October 14, Marla

 Today was the day we were supposed to visit Coober Pety. Unfortunately the rains had washed out the tracks (it's on a spur line), so we couldn't get there.

What we did instead was to stop for hours at Marla, population 100. Since the Ghan runs on freight tracks, much like Amtrak, I think the purpose was to get us out of the way so the freight trains could keep to their schedules. People could and did get off the train to walk around in the desert.

Paula wanted to, and I wanted to let her. They had only a couple of doors open, where they were keeping careful track of who was off the train. I should have let her, but I would have had to carry the scooter pieces through the lounge and two dining cars, probably taking three trips each way, and I really just didn't want to. I scouted out briefly, and mostly what was out there was flies. But I'm sorry now we didn't do it.



Queen Adelaide Restaurant
Marla


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