Thursday 13^th August 2020: This morning John and I are up early ready to be picked up at 6.30 for our Kimberley Wild 4WD Bus Tour to Cape Leveque which is up the Dampier Peninsula.  It is a full bus  - 24 - and we pick up all over town, so it’s 7.15 by the time we are on our way – 200 kms of which only 50 is still dirt and this will be bitumen by November they say – they are working on it now and despite what you hear it wasn’t the ‘Kimberley Massage’ they talk about. Unfortunately due to CoVid we still can’t visit Beagle Bay which is famous for the pearl shell altar or go to One Arm Point – to compensate for this we are given a beautiful barramundi lunch at Cygnet Bay. Our first stop is at Cygnet Bay where we have our packed morning tea and then go on a ‘pearl tour’ with a tall slim aboriginal guy called Terry who is fourth generation and went to school here with the Brown boy who is also fourth generation of the Browns who started Cygnet Bay 70 years ago and he is now the controlling person here. Terry took us to their old school room and started the ‘pearl shell’ and ‘cultured pearl’ stories and then to some tanks with pearl shells in and opened one and found a pearl, but not a high grade as it had rings around it. It takes 5-7 years to get a pearl and the process is very labour intensive as the shells have to be cleaned every month. Dean Brown worked out the process of cultured pearls after the Japanese had been doing it for years with the Miki-Moto pearls and now we do it better. In 2009 it was decided to open the farm to the public and they now have different types of accommodation, a lovely restaurant and infinity pool, all right where all the business takes place, only metres from the ocean where the pearls are farmed in their 16 sq mile lease. Still just a narrow bumpy track in here off the main road. In 2004 they produced the largest pearl and were offered $1m but wanted to keep it – it is on display in Broome at their outlet. Terry tells us that there is no ‘rock-art’ here, all aboriginal art is done on pearl shell. Finally we see the finished product, but I am not tempted. It is bit of a coincidence that our last tour driver - Candy had lived in Geraldton for 6 years and knew so many people that we know - she was a good squash player and immediately remembered Cliff when I mentioned his name. Then Sean on this trip had gone to school in Geraldton at St Pats.