12/09/2021 Easier Done Than Said: Alice Springs to Coober Pedy via Marla Roadhouse

- September 13, 2021

Well that was easy in the end.

We drove past the NT checkpoint for entry from SA, where the police lolled beside their fire pit, looking very relaxed.

NT is doing all the hard work here.

We pulled in to the SA/NT tourist information rest area and took the obligatory photos.

We're here! Still expecting a border checkpoint but proceeding anyway...

We kept going down the highway, all gee'd up to go through a check point but no such luck. South Australia trusts us to tell the truth and we are free to lollygag around the state as much as we want, although the fine print on our permits does remind us to carry them on us all the time as we could be randomly asked to produce them. So we will lollygag both responsibly and with appropriate papers.

Lunch brought the unhappy realisation that we had left all our lunch fixings and cold goods in the fridge back in Alice Springs. Deprived of ham, cheese, and tomatoes we reverted back to the dry crackers and peanut butter of our cycle touring days. Alas, this morning we had even polished off the last of the Nutella! Some hardships just have to be endured and as long as we don't break our teeth on the crackers I'm sure we'll be the stronger for it.

SA is coming last in the rest area convenience rating scale. Dirty and daggy picnic areas and no toilets which means that the bush around the rest area is festooned (dis)tastefully with toilet paper in various stages of use and decay.

We were kept entertained during the drive by flocks (mobs?) of budgerigars zooming and tumbling through the air above the mulga, having heaps of fun in the stiff head wind that was wreaking havoc with our fuel consumption.

Beware the budgie gang.

We stayed the night at Marla Roadhouse, going for a short walk along the Oodnadatta Track and, subsequent to dinner fixings being back in the fridge in Alice, eating dinner at the Roadhouse cafe.

Home for the night: Marla Roadhouse

The moon is getting brighter, making it more difficult to get a good picture of the stars.

I was up bright and early the next morning for another walk out along the Oodnadatta Track.

Red bulldust, piled in neat lines where trucks have stopped before coming into Marla.

Start of the Oodnadatta Track. Maybe I'll ride my bike up here when I've got nothing better to do.

Early morning sunlight on corrugations, Oodnadatta Track outside Marla.

We had our breif moment of summer between Camooweal and Alice Springs, and today winter reasserted its dominance with temperatures that didn't rise above 17C and a strong crosswind all day long. Rest breaks were not pleasant but we soldiered on and had morning coffee regardless, because the day is not complete without coffee break.

A man must have his elevenses.

The Stuart Highway is lined with contemporary art installations exploring the interaction between the linear energy of the highway, the terminal velocity of the motor vehicle, and the temporary and ephemeral nature of the human being driven by Darwinian impulses.

We're in Coober Pedy tonight, having walked the main street, considered the ritual tourist traps and opal shops ranging from the sublimely expensive to the ridiculously quixotic, and bought ourselves a lunch that included anything but crackers and peanut butter. Now we're hiding in the camp kitchen because it is absolutely freezing outside: we've survived the family-cook-up bedlam hour and are now in the much more civilised old-people-with-wine count down to bed time.