Around 9.30am we stopped at Port Augusta to get some breakfast, and to top up the fuel tanks. We had a surreal moment when a brand new silver Holden Caprice luxury sedan (worth about $60,000) pulled up to the service station, and five dust covered Aborigines piled out of the car to buy some smokes, before they were off again leaving a cloud of dust.
The Stuart Highway starts at Port Augusta and sort of looks like this (see above), and that view stays the same pretty much the same for the next five hours. The rule of the road up here we soon worked out, after about four cars waved at us, is that are expected to wave when you pass another vehicle. We have the wave down pat; just four fingers lifted off the steering wheel.
Spuds Roadhouse, Pidmar.
Around 3pm we reached Coober Pedy (pictured above). Proof there is life on Mars.
Our Motel (above)
Our underground motel room (above). Check out the green bedspread. As you can imagine, Louise is traumatised.To escape the horror, we went to the Old Timers Mine Museum.
Here's Louise the Opal Miner, complete with the hard hat she was forced to wear.
In Coober Pedy, even the churches are underground. This is the Underground Serbian Orthodox Church (pictured below).
John's Pizza Bar & Restaurant is the place to dine in Coober Pedy. As the sign says they have "El Fresco Dining" (SIC)
Louise and I watched the sun go down on a swinging chair on the verandah.
Tomorrow, we are off to Yulara ( Ayers Rock).
