480 miles today - longest trip in one day so far. Majority of it was flat red desert and apart from the eagles feeding on the day's roadkills no other life. Although we were quite surprised at the number of cars/caravans going north; southerners escaping the cold winter (19deg) for the warmer north (30deg)!

Our highlight was finding an abandoned dog in a rest area when we stopped to make tea. It looked like a bull mastiff and was under a table keeping out of the sun. Bless, he was so pleased to see us. We gave him some water, a tin of salmon and weeabix and he really perked up. We couldn't really take him with us because of our situation and we weren't sure where the next town was. Fortunately, some Australians pulled into the area and they said the best thing was to report it to the the police in the next town which was 30 miles away. So that's what we did. Who would leave a dog in the middle of the desert - I mean you can understand leaving your kids but not your dog!!

We had planned to spend some time in Coober Pedy but have to say it's not our favourite spot in Oz. It is the Opal mining capital and there are millions of white sandhills around where they drill for the prized gem and then abandon the sites. The population is 3500 and think they must all be miners. It is best described as a dust bowl where most houses and hotels are built underground to escape this and the extreme temperatures. You have to be careful walking around in case you fall down a hole. Because of the water shortage we could not fill our water tank and showers were rationed so an overnight stay was enough. Ray said, "let's do the John Wayne shepherd and get the flock out of here," and continue our journey across the desert.

320 more miles to reach Port Augusta and reasonably back to civilization - we hope!!

Jen and Ray