We have continued South to Marla staying one night in the motel and then onto Coober Pedy as weather and Covid-19 has forced a further alteration of plans.

Marla roadhouse provides comfortable accommodation and good food, be mindful of day of week as Friday attracts a lively crowd, which can be a bonus or negative depending on your view on life. We enjoyed listening to indigenous men singing in native tongue outside our room early in the morning, which was a damned sight better than listening to ‘ten green bottles hanging on the wall’ repeated multiple times.

We get into Coober Pedy early providing time to explore the Kanku-Breakaways, a very pleasing landscape just out of town. The mesa and butte landforms in their red, orange and white variations in the afternoon sun with passing cumulus clouds make for great photography. We enjoyed the gypsum covered hills that sparkled brilliantly in the sun. The indigenous story about the two dingoes one brown and one white, captured in the landscape, was rather ironic given the recent establishment who took the land away from the indigenous folk and installed a dingo proof fence from the Great Australian Bight, past where we stood and all the way into Queensland. One thing i have noted in my travel is where there are dingoes kangaroo numbers are lower than in the dingo controlled side of the fence. Dingoes also do a good job at controlling fox and feral cat numbers.

We are settled in at the Opal Inn. Coober Pedy is famous for its opal. Food and accommodation is good, staff are very friendly. The Passion Bakery and Cafe is worth a visit.

If you are only accustomed to big city living, visiting and staying in settlements like Marla and Coober Pedy reminds you there is a diverse and interesting country to explore and you can only be better for it intellectually and spiritually by travelling and experiencing it.