Staircase to the Moon

During 2 or 3 nights each month from March through October, a spectacular phenomenon occurs in Broome. When the tide is extremely low, the rippled mudflats are exposed beyond the sandy beaches of Roebuck Bay. On these special nights for only 5-10 minutes, the full moon actually rises over the horizon, reflecting off the exposed ripples of sand and creating an image best described as “The Staircase to the Moon.”

Apparently last month was cloudy on the nights it was expected to appear, so no one was able to witness the phenomenon. Luckily I timed my trip to Broome perfectly so that I would have 2 chances to see it before flying back to the east coast.

Last night, the Kimberly Klub shuttled a big group of us over to Town Beach, where hundreds of people stood waiting for the main event. Behind the lookout was a field crowded with spectators and night markets. Though I didn’t get a chance to meander my way through all the booths, I was quite happy to grab a $3 hot dog for dinner.

My friends and I gathered along the edge of a plateau above the beach, facing where we expected the moon to rise. Slowly the sky became a little brighter over one patch of the horizon, and everyone else crowded together in anticipation.

crowds gathering

Watching the moon rise is an unusual experience. Everyone has seen the sun rise and the sun set, but I would never have thought that it was possible to actually witness the reverse happen with the moon. Unlike the sunrise or sunset, which draws out all the colors of the rainbow across the sky, the moon simply glowed a warm orange-ish tint. And just as everyone said it would, the moon actually reflected off the banks. It looked as if you could actually run along the beach and climb right up to it. Truly amazing!

Everyone’s flashes were going off as they desperately tried to capture an image of the phenomenon. Myself included. No matter which setting I put on my camera, nothing turned out well. The coolest shot I took resulted in what looked like the moon exploding.

and then the moon exploded

Tonight I was better prepared. My errand for the day was to buy a cheap tri-pod for my camera. I found one of those beady looking tripods that bends and wraps around free-standing objects so that it doesn’t require a flat ground or table, which is rarely available when you would actually need it.

This time around, my friend Arnika drove 3 of us to the Golf Club just a bit further down the road from where all the markets are. The clubhouse itself was closed, but there were 2 or 3 other carloads of people who had the same idea as us. I claimed a street sign for my tripod, which ended up being right in the middle of one of those groups of people. I set my camera to the “starry night” setting with a 60 second shutter speed. And…. Voila!

Staircase to the Moon

I’m sure if you Googled “Staircase to the Moon,” you would find much more clear and professional looking pictures. But I was rather proud of capturing what I could of this night. (Even though there was a blasted boat in the way.) I even lent my tripod to another onlooker, who had a similar camera as mine, so that he could share his photo with all his friends.

What a night! This definitely ranks as one of my favorite memories in Western Australia.

South Sea Pearls of Australia

So far Broome has been a much-welcomed relaxation period for me. My past few days have consisted primarily of reading, laying out, swimming, and socializing by the Kimberly Club’s pool. Before arriving in Broome, I had the full intention of finding short-term employment as a pearl diver. Broome is, after all, the pearl capital of the world! I heard the pearling boats leave for 10 days at a time and pay about $150 per day (and provide free food and accommodation). I thought being a PADI Divemaster would be plenty of qualification. However, upon arrival I talked to employers at Paspaley (very rude!), Clipper, and Cygnet Bay Pearls (LOVED them!) and soon discovered that actual pearl diving requires a significant amount of training as well as a certification a step beyond commercial diving – something entirely different.

