Broome 2

A loss of internet connection caused half the last blog entry to drop off.

The rest of the saga centred around the hire car provided by Jeep. The original car allocated was a 2WD that is not allowed onto dirt roads. More phone calls and eventually I was provided with a 4WD vehicle that is allowed on designated dirt roads. I had repeatedly explained to the people in the Jeep call centre the logistics of travelling from Port Smith to Broome, but it appears not to have registered.

After I left Broome headed back to Port Smith there were several more phone calls because the RACQ had not sent the written authorisation for the tow truck to pick up the caravan. When I eventually returned to Port Smith Anita had packed up most of the van and we waited for the tow truck. The driver very skillfully backed the van around the park in the narrow spaces. There are short posts marking the boundaries of van sites and we had seen 3 people hit these posts in the 3 days we were there.

The hire car company prohibits animals in vehicles but we had no choice so covered the back with tarpaulins and put the large dog cage inside so both dogs were contained. The cats had to stay loose but soon realised they were better off in the back rather than having to suffer icy cold air conditioning in the front. The tow truck driver was relieved to learn he was not transporting 2 dogs and 2 cats!

It was weird to follow our own caravan when we are used to having it behind us. We arrived at the PCYC but there was no powered site available so we had to prop for one night on a non powered site. The helpful volunteers here moved us to a nice shady site this morning. We set up the van with all shade walls and table and chairs. The dogs like to sleep under the van while the cats love the warm caravan. 

The latest on the Jeep is the battery has to be replaced even though we had fitted a new battery in March before we left on our trip. A new battery has to come from Perth but a new alternator has to come from eastern states via Perth. Consequently the predicted one week to have the Jeep fixed is looking optimistic.

The dogs are going to spend the weekend in the Broome Pet Motel because we don't want to be seen taking them on trips around town in the hire 4WD, and we can't just leave them here by themselves all day. Anita is not authorised to drive the hire 4WD so that is another limitation, but we may be able to fix that with a visit to Thrifty tomorrow. In the meantime we at least have access to phones, internet, supermarkets etc not available at Port Smith.