This morning was one of the earliest we had arisen. We did this as we wanted to be down the track to the lookout in the Painted Desert before sunrise. This was achieved and we endured the cold pre-sunrise time. We were on the road by 0630 which is a record for us with the Karavan.
Our first stop was the lookout which was about 6 kilometres from where were free camped overnight. Unfortunately, we could not camp closer due to it being on private property and there was a sign a short distance from us stating “no camping inside 15 kilometres from the homestead”.
It is quite a steep rocky road into the lookout but our vehicles did it without any problem. I stayed in the Bravo until it warmed a bit when the sun came up. I could see the changing colours from the cabin. They are absolutely fantastic. As I mentioned to our neighbour at home today, Martin, that it is a must see both at evening and again in the morning. The colours are for ever changing. It is probably possible to spend all day there to observe the changes. Prue took many photos in the area.
Eventually, we moved on. The road was horrendous. I am not joking when I tell you that the corrugations in the road were up to 125mm deep and about 250 mm apart. Our speed was less than 10 kilometres per hour for the first several hours. It was not constant but just as it appeared to be over another lot would commence. We had time on our hands but the residents in this area must have a hard time.
We soon past by the Arckaringa homestead on whose land the Painted Desert is located. The land is extremely arid and although we did see some cattle there did not appear to be many. These cattle, the most we had seen all week, were mainly of Poll Hereford Angus cross. They all appeared to be in reasonable condition even though there did not seem to be much to graze.
Some 40 corrugated kilometres later we eventually came to Mount Barry homestead where we joined what seemed to be a super highway, the Oodnadatta to Coober Pedy road. It was really good although patches of bull dust were evident along the way. We stopped not long after joining this road to have a morning coffee. Up until this time we had not seen another person or vehicle since just after leaving Oodnadatta, some 15 hours later. Not uncommon occurrence out here.
Our next interesting observation was the locally called “Lollipop Lane”. It is called this as the few plants that are there are dotted across the landscape and resemble lollipops sticking out of the ground. It is not hard to imagine this.
A short time after this, we came across the locally known “Moon Plain”. It is an incredible sight which is virtually out of this world. It has absolutely no vegetation on it and there is nothing visible other than the road snaking through it. Its olive green appearance resembles images often seen of the moon. It goes on for about 40 kilometres. During this time I was aware of a road train catching up and as Prue wished to take some photos, I pulled off the road. We allowed the dust to settled or blow away before taking photos.
Then we moved on again with not too many more kilometres to go before we started to see the colourful back drop around Coober Pedy. It did take a while before we actually arrived in Coober Pedy. We were greeted with amazing scenes of underground mines and the dwellings that are built into them to get the benefit of cooling in the extremes of summer.
On entering, we found an Auto Electrician shop where I was able to get the parts to replace the minor damage caused yesterday. It took me a few minutes to repair it later. As we expected, we found Russell and Julie that we had met at Coward Springs originally and joined them in the same Caravan Park. They had already had one day here. They were able to give us information on where to go to get services and what tour to book for.
Prue did some washing after we set the Karavan up with its awning. This time the awning is for shade not to keep cold weather out like we had in Wilpena Pound. Today was a beautiful 27 degrees. Washing dried very quickly. Afterwards we drove into the town to get a nice cappuccino and to get some supplies, red wine included.
On our return it was nearly time for a happy hour or so. We were joined by Julie and Russell for possibly the last time unless we catch them at Uluru. Later, we all cooked separate meals at our ‘homes”.