A day of leisure greeted us this morning - fathers day and we were up at 6:30 am !!!
All the usual stuff out of the way , we headed in to town to do some shopping , first we went to the cemetery - not just any cemetery - the Japanese Cemetery and the Chinese Cemetery !!
At the entrance it was quite clear how they were being looked after , the Japanese Cemetery was tidy and had base of shells & shell grit to walk on when you left the paved walkway . Not so much in the Chinese Cemetery , there you have an impressive entry way , some paved paths and Pindan red dirt , with some sad looking grass .
It became apparent how many Japanese lives had been lost , diving for pearls , or caught in cyclones . There is one monument for all the sailors who had died in the cyclones over the years ! It was a very sobering sight , all these nicely maintained grave sites - apparently they were all cleaned up and tidied up when a group of Japanese manufacturers got together and sponsored cleaning up the graveyard and grave sites !!
The headstones are made of beach rock , some of which have ripplestone on the back of them - very fitting - the ripplestone has been here for an eternity and now these people have joined them there in eternity .
Across to the Chinese Cemetery , and you walk in through impressive gates & pagoda , and that’s where the differences shone through . Here you had only a few headstones , that were painted silver and stood out against the Pindan dirt !!
We decided we would head off and do our food shopping , and head back for a swim down at the beach .
Shopping done & packed away , I lost Lyn - she was chatting to some people 30m away from us , but then found her again and we continued to chat to these people - David & Judy - for about half an hour , before the phone rang . Emma had called for Fathers Day , so we left them and went back to the RV , about 15mins later Justin rang , so we were having 2 chats in different rooms , till we changed and swapped phones and continued to chat for a while . We decided to have some lunch as it was 1:30 PM , so we could head down to Cable Beach for a swim in the ocean !!!
The carparks & access to the beach at the northern end had been closed to vehicles this morning , ready for tonights concert , markets & fireworks to close the end of pearl week . We had a ride around down there and headed back to the park to have a calm swim in the pool . The water in the pool was cooler than the ocean , but was still quite good !
All showered & fed , we are heading down to the closing ceremony and fireworks .
Well , that was great , huge crowds , great fireworks and a pleasant night out !!
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