Thursday, 23 May 2013

Coober Pedy

I have to laugh about my sleeping experience last night. I knew the room would be pitch black at lights out, and I was okay with it. But something else took me by surprise…the surprise came in the middle of the night when I woke up to a feeling of being buried alive! The combination of no air movement, pitch darkness and too warm p.j.s freaked me out. On the edge of an anxiety attack, I scrambled out of bed to flip on the bathroom light. Then, I located the rotating fan and flipped that on. Then, I removed my p.j.s and went back to bed in my tank top and undies. The breeze from the fan calmed me enough to finish the night with a restful sleep. 🙂

Upon waking, Hectie and I put on our running gear and headed outside. I was very happy to get out in the open space and full of air! This morning had a slight chill in the air, but that was not going to stop our run. We left our dugout at 6:15 am and headed out a dirt road leading to the underground Serbian Orthodox church.

Serbian Orthodox Church

Hectie ran to the top of the church outside, while I wound myself down the long hallway into the church. It was so quiet and lonely that I only stayed for a minute before unwinding and stepping back outside.

Inside the church.

Hector and I spotted each other and continued running together. The sun began to rise as we crested the hilltop and headed down the path past a bunch of old tires in a wash. Gorgeous run through the lunar landscape.

Our total run was 5 kilometers.

The Breakaways Reserve

Taking the advice of the B&B owners, Ken and Ana Males, we decided to take a detour to the Breakaways Reserve. And…it was well worth the 30 minute drive through the striking desert scenery.

Our path was flat, but bumps of colorful mesas peaked out from the ground. This area formed millions of years ago and is absolutely stunning…but today it was incredibly windy.

Tom's Working Mine

Shortly after leaving the dirt road from the Breakaways, we turned onto Stuart Highway and stopped at Tom's Working Mine.

At the mine, we opted to go on a self-guided walk and were all by ourselves. We decided to try out some of the tools…not really. We did take some photos of us pretending.

Port Augusta

The drive back was too eventful for one day, but I am happy to have the bad luck out of the way now. We hope to be in the clear for the rest of the trip. The first of the bad drive was due to all the dead cow laying on the side of the highway. Once I started counting, I counted 6 cow. Luckily, we were not the ones hitting these cow.

We did find out the main reason for the speed limit was to maintain a safe speed necessary to stop in time before hitting a cow. We learned this from the police officer who wrote Hector's $730 speeding ticket. Thank God it wasn't due to actually hitting one. By the way, I told him to slow down…now maybe he will listen. Be safe Hectie!

Shortly after the ticket, we stopped in Glendambo to switch drivers. There is not much to this town, but there is a roadhouse. Once on the road, a rock that felt like a boulder hit the windshield. After a shriek, I looked at Hector and said, “this drive is not so good.” Now I couldn't wait to get to Port Augusta. I just wanted off the road!

So as Hector fell asleep, I decided to not stop at Woomera. Woomera was established in 1947 as a launching site for British rockets. Between 1960 and 1972, NASA operated a deep space tracking station. It might have been an interesting stop, but I was not taking any chances. We rolled into Port Augusta, found a room at the Standpipe Motor Inn and had the best Indian food ever!

Drove 612 kilometers.

Ran 5 kilometers.

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