Backpackers are often used as kitchen hands or “Marine Growth Removal Technicians,” meaning they shuck all the soft corals and such that grow on the oysters that could potentially cause disease or deteriorate the shell. One of my friends in the Kimberly Club hostel was employed to do this work. Chris described this task as difficult, boring and smelly. He continues to participate in this line of work every year though because of the high rewards and time off between trips. The boat takes 20-40 people out for 10 days at a time. Then they split into teams of 3 and depart from the larger vessel onto much smaller boats where they spend the entire day cleaning the oyster shells of their designated area. All the romanticism of pearls totally evaporates in that atmosphere. Chris swears he will never again purchase a pearl, and he was quite disheartened when I decided that I would spend today on the Willie Creek Pearl Farm tour and the Pearl Luggers tour. But I have no intention of becoming a Marine Growth Removal Technician, and I still like pearls. So when you’re in the pearl capital of the world, you gotta see it first hand while you have the chance!

Willie Creek pearl farm

Willie Creek

Even though Willie Creek is located 16km North of Broome, the drive is 38km – 17km of which are via unsealed red dirt road. When our coach dropped us off at Willie Creek, one of the WC employees took over the tour. We were seated under a small stadium-seated pavilion for a lecture on the modern cultured pearling process as well as a demonstration on how to seed a live oyster to produce a pearl (and how to remove it).

Pearl Farming

Broome’s famous South Sea pearls are produced by the gold or silver lip pearl oyster, Pinctada Maxima. Pinctada, meaning “pearl-producing,” and Maxima, meaning “largest.” This particular oyster can grow to be 30cm in diameter and weigh up to 5 kilos. It was first discovered in Roebuck Bay back in 1861, which is what set Broome on the map for the pearling industry.

Nowadays, divers collect about 600,000 wild shells from the coast of Western Australia each year with the legal size being at least 120mm. Hatcheries are also becoming more popular, and these are only required to be 90mm. They are then laid to rest in the pearl farm for 4 months to acclimatize to their new location. When ready for their first pearl seeding, they are held on board seeding vessels in large re-circulating tanks. When the water drains, it takes a few hours for them to relax and open up, then the technicians are “pegged” open with a wedge, similar to a door stop. This allows the technicians to perform the seeding operation without the oyster snapping shut prematurely.

Pearl Technicians

Pearl technicians are highly skilled (and highly paid) professionals, performing up to 500 operations per day. Yikes! A typical career path would include a degree in Marine Biology, then a job as a deck hand on board one of the seeding vessels plus 8 years worth of training. Then Day 1 as a pearl technician, they would be expected to perform hundreds of these operations.

Pearl technicians generally work for 3 months annually and will be paid about $80k on salary plus a commission as high as $50k if their oysters produce good quality pearls. That’s 3 months of work and then 9 months of doing whatever else they please until the next season. Some technicians will finish their work harvesting and seeding South Sea pearls in Australia and then spend another 3 months doing the same thing in Tahiti. That’s still 6 months of vacation! Why did no one tell me about this growing up?

Growing and Producing a Cultured Pearl

Natural pearls are created when an irritant, such as a grain of sand or other organic material, makes its way into the oyster shell. In order to protect its mantle tissue, the oyster then secretes its mantle tissue, creating a pearl sac around the irritant. It’s basically the same act as when we put wax over our braces when we first get them to lessen the irritation. Oysters do this naturally to protect their tissues, and the result just happens to be a beautiful pearl!

Pinctada Maxima interior

[Note: 95% of these oysters naturally contain a small oyster crab inside, which help clean the oyster and protect it from parasites.]

Cultured pearls take advantage of this natural reaction from the oysters by implanting a small nucleus formed from the shell of the Mississippi mussel into an incision made in the oyster’s gonad, which is located in the direct center of the shell. This makes it less likely for the oyster to reject the nucleus and push it out of its shell. Once this operation has been completed, the shell is then safely housed within a pearl panel and placed on the ocean floor to undergo a turning process to encourage the production of a round pearl.

panel of oysters

After letting the oysters rest for a period of 10 days succeeding their seeding operations, the technicians examine them to make sure that the oysters have accepted the nucleus. If not, the oysters are re-seeded again. If the oyster rejects the nucleus a 2^nd time then the shells are sent to the “Naughty Farm” in order to produce Keshi (seedless) pearls. 85% of the oysters will usually accept the nucleus and produce a pearl.

