wouldn't get to our camp site because it had recently been burnt off. After taking some photos and getting some awesome light from the smoke over the sun we turned back and went to the Pearl Farm. Immediately on arrival we were greeted by the manager/owner who informed us the road to Broome was blocked indefinitely but we welcome to stay and enjoy the cafe and grounds as long a we liked.

Willie Creek Pearl Farm is a family operated farm running purely as a tourist operation on a demonstration basis, we really needed to book a tour to get a full appreciation of how the Pearls are cultivated but we did have a good and reasonably informative time there and the service and care was second to none of any place I've ever been. There are only 18 Pearl Farms in Australia and interestingly all the Pearls are cultivated (a minimum of 2 years per gem, usually longer) then harvested and then sent to Hong Kong. Once there they are polished, shaped or whatever and then sent back to Australia to be sold. Pearls are made by getting an oyster, a special type not just any old rock oyster, and very gently prising it open a crack and holding it in the open position with little wedges. A nucleus from another oyster is then inserted, the oyster closed and put back in the water, this all has to happen very quickly and carefully and the success rate is actually very low. Good cultivators are very highly sought after apparently. After this it is just a matter of hot and heavy work in the sun, raising the oysters and cleaning their external surface from algae and stuff every so often until finally it is ready to harvest.

While we were at Willie Creek there was also a small tour group who couldn't leave because of the fire, so the management gave them another boat cruise, Belinda, ever the opportunist, managed to scam us all a free ride on the boat which was nothing formal but a lot of fun, the operators threw in the throw net and pulled out a couple gar fish which Lachlan rescued and threw back and generally just cruised. Once back on land we went to the cafe for a coffee, milkshakes and icecreams for the kids, again the management were very accommodating and put the coffees on for free because people were still trapped by the fire, Belinda and Darryl had three cups each and were jumping for the rest of the day. Eventually the tour group were taken out by helicopter, we went back to Quandong and the other travellers were escorted through to the HWY by the police that night. Emergency services are very wary over here about letting people drive through fires after six truck drivers were killed in a fire a few years back, the road had been blocked and police let them through and they never came out the other side.