This is a quick note to say that we are back from Broome without an accident or other problems happening while there. We went with 31 students (two from Boston College) and we came back with 31 - yes the same ones! Norma and I did fine although Norma found the heat of the day, which was in the upper 90's, to slower her down.
We go take the students there because the University of Notre Dame of Australia (UNDA) has this experience as part of the Australian History course that all the American students take. We stay at a hostel on the Broome campus for UNDA and get picked up by Wundargoode Tour Company run by an Aboriginal family. We travel up the Dampier Peninsula to near the tip. The road is about half paved and half not and it takes about 4 hours in the four wheeled drives we take to get there. This is land which the Aboriginal title claims have been settled and is all owned by various tribal groups and families now. The company does an excellent job of organizing the activities, transporting and feeding us. The students seemed to get a great deal out of it.
This is picture is of Bruce the assistant on the trip along with Norma and I the other Bruce. Colin tried to get me to say goombaly when I met him because it would say in his language that I acknowledge and honor the person with the same name. Well, I flubbed it when we first met but Bruce was patient and I did get it down. He sometimes used the related term to say goomba, which means person with the same name but who is older. His is a hard worker and works well with the students. He is talking classes on community development and land management in Sydney. We went crabbing on his brothers, Phillip, and he's property. In fact we saw the first salt water crocodile that this has been seen by this group or any of the others over the years in a tidal pool. We did not find many fish of good size in the tidal pool so I assume the croc was dining on them.
Some things happened that seem to be standard operating procedure. We are told that we must keep the lid down on the toilet because the lit toilet facilities (all 2 of 'em) drew insects which in turn drew tree frogs. Not the little green jobbies like in Florida but lovely ones about as big as your hand. The students were very compliant because tree frogs are the preferred diet of the snakes in the vicinity, all of which seem to be remarkably poisonous. We did find frogs one of which Norma removed from the shower so because the kids found the frog unnerving. The frog, in frog fashion, peed all over her so she got the first spot in the line for showers. The showers were curious in the the ground water was tepid. We think of our ground water as cold.
What is Broome for those who do not know what I am talking about. It is a city two hours by jet north of Perth on the coast. It reminds me a little of Florida because of the palms and mangrove trees in the area but it is drier than Florida. It has a distinct wet and dry season with this time of year about to bring the end of the dry. Generally in November, it will start to change and they will get rain every day so the humidity goes up.
We camped on a different parcel of land this time. I took this picture the morning that we left and I realize now that the scene we saw out over the bay was not available because I had not taken the photo. There were some flies, which are ones that like your face and eyes but few mosquitoes. It had highs from middle to upper 90's during the day but cooled to very comfortable temperatures during the night. So it was nice sleeping weather. This site is on red sand, which gets into everything but the view compensated for it. When you get back home you try to get the Kimberly out of your socks.
This is picture is of Bruce the assistant on the trip along with Norma and I the other Bruce. Colin tried to get me to say goombaly when I met him because it would say in his language that I acknowledge and honor the person with the same name. Well, I flubbed it when we first met but Bruce was patient and I did get it down. He sometimes used the related term to say goomba, which means person with the same name but who is older. His is a hard worker and works well with the students. He is talking classes on community development and land management in Sydney. We went crabbing on his brothers, Phillip, and he's property. In fact we saw the first salt water crocodile that this has been seen by this group or any of the others over the years in a tidal pool. We did not find many fish of good size in the tidal pool so I assume the croc was dining on them.
Some things happened that seem to be standard operating procedure. We are told that we must keep the lid down on the toilet because the lit toilet facilities (all 2 of 'em) drew insects which in turn drew tree frogs. Not the little green jobbies like in Florida but lovely ones about as big as your hand. The students were very compliant because tree frogs are the preferred diet of the snakes in the vicinity, all of which seem to be remarkably poisonous. We did find frogs one of which Norma removed from the shower so because the kids found the frog unnerving. The frog, in frog fashion, peed all over her so she got the first spot in the line for showers. The showers were curious in the the ground water was tepid. We think of our ground water as cold.
We got to go by a aqua culture farm. They were growing torcas (We think this was the name.) shells for buttons. They get quite a good price for them. Actually good enough price that Indonesian fishermen come all the way down to find them. They have been depleted off the reefs in the area so restocking them is a major part of their work. The center also worked on a recovery nursery for sea turtles and certain fish one was clown fish like the Nemo character. It was a very interesting side trip.
I will finally get this off. I find that Blogspot is very touchy with pictures and when I move text around the pictures I can inadvertently delete a picture and there is no undo button. Need I say more!!
I will finally get this off. I find that Blogspot is very touchy with pictures and when I move text around the pictures I can inadvertently delete a picture and there is no undo button. Need I say more!!