After a period of 2 years, the technician will carefully remove the pearl that has formed and replace it with a nucleus of a comparable size to that pearl that was removed. 2 years later, the same process is repeated. The oysters are generally only re-seeded 3 times, producing a total of 4 pearls – each larger than the previous one. After 8 years of this process (2 per pearl), the shell is much larger, but also less likely to accept another seeding. Therefore the shells are then retired from pearl-making and are used for other mother of pearl products.

Pearl Products

Before grinding the shell down, Mabe (or half pearls) are made. These are formed by adhering plastic shapes to the inside surface of the oyster’s shell, and then the oyster will overlay the plastic with mother of pearl secretion for a period of around 12 months, similar to they way it does with a nucleus for pearls. While still on the shells, they resemble blisters, but once trimmed to make jewelry, they’re gorgeous! And only half the price!

The mother of pearl (shiny interior of the shell) is used for a variety of different causes. Initially the pearl button was the main source of income for pearl divers, even more so than pearls since the pearls are extremely rare to find naturally.  Now the mother of pearl is used to make holograms (such as that found on your credit card), car paint, cosmetics, and furniture inlay.

mother of pearl buttons

Nothing is left to waste! Even the pearl meat (abductor muscle) is retained for use as a delicacy in restaurants. Delicious! Much less chewy than conch or other mollusk meats you would have tried.

The pearls themselves are graded upon 5 different qualities: complexion, luster, size, shape, and color.  Complexion and luster are really the most important because the rest are considered more of a personal preference. The more shiny, large, smooth and round they are, the more expensive they generally are. But as the saying goes, “You don’t choose the pearl; the pearl chooses you.”

Some simple rules of thumb can protect you from buying fake pearls. Rule #1: if it looks too good to be true then it probably is. When buying a chain of pearls, they shouldn’t all be exactly alike. No single pearl is perfect so you can check their personality by looking for bumps or dimples on the surface. If unsure, you can rub the pearl against your teeth, and it should feel gritty and organic rather than smooth like plastic. If you reallyyyyyy want to be sure, then you can drop your pearl in some vinegar. If you come back and there’s only the nucleus left, you know it was real.

Side note:  There is a story of Cleopatra inviting Marc Antony over for the most extravagant dinner banquet ever thrown. It was a massive feast, but Marc Antony told her at the end of the meal that it was wonderful, but quite similar to all her other feasts. She then poured 2 cups of vinegar and dropped both of her nicest pearl earrings in each of the cups. After it completely deteriorated, she then drank the vinegar. Marc Antony didn’t drink his, but agreed that it was indeed the most expensive feast to which he had ever been invited.

Pearl Luggers

After the Willie Creek tour, I continued back to the city for the Pearl Luggers tour, in which they discuss the old methods for collecting mother of pearl (and sometimes pearls).

The oysters were gathered from Roebuck Bay and other areas surrounding Broome by hundreds of divers in pearl luggers (specialized boats). Rather than diving up and down all day, they found it more efficient to have an air supply cranked down to the divers at depth via an air pump and hose, where the divers would scrape along the bottom, picking up shells. The divers would collect the shells in a bag around their neck, and once it filled, they would send the bag to the surface and wait for them to drop the next bag.

model of a pearl lugger

retired pearl lugger

In regards to safety, the system was horrific! They were armed with a firefighting helmet, weighing 35kg, plus another 70kg of weights around their neck, and “mother in law” boots made of wood, leather, and copper, weighing 12kg each, just to help keep them grounded on the ocean floor.

