Leaving Coober Pedy with all its dirt mounds was quite unreal. For some time after, both sides of the road were littered with dirt piles.

We stopped for fuel and a driver changeover at Cadney Homestead roadhouse,

but after that the drive had a sameness about it apart from the signs about wandering cattle and the crossing of cattle grids along the way.

We ate lunch at Marryat rest area

in our caravan but as usual didn’t put up the poptop which is fine if you just bend over a bit to get in and out. From there it was much the same, straight road, signs and grids, until we crossed the border into the Northern Territory. There were some entry signs

plus speed limit signs

followed by our first 130 km/h speed limit signs. As far as I’m aware the NT has the fastest speed limit signs in Australia, I guess because of a smaller volume of traffic and long distances between towns.

As far as our driving experiences in Australia had gone this was the highest speed limit sign we had seen but with a caravan behind us we would still be driving no faster than 90 km/hr to play it safe. Finally we made it to Erldunda roadhouse where we checked into their caravan and camping area. We managed to book a powered site. After setting up for the night we spent some time resting at our caravan until nearly sunset.

We had seen a sign to a sunset viewing area so we decided to walk over there. On the way we passed an enclosure with a camel, some kangaroos and a large white rooster named Cluck Norris. Apparently he thinks he is a kangaroo and is well known for this trait. At the raised viewing stand we witnessed a spectacular sunset.

We had a fun conversation with our fellow travellers before retiring to our van to cook dinner.