1C tonight! (34F). I am in a place obviously named by Astro, the Jetson's dog - "Orroroo".
Makes me wish I had brought all my heated gear, but I only have the gloves. Most of today's ride ride was around 57F, but with the stuff I had it wasn't bad. Winter in southern Australia is pretty tame & the next week or so will be OK, but not ideal. You can get a glimpse of my enthusiasm for the last week of riding by listening to this clip of a couple of Australian Ravens...
Australian_Ravens.mp3

Last little bit - about 1,250 miles to go! Rain in Port Augusta on Thursday so I'm staying here in Coober Pedy until Friday... the farther south I get the colder it will be.

Not far from Uluru is Kata-Tjuta. The bottom picture is King's Canyon, sorta on the way back to civilization. (200 mile side-trip)

This is arguably the most famous picture from Australia - Uluru (Ayer's Rock) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uluru. The bottom pictures shows how it just jumps right out of the surrounding plains. (No cellular last couples nights)

A few road signs...
Top - Red sign caught my eye, even though no way I would take this dirt road
Middle - no speed number means there is no speed limit here
Bottom - Leaving the "no speed limit" zone! Shrek's cruise drops out at 95mph, so...

Went back to Daly Waters, but this time yeah, it was cooler, but also crowded! Now heading to Alice Springs & Uluru. Not only weird animals & people here - strange trees, too. The Boab is here! Some of you will remember the Orchestra Boabab? That's what these are called in Africa. The locals call them "Bottle trees".

Well, back to Three Ways and down to Alice Spings, etc. However, it is now 63F there, getting to 40F tonight. I found myself 1,600 miles from Melbourne (about 10 days riding w/sidetrips) with 28 days left! So turn around I go, just kickin' around the warmer north until I have to go where it's colder. Only 125 miles up (took me 2 days to do this!) & it's 77F now with a low of 56F expected tonight - much more better! So I stop and take this picture - Yeah I know, it's just a bunch of rocks...(Devil's Marbles, this is called)

After all this time - another new creature!
The side trip really was quite awesome on its own: marvelous new scenery that would not have been visible from the main path. However, there was another aspect that really was quite amazing. Some of you will remember North American creatures in the bike's path - an alligator in the Everglades, a moose in Alaska, a grisly in the Yukon. But this was a first; I had to slow down and stop to allow camels to cross that little road! Hot again here but this time I will savor it before I go back to the colder south. 97F tomorrow and Saturday in Camooweal but there is a great pool & facilities here (which includes a pub to get food and play music!) so I will stay until Sunday.

Back in the Outback!
I got off the main road to get a glimpse of the real outback! The top picture shows the road to Middleton, then on to Boulia & Mt. Isa. This is what's called a "developmental road" so it is one lane only, no makings. Middleton is a one-building town, no cellular here! Please note the helicopter in the bottom picture! The old man has been here since 1959, used to have a couple hundred camels, which he took into town and sold.