Coober Pedy

Monday morning we left Port Augusta heading north on our journey to Darwin. It was lovely sunshine when we left, and all the wild life were out and about again. One poor emu that we came across had just suffered impact from a vehicle that was towing a caravan, it's carcass was being removed from the road and there were feathers everywhere. The road kill on this section of the road was really bad, dead cows, kangaroos and emu's we had to slow down many times to avoid doing any damage to our vehicle and adding to the carnage,
The lakes that we passed actually had water in them, and one that was especially pretty was Lake Hart, it has a rest area there that overlooks the lake, and many travelers stop off there for an overnight stop. As it was only 11.30am when we arrived decided to push on bit further.
The Defence Force are carrying out exercises this month, so the Stuart Hwy is closed to traffic for 4hrs every second day between Bon Bon and Ingarmar which is about an 80klm stretch. Monday it was closed between 10am and 2pm, the road had only just opened when we arrived at the Bon Bon rest area, where we ended up stopping for the night, along with a dozen other caravaner's and 3 whiz bangs. Also stopped there was this fellow that was riding a push bike to Alice Springs, he slept in his swag on the ground only protection from the driving rain & wind that we had last night was the roof covering the picnic tables. Bazza asked him if he would like some hot water for a drink and he replied "if you have the coffee to go with it". This morning once again Bazza offered him a coffee and also gave him 3 weetbix in a bowl. as the only thing he has to eat are tins of tuna and he get fresh water from passing motorists. He told us he stops every 5klms for a smoke and has a shower every 1000 klms! Did not get too close and poured boiling water over the utensils he used.
The rain we had last night continued today so it was a wet & windy trip into Coober Pedy, arrived at the caravan park by 10am. The weather cleared late this afternoon, but has rained again since. We will probably leave here tomorrow if the weather is fine, as on a previous visit we had done all the tourist things. Had planned to go out to the Breakaways, but after all this rain the road is closed and it could be days before it is open again.

7metre wide load (generator)

Bon Bon rest area ended up like a caravan park

Wet and soggy at Coober Pedy caravan park