0026 Coober Pedy to Marla July 15th

Before leaving, we spent the morning exploring all that is CP.  The amazing underground Serbian and Catholic churches, “Fays” underground house, dug by a lady in the mid 1950’s and still lived in today, being ripped off by weird miners in their “shops” who charge a dollar if you happen to even look their way, and taking in views overlooking the town with its weird mix of dirt mound, doors into cliff faces, and wrecked cars and machinery seemingly lying around everywhere !!

We then headed north on more straight,  boring roads !!   This time black top, so at least we were able to cover the ground a little faster !!   

Leaving Coober Pedy and heading north towards Alice Springs, the opal diggings go on beside the road for some 20 kms, and they really do look totally surreal – Just like “Bilbo goes to the desert” !!!  These diggings are the only reason CP exists, but give the whole place such an odd, out of world, flavour !!  Not a lot to see, so for a change we listened to a talking book we had bought.  Then there was frantic waving from on coming cars and we came across some cattle

wandering across the road.  May not sound exciting to you, dear reader, but to us, it was a major event !!!   And when we saw an oncoming triple trailer road train coming towards us, with still a few cows on the road – We didn’t know whether to cover our eyes or run !!!   Fortunately the last cow crossed the road about 10 seconds before the road train arrived !!   Disaster averted !!

Then a little further up the road we spotted a male wedge tailed eagle on the right side of the road, a female on the left, and then saw, also on the right, this weird bird about 2 ½ ft high, that looked like an overgrown curlew or even an over sized road runner !!   Our handy bird book showed it was an Australian Bustard, and it was evidently trying to cross the road !!  We had stopped, and it would start to cross, and then another vehicle would come roaring down the road and the bird would retreat, only to start its crossing again once the car had gone !   When we left about 15 minutes later, it still hadn’t made it across !!  But that was a first – Never (knowingly) seen a bustard so close up before !

Arrived in Marla at about 4 pm and decided it was time for a beer, so pulled in to the campsite, set up, and had a nice Red and some smelly cheese, followed by a steak for supper.  Clear star lit night, not too chilly, and just a perfect end to a day.   Tomorrow we head towards Alice Springs and then turn in to Ayers Rock and the Olgas for a couple of days. 

Pics are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0026CooberPedyToMarla?authkey=Gv1sRgCI-c5q_Vu6Lhbw#