Coober Pedy to Port Augusta is 542km with two roadhouses and two Rest Areas (with toilets). The landscape is characterised by treeless plains of saltbush on the top of the jump-up country.

The entry to the Lookout Cave Motel

Sunrise on the hill above our unit

The edge of town looking north to The Breakaways

Ventilation shafts for the units at our motel

Back to see the spaceship.

Farewell to Coober Pedy from the highway

The endless plains

The highway crosses the railway at two points – this overpass and a level crossing (in a 110km/hr area).

Saltbush country

Ahh.  The memories of childhood with the risk of blood and shattered bones from unobservant children walking into the path of a high velocity hardwood slab. The beloved plank swing.  Is this the last working one of its kind in Australia? Obviously the health and safety police have never ventured as far as Glendambo. Pictured are two people who have made their own risk assessment and deemed it safe. (No one was hurt in the production of this image)

At Glendambo – the only landline available to the public for 366km.

Near Bon Bon Station turnoff is an emergency airstrip on the highway where motorists get to share the tarmac with the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Northern end of the runway taken from moving vehicle at 110km/hr.

Island Lagoon salt lake northern section from a rest area near the highway.

Pigface (Carpobrotus spp.)

Unknown pea flowering on the jump-up plateau near Island Lagoon.

Island Lagoon from the Rest Area.

The muddied salt and the conical hill in Island Lagoon

Grey green saltbush dominated the landscape the closer we get to Port Augusta.

Ranges Rest Area had distant views east to the Flinders Ranges.

A beacon of hope for weary travellers, the first toilet in 200km. I could write a book about roadside toilets. This one looked great from the outside but fell short on the inside (no pun intended). This was called a hybrid toilet but I am unsure what it was hybridised with! First consider the definition of hybrid –  noun: a thing made by combining two different elements;  adjective: of mixed character; composed of different elements. Consiering the word “hybrid” used in this context (hybrid toilet) is an adjective, I will assume it is of mixed character. When standing over one these mixed character devices, it is hard not to look down from time to time and the true mixed character is revealed. It reminds me of the quote of Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, “if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”

The low sun close to sunset. We arrive at Port Augusta and stay at the excellent Crossroads Ecomotel (highly recommended on quality and value).