I awoke at 4.30am... anxious to get on the road. I laid in bed until just before 6am and then got up and packed up. I was out the door at 7am just as the sky was lighting up, picked up some riding snacks at the servo (service station) and then with great enthusiasm and gusto promptly rode off in the wrong direction!! I realized my error and turned around by Nathan's shop... I ran into Jeff, one of the artists I'd met yesterday. He was shooting photos for a travel brochure, and took mine as well. We wished each other well, and I was off... in the right direction this time.
Coober Pedy is a very odd little town... basically people live in a gravel pit. And of course it takes a special breed of person to embrace this lifestyle.
Riding went well, as the road seems to have leveled off a little. Of course a couple days rest didn't hurt either, and I pushed on stopping only once in 47 miles when Andrew caught up with me around 10am. As I pulled into the Poortnoura rest area there were two girls washing their hair with water from the rain-catch tank. I couldn't help but think of what a waste that was to use water that might save someone's life for bathing.
I was in desperate need of a cup of coffee, but with Dave several hours behind us today there was no stove or cooking pot. So instead I built a small twig fire and used a very small spaghetti can to boil water. It took three cans to make a single cup of coffee, but it was an excellent cup if I do say so myself!
Somewhere during this coffee-making frenzy two caravans pulled in. Andrew walked over for a chat and I followed in a few minutes with my coffee. They were very nice people, older and retired and offered us some treats. However, their 3-legged dog "Handsome" was very protective of his owner, Graham, and promptly bit me on leg when I reached in to accept a cookie! It hurt like hell and broke the skin, but I was gracious about it not wanting to offend the caravaners... and of course not wanting to look like a psychopath, I had to suppress my instinctual reactions!
Dave arrived about 4.30, and so with the mess kit present we made a quick supper and then had a nice chat with a couple from Queensland and a man that had emigrated from Prague in the former Soviet Union. He was hoot, being a conspiracy nut... it was all about government spying on its people, Jewish global banking conspiracy, etc. Quite amusing especially given the setting!
We broke out our new star chart after dinner and had a go at picking out the constellations until bed time at 8pm.