pearl diving equipment

pearl diver suit and manual air pump

They would spend as many hours under the sea as there was light provided by the sun with the exception of one speedy lunch break (and an exchange of urine bags). Even though they would reach as deep as 80m, they never made any sort of decompression stops on their way up because it was too time consuming. Therefore many pearl divers died of the Bends, a decompression illness in which nitrogen expands upon ascent and blocks your blood flow, prohibiting oxygen from reaching the brain. Scary stuff! Nowadays, decompression chambers can help stabilize divers with the Bends before it becomes fatal by putting them in a chamber with a similar atmospheric pressure for a couple hours and slowly returning them to a normal state. But back in the “hard hat era” these Saltwater Cowboys were risking their lives for the chance of making millions.

the hard hat era is not one for the fashion diaries

These procedures finally stopped in 1975 (??!??!?!!!) when spear-fishermen proved to the pearl divers that SCUBA diving equipment and proper safety stops were actually more efficient than the methods they had been using. 1975!!!!!!!! I think that was the biggest mind-blowing fact I learned all day. SCUBA divers have been modifying and perfecting safe diving methods for decades, while these pearl divers were wearing 130-135kg of weight and risking their lives upon descent. Craziness!

I apologize for the long post, but I hope you found it informative if you made it all the way through. Please feel free to ask me any more questions because believe it or not, I spared a great amount of detail! If anyone makes it to Broome, I highly suggest these tours.

$25,000+ pearl

At the end of today, I made 2 decisions: 1) I’m going to start wearing my pearls when I get home. 2) I’m going to start traveling more. Sydney was great, but there’s so much more to see and learn!

Beware of the Boxed Jelly!

Well we had a pretty horrifying experience last night… well for one person in particular. There were about 15 of us form the Kimberly Club that went to the beach for a bonfire party. The location was chosen because it was remote, just south of Cable Beach. We watched the sunset, grabbed some supplies, then started our fire. Throughout the whole night everyone was going in and out of the ocean. It was already hot outside, so the fire was more for ambience than anything else. On one particular venture into the sea, Erica (mid 30’s) was stung by the box jellyfish. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the box jelly, its venom is among the most deadly in the world, containing toxins that attack the heart, nervous system, and skin cells. In many cases, people will go into shock and drown or have a heart attack before even reaching shore. However, it can be treated, but you need to seek help immediately. Erica, however, was feeling pretty tipsy and didn’t realize the severity of her situation so she decided to stay in the water. (I had no idea this happened because I returned home long before these events took place.) When she started to lose feeling in her lower body, the people in the water with her persuaded her to return to shore. Because she had no control of her lower body, she was blindly placing her feet on the sand and rocks. SNAP! Broke her leg! It was 3am by the time an ambulance found the beach where we were, since there wasn’t a road directly leading to it. Her situation was neutralized and they were able to release her today. Scary stuff! Lesson learned: be careful when swimming in northern Australia, and be prepared for an emergency situation. Especially when swimming at night or on an uncrowded beach where help is not readily available. Yikes!

On another note, it was one of the best sunsets I’ve seen:

Broome sunset

Arnika, myself, and Hector at sunset

bonfire

Everything Aussie in Zoo Café

Everyone in Broome says that so long as you do 1 thing per day, you’ve had a productive day. For some people that means a load of laundry, or a trip to the grocer, or maybe a walk around the block. Britt and I had a very lazy day of reading and swimming around the pool in the Kimberly Klub, my favorite hostel in all of Australia thus far.

The Kimberly Klub

We decided to check 1 more thing off our Broome bucket list: dinner at the Old Zoo Café. As its name suggests, the building was renovated after serving as the Pearl Coast Zoo feeding house until the zoo closed. It’s a pretty nice restaurant and we were surprised when we showed up and they allowed us to sit without reservations. Really we just lucked out because there was one small table reserved for dinner a few hours after we arrived, so they were able to squeeze us in. Hoorah!

We ordered a couple plates of appetizers (bread, mushrooms, etc), but the main reason we were there was to try the ultra-Australian sampler tray.

pearl meat, barramundi, crocodile, kangaroo, emus

1)   Pearl Meat – The abductor muscle from the Pinctada Maxima oyster that produces the famous South Sea Pearl. It was prepared in some sort of citrusy Asian style that was delicious. The meat itself had a very smooth and consistent texture, not like the slippery and chewy rock oysters I’m used to eating (but also love).

