An enforced holiday in Broome

 

A postcript to the previous post from Halls
 Creek: This is the truck tyre we blew out
 on the Tanami Track.

We’re having a glorious holiday in Broome, an enforced break in fact as we are waiting for two new batteries to arrive from Sydney . . . and that could take seven to nine days from today, July 28.

We had made a mad dash from Halls Creek last Friday, July 25, as we were determined to get our power problem sorted.

At least the 700+ km was on bitumen roads and we had phoned ahead to secure a place in a rather nice caravan park, where we could plug into 240v power, with the option of extending our three-day stay if repairs took longer. The diagnosis by the auto electrician on Saturday was that one of our two ‘house’ batteries had collapsed, meaning the other needed replacing as well.

We were lucky that near us in the caravan park was an electrical engineer from the Blue Mountains, waiting on repairs to his vehicle transmission, and through lots of informal chat, he provided John with a thorough grounding in matters electrical, particularly concerning batteries.

So today, when John saw the auto electrician again he was much more informed and knew what was needed. The guy concurred, but the new gear had to be ordered from Sydney, and has to come by road transport.

We now know that even when not using the motorhome, it should be kept plugged into 240v power so the batteries do not deteriorate . . . so we’re never too old to learn something new.

One of the giant boab trees in the grounds of the
 courthouse, where weekend markets are held.

On the bright side, there are a lot worse places in which to take an enforced break. We love Broome and its atmosphere, even though it is over run with tourists at present, most of them in caravans or motorhomes, camper trailers or campervans.

All sorts of places have opened up overflow caravan space, including one of the local churches and the local pistol club.

We’ve been exploring with the help of a rental car . . . which we’ve now extended for another period, as we have our stay in the caravan park. It is so busy they will have to move us twice in the next week and a bit, but that’s no real problem.

The almost impossible aqua of the water at Broome's

Town Beach.

 

When I phoned to hire a car, I was met with hollow laughter from most firms as all their cars were spoken for, but one had just one available the next morning, a three-door manual Hyundai Getz. When we got into it we found the passenger-side visor had lost its spring and flopped down all the time. We went back in, reported it and they had a scurry around,  deciding they could substitute the vehicle later that day.

When the call came, they’d upgraded us to a brand-new automatic i30 which is gorgeous, but after a month in the cab of the Isuzu truck, it feels like getting down into a sports car.



The bronze statue of a pearlshell diver,

mostly Japanese, who made Broome famous

until the 1950s, when it provided 80% of

the pearlshell used for the buttons of the

world. Then it gained fame for its cultivated

pearls.

We are eking out our pleasures, making sure we have something new to do each day without getting Broomed out. We’ve been pearl shopping (for my big birthday next January); enjoyed breakfast at the weekend markets, met lots of locals and loved the ambience; learnt about the pearling industry past and present; and will go by seaplane and then fast boat through the horizontal waterfalls north of here on Friday.

We’ve promised ourselves sunset drinks at Cable Beach (a local institution), a walk on the port  wharf, and just generally pottering around. The caravan park has a superb swimming pool so that’s where you’ll find us each afternoon.

After a month of driving more than 5000km, with our only real stop three days at Bedourie, this is proving a real holiday. The weather is hot, the watermelon is icy cold, as is the wine and beer, so what more could we want?