Swollen fingers
We've arrived back from our second 'swing' on the pearl farm, tired and sore but happy. This time they worked us even harder so we finished a couple of days early, which is a bit of a pain since the money would have been nice but it is good to be preparing to move out of Broome now - finally!
We went out with a couple of new people and a German couple who were there before, Dorothy and Carlos. We were worked harder on this swing for some reason, not least because a bunch of people left after a few days but we were still managing to clean the same number of panels.
The work itself isn't too exciting. Basically the boat goes out and picks up the panels, which contain 8 or 10 pearl shells. They bring them back and we jet wash them, then chip the remaining crap off them. Then they're dried out, waxed and sent out to sea again. So usually we stay on land for the whole time but this swing we both got to go out on the boat to see what that was all about.
The farm is apparently one of the nicest pearl farms to work at. They are working on marketing it as a B&B soon so it's all landscaped and looks great. Of course the view is superb. We wake up just before sunrise and can spend the day looking out over the ocean. We've seen crocs, sharks, sting-rays, dolphins, dugongs and no end of little fish swimming out there at various points.
The people working there were great. On our first swing we were greeted by Tom and Jimi, a couple of ex-miners who were great fun. Our boss was Kempy, a bloke who looks incredibly like Damon Hill. Then there's the boat crews and us casual workers, which over our two swings consisted of a load of Germans, a French guy, a Kiwi, a few Aussies and Aboriginals, and us two English. All of them were great fun and we all got on really well. The routine was finish work, have a shower and then drink beer until you had to go to bed through tiredness.
Then there's the food. Kev the chef is in charge of that for the majority of the trip and he's a man who loves his work. We got 3 cooked meals a day and more of it than we could possibly eat. On a not unusual day we started with a bowl of muesli before work, then at breakfast it's a big fry up, lunch was lasagne and tea was a choice of Indian or Thai curries. If we'd have stayed until Monday as originally expected we'd been promised Yorkshire puddings too!
Anyway, we've just about scraped together enough for the next part of our trip so we'll be heading out of Broome as soon as we've sorted ourselves out a bit, and got the car ready. The next stage has some very long drives.
The photos from the first swing have been backed up so I don't have them with me, so these are all from the second.
This little python was wandering round the farm one evening. We got some pics, Kempy picked it up but after a while it got quite narked at the attention and got quite angry, so we left it alone!
The view on the way to work every morning:
The farm as viewed from the LARC; the amphibious vehicle they use to transfer the pearl shells and the crew from the boats to the shed:
Charlotte returns from her trip out on the pearling boat:
Shioji - this guy is one of 4 original Japanese pearl divers that remains in Broome, so basically he built this town. One look at the Japanese cemetery in town and you can see what a dangerous business it was (and still is to some extent), so he's an absolute legend and gets maximum respect. He's also a great bloke!
Some of the workers on our last night. Clockwise from Charlotte is Dorothy, Julia, Jimi, Mason, Carlos, Franzi and Dana.
Kempy / Damon Hill and Bree playing pool in the rec. room:
We went out with a couple of new people and a German couple who were there before, Dorothy and Carlos. We were worked harder on this swing for some reason, not least because a bunch of people left after a few days but we were still managing to clean the same number of panels.
The work itself isn't too exciting. Basically the boat goes out and picks up the panels, which contain 8 or 10 pearl shells. They bring them back and we jet wash them, then chip the remaining crap off them. Then they're dried out, waxed and sent out to sea again. So usually we stay on land for the whole time but this swing we both got to go out on the boat to see what that was all about.
The farm is apparently one of the nicest pearl farms to work at. They are working on marketing it as a B&B soon so it's all landscaped and looks great. Of course the view is superb. We wake up just before sunrise and can spend the day looking out over the ocean. We've seen crocs, sharks, sting-rays, dolphins, dugongs and no end of little fish swimming out there at various points.
The people working there were great. On our first swing we were greeted by Tom and Jimi, a couple of ex-miners who were great fun. Our boss was Kempy, a bloke who looks incredibly like Damon Hill. Then there's the boat crews and us casual workers, which over our two swings consisted of a load of Germans, a French guy, a Kiwi, a few Aussies and Aboriginals, and us two English. All of them were great fun and we all got on really well. The routine was finish work, have a shower and then drink beer until you had to go to bed through tiredness.
Then there's the food. Kev the chef is in charge of that for the majority of the trip and he's a man who loves his work. We got 3 cooked meals a day and more of it than we could possibly eat. On a not unusual day we started with a bowl of muesli before work, then at breakfast it's a big fry up, lunch was lasagne and tea was a choice of Indian or Thai curries. If we'd have stayed until Monday as originally expected we'd been promised Yorkshire puddings too!
Anyway, we've just about scraped together enough for the next part of our trip so we'll be heading out of Broome as soon as we've sorted ourselves out a bit, and got the car ready. The next stage has some very long drives.
The photos from the first swing have been backed up so I don't have them with me, so these are all from the second.
This little python was wandering round the farm one evening. We got some pics, Kempy picked it up but after a while it got quite narked at the attention and got quite angry, so we left it alone!
The view on the way to work every morning:
The farm as viewed from the LARC; the amphibious vehicle they use to transfer the pearl shells and the crew from the boats to the shed:
Charlotte returns from her trip out on the pearling boat:
Shioji - this guy is one of 4 original Japanese pearl divers that remains in Broome, so basically he built this town. One look at the Japanese cemetery in town and you can see what a dangerous business it was (and still is to some extent), so he's an absolute legend and gets maximum respect. He's also a great bloke!
Some of the workers on our last night. Clockwise from Charlotte is Dorothy, Julia, Jimi, Mason, Carlos, Franzi and Dana.
Kempy / Damon Hill and Bree playing pool in the rec. room:
posted by Kev & Charlotte at
5:41 PM
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