Time to move on.
We awoke to an amazing sunrise with the cloudy sky a brilliant red above the blue sky beneath.
The forecast was for rain in the north and in the direction of our intended route. Reference to the BOM site had shown a cloud mass over and to the west of our route. It was dry in Coober Pedy.
Having hitched the car the previous evening our departure routine was easy and we were ready to depart just after 8:30am. We had a discussion with other members of our group and identified an overnight stop plus alternative should the situation arise.
Our first stop was at the Cadney Park Roadhouse for coffee (instant coffee and a cake for $6.00). There was a lot of ground water in the front of the roadhouse and we were told they had recently experienced 25mm of rain. In fact, over recent weeks they were close to their annual rainfall.
We arrived at our intended campsite around lunchtime. The site was not a formal rest area and whilst most of the site was gravel, entry to and from could pose an issue if it was very wet. The site was close to the road, close to the rail line and swarming with flies. We decided to move on.
We stopped at the Marla roadhouse for fuel before deciding to stay in the adjacent caravan park. Three of the group did this with the remaining two, they arrived well after us, deciding to stop outside.
We had lunch and then at 3:00pm went into the bar and restaurant attached to the roadhouse. It rained for the remainder of the afternoon but we remained dry.
Two couples had their evening meal in the roadhouse and the food was acceptable.
We had further heavy rain after returning to our caravan where we watched DVD’s before heading to bed around 10:00pm. By then the rain had stopped.