Day 14 - Coober Pedy to Dalhousie Springs.

We were out by the strictly adhered to 10 am departure. Coober Pedy by weekday was much improved,a little activity goes a long way. North of the town is like I imagine driving on a moonscape would be, but with a gravitational pull.

 

 

It is Winter, but any tuft of grass on the roadside looks scorched. We last saw a tree in Coward Springs.

Lunch was on at Oodnadatta. Anyone interested in the below high profile business? Apparently the owner has had The Pink Roadhouse for 20 years and been trying to sell it for 15 of them. Let me tell you, there's not much happening here. The slide in the kids playground has become so brittle from the heat the top layer has broken making it unuseable. There is an Aboriginal school, a dust bowl football field and some netball courts and that is about it. The public toilets and the pub are the only other businesses open.

 

The old Railway Station is considered the principle building in town, it is registered with the National Trust.

 

The remaining trip was along a reasonable track until we turned off at Hamilton Station. We passed the Dalhousie ruins 10km short of our destination but didn't stop as the light was fading. We will come back to it tomorrow. I had to drive through significant water, I breathed a sigh of relief as we got through without a hitch. A dingo chased the camper trailer along the road for 50 metres or so.

The campsite was fairly crowded last night, so Justin had asked an nice man called Alan if we could share his site, warning him that we had three children on board. They were totally fine with that as they had a 16 month old with them. Perfect, I thought, until the dingoes showed up. There were plenty of warnings about them and how to behave around them and to keep all food locked in cars, but after we had been chased along the road the previous night by one, I wasn't too secure. As we ate dinner last night , one slunk around next to our car, and I had one circle behind me on the way back from the toilet. We were nearing a full moon, so they the dingoes weren't hard to spot. Later that night Justin heard some tent dwellers shooing a dingo away as they had left some food in a backpack inside their fly. Give me wombats at Wilson's Prom any day!

After such a rough trip, on arrival Justin checked that our rig was still in good condition. The kitchen extention had removed itself from the rest of the bench. Justin has a theory that my speed caused the spot welds on the kitchen extension to fail, but as no one checked the kitchen after his driving shift I feel we are equally to blame. Four of the eggs has broken, so we polished off my Henry the Eighth soup and an omelette for dinner.

 

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