100 kms short of Marla

Yesterday was bitumen all the way. We used our overnight stay in Ularu to sort domestic details such as washing and shopping. The caravan park was very noisy thanks to some young bloods on an "Red Centre" car rally. All in a good cause but an early morning alarm of air horns was not our ideal of a dawn chorus. Never the less it had Bob up .showering and using the washing machine early so it wasn't all bad.
The drive out to the Stuart Highway was very pretty and again green thanks to the good rains. The traffic was light but steady. The only entertainment was the sight of 20 seater buses pulled over onto the shoulder with their young and obviously international passengers out scavenging for fire wood. It seems that the tour operators have special dispensation to have camp fires in their area of the park.
We also came across a badly damaged small car on the side of the road which had it's front completely smashed up. Just past it was a dead cow, the other victim of the confrontation. Apart from that there has been very little road kill along the way. Our itinerary goal was Marla (traditional name Marla Bore) but as the day wore on with the thought that the "Red Centre" boys were ahead of us we started looking for an alternative. So here we are camped on the bank of a dry river bed with a few other like minded campers scattered around. It has obviously been a traditional over night stop because the station owner has left a large area before erecting a fence about a kilometre in from the road. It is clean, peaceful and beautiful with the river gums providing just enough firewood for our own determined scavenging.
Today Oodnadatta is only about 300 kms on so hopefully we will be early enough to claim an attractive camping spot again.