Broome time

We had a good night's sleep and woke feeling ready to tackle the day and all it might throw at us.  Had time for coffee and breakfast before we headed into Broome and back to the auto electrician.  Larry's diagnosis was proved correct - one of the batteries had died and taken the other with it in a murder/suicide kind of arrangement so there was nothing for it but to buy two new (and being Larry, why not got slightly bigger) batteries and while we're at a DC charger to go with it.  A big hit to the wallet but the caravan park is full of stories of people's misadventures and things going wrong and costing big bucks so we are possibly luckier than some (even though we don't feel too lucky having problems so early in our trip).

Headed back into the town centre and a trip to the bank to retrieve Larry's credit card (which Westpac had nicely sent up from Perth) then headed off to Bunnings for some bits and pieces to help connect up the new batteries.  Didn't quite make it there straight away though as Jenny craftily directed Larry right past Matsoe's brewery so that Larry thought he had the good idea of any early lunch and a mango beer or two.  Jenny, being the amiable sort she is, readily agreed!!

Feeling thoroughly sated, and a bit more like actually being on holiday instead of some endurance test, we did our trip to Bunnings, then a camping store and then to Woolies for some last minute supplies.  Headed back to the campsite so Larry could wire up the new batteries and as Jenny didn't feel like standing around like some useless nursing assistant waiting for Larry to shout 'scalpel!', she took herself off to the pool and gossiped with the grey nomads swapping travel routes and caravan disaster stories.

Larry eventually got the batteries connected and then it was time to head back into town and to the airport to collect Ben.  Now that the battery situation is resolved and Ben safely arrived, we can start to relax and enjoy our holiday.  We headed straight down to the Town Beach markets and strolled around the stalls selling lots of Asian food and mango icecreams/smoothies etc.  Had a lovely, relaxed meal catching up with Ben and listening to the guitar players sitting on the grass on a balmy Broome evening.  Now this is more like it.  Broome time has worked its magic.