2)   Barrumundi – The quintessential Australian fish, which is usually fished at just over a meter long.. pretty big, hey! It’s a flaky white meat, and every time I eat it I end up with the same opinion: forgettable.  It was alright, but seemed a little bland in comparison to everything else on the plate.

3)   Crocodile – It sounds cliché, but any fried white meat is going to taste like chicken fingers, and this was no exception.

4)   Kangaroo – Kangaroo is one of the leanest and healthiest meats you can eat. The trick is how you prepare it though. If you cook it 30 seconds past medium rare, it will without a doubt be tough and chewy and completely non-enjoyable. This kangaroo meat was prepared smoked, so the texture itself was perfect, but then the smoky taste overtook the actual flavour of the kangaroo.

5)   Emus – Best for last. I feel like Pavlov’s dog salivating at the very thought of it. Emus is a red meat, also prepared best medium rare (like every red meat should be). This also was prepared with some sort of Asian-style sauce, which definitely hit the spot. You can bet that I will most certainly be ordering more emus steaks upon my time in Australia.

To top off the evening, we saw the cutest little tree frog outside  🙂

Australian tree frog

Camel Safari

Ahh, finally Britt and I have reached our destination in Western Australia: Broome! Britt is only staying for a few days before she heads back to Sydney so we decided to kick-start our journey in Broome with the utmost important endeavor: camel-riding.

I’ve always imagined camels to be indigenous to the Middle East, so they seem very out of place to me when found anywhere else (for instance my junior year prom in Nashville, TN). When you think of wild animals in Australia, you think dingos, kangaroos, crocodiles, koalas and emus. Anything but camels. Oddly enough, Australia actually has the largest population of feral camels in the world with a population increase of around 10% each year. Thousands of these one-humped camels were originally brought to Australia from India, Pakistan, and a handful of other countries between 1840 and 1907. They were primarily used as pack animals for exploration and the construction of railroads and telegraph lines; but they also served well for sending supplies to remote mines and settlements. Camels are perfectly suited for these tasks because, unlike horses, they are able to carry heavy loads over long distances and may go for days without drinking water. These are pretty powerful advantages in a country where temperatures can reach 50*C / 120*F in the summertime.

Even though they weren’t indigenous to Australia, camels have since thrived in the environment and are now considered pests by the locals. For starters, they have no natural predators so there is nothing to keep their population in check. They are known to destabilize dune crests, causing massive erosion, and they feed on over 80% of the available plant species so that other animals, such as the indigenous marsupials, must compete with them for food. Most of their infamy that I hear about results in their fouling of waterholes, which are already scarce in the Outback.

Regardless, dozens of camels are available for our tourist enjoyment in Broome. The funny thing is that unlike dolphins that experience shorter life spans in captivity, camels live much longer. They are extremely clumsy animals and would not be able to survive in the wild with any sort of injury, but in captivity, their caretakers are able to help them recover without exposing them to the harsh elements.

So here we are… in Broome… on the beach… with our camels… at sunset.

Our camel’s name was Matilda, and she was especially cute because she had this big droopy lip that gave her some extra personality.

darling Matilda

After the first 5 or 10 minutes passed, Britt and I began to wonder what in the world we were going to do in the next hour that could possibly keep us entertained. But as the sun began to descend, that time quickly flew by.

Cable Beach is known as one of the best beaches in the world… and for good reason! In the daytime, it looks like a National Geographic picture with green grass against red rock on white sand with a blue sky and turquoise waters. The beach is so long and the population so little (15,000 normally, but then 50,000 in the dry season) that there is more than enough room for everyone to spread out for their own private patch.

Then at night, well, you can’t beat that sunset!

sharing the sunset with Britt & Matilda