Glendambo to Mulga Park Road After leaving Gol Gol where we all met we travelled via Burra, Port Augusta and the Stuart Hwy, with huge skies, banks of clouds & low saltbush, to Glendamo. The bar was all talk about the Victorian man who had left Alice in a blue Hilux ute and disappeared between there an Glendambo. his car was found abandoned on road and his dog picked up north of Glendambo starving. There were lots or rumors & police had been searching for a week. People have assumed he has chosen to disappear or had have gone off his medication. Mulga Park Road We continued on the Stuart Hwy to Coober Pedy for morning tea and our first fuel stop. Coober Pedy was much better than our last sight of it in 1970. The fleabag hotel and awful café we remembered were still there but looked as if they were about to be demolished, & surrounded by more modern commercial buildings. We had coffee at the town’s swanky but very deserted hotel. The town was full of retired travelers in vans. We felt slightly superior in our cavalcade of camping vehicles.. .but really we are part of the great winter migration of the retired masses who drive through all outback roads in SA, NT, Qld and WA. We abandon the cities and small towns and are drawn to the red sands of the outback; the arid plains and blue/purple escarpments on the horizons. What is calling us? Story of the day was the burnt out tour bus north of Coober Pedy. That must have woken them up suddenly! There were also several burnt out abandoned cars. (Strange that we didn’t notice them on the way home. Were they removed during the intervening weeks? Our first bush camp was tonight off the Mulga Park road just over the border into the NT. We camped in an old road crew clearing after following their grader path in. Lovely. Campfire, stars. To bed early on the Black Wolf camp mats. Great! One million stars! But we didn't sleep well as we kept waking. There were mice in the campsite, scurrying about outside tent about dawn. They were probably sipping the dew that gathers on the tent nylon on dewy nights. Meg got up before dawn to watch the sunrise. It was cold, even with gloves on, but she took a few photos of the orange glow dawn. We packed up the dew-wet tent quickly as we expected a 9am start. the others got going later and draped wet tents over bushes to dry them out. This was one of the only dewy mornings we had. Roof top campers came down more quickly this morning…everyone's getting used to their gear

Mulga Park Rd

Painting Notes • Most northern dawns are orange rather than pink! • Foliage lighter in west (dawn light). Color not disernable, all yellow/greys & dirt is warm red/grey. • Only the tops of lowplants have highlights on them and deepest darks in shadows- textured look. By 10 am the colors were: o 30cm grasses very light on top and tinted down viridian o sap green bushes with yellow highlights on tops o blue/greys in shadows o silver/grey bushes