Oodnadatta

As we left our camping spot this morning we discovered that we had been camped on the banks of Agnes Creek. This morning the weather was weird, cloudy and thick mist which didn't clear until we were well down the road at 10am. It was a straight forward run from there to Marla Roadhouse. When we arrived Maria and I went searching for the Post Office. This proved to be the receptionist of the motel part of the business. It was 1030am and she said she hadn't actually opened for business but since we had stamps already we could just post them into the mail box outside. At this stage Maria was standing staring at the traditional red post box very suspiciously. Her concern was that there were only blank spaces where the usual collection time should have been displayed. I told her that the "post mistress"  had assured me that this was where they should go. I didn't add that I hadn't thought to ask how often the box was cleared. Maria was also expecting a community of some description. Instead there is just an enormous roadhouse, motel complex. This is the busiest roadhouse we have seen, even more than Ularu. From Marla we left the highway to head East to Oodnadatta. We had heard various reports about the condition of the road and there were some pretty big bog patches but we could go around them quite easily. The countryside had huge expanses of gibber plains but they have obviously had good rains and where things could grow they were looking green and healthy. We saw a few other vehicles but the road was pretty quiet.
We stopped for lunch by one of the creeks and then mosied on into Oodnadatta. As we approached the town there were interestng mesa hills with various coloured soil. Here we visited the famous "Pink Roadhouse" which is very pink including having a pink Volvo parked out the front. We checked out the caravan park and decided that we would much rather  "bush camp" somewhere down the road. The local Police man pulled up just then so we asked about the road to Coober Pedy and whether there were camping spots along the road. He told us the road was OK and there was plenty of camping adjacent to the creeks but to be careful because the ground around some of them would still be a bit soft. Read boggy. After a beer at the pub and a chat with the barman who told us the number of tourists was down because there had been a lot of rain we shook the mud off our mudgards and set off.
We stopped not far out of town at Newey's Creek where there is a lovely permanent waterhole. Then headed down the road with the plan to drive for about half an hour and then look for somewhere to camp. This didn't look too promising initially as there are huge explanses of red gibber plains. We came across a vehicle parked on the side of the road just past an expansive pool of water. As we got closer the woman waved frantically indicating we should stop. We then realised that her two companions were busy retrieving plastic boards for extracting the vehicle from a bog beside the road. The poor things had decided to go around the water not realising that they were driving into the creek and were immediately up to their axles in mud. They recommended that we go straight through the middle of the water but in 4WD and we had no trouble. They were tourists from NSW and they will be a while getting the mud off themselves let alone their vehicle?
We found a suitable camping spot not long after and set up for the night. This is the first evening that we sat around in shirt sleeves until after the sun went down. We are further south tonight and the cloud and heavy mist of this morning is behind us. Hopefully the weather will stay clear. Coober Pedy tomorrow.