We arrived in Coober Pedy late in the afternoon after the mammoth drive from Kings Canyon and headed for Reba's campground just outside of town for a camping experience with a bit of a difference. When we arrived we set about getting the tent pitched up as normal, only this time we were doing it underground!

Coober Pedy is little more than a mining town, with everyone looking for opals, and due to the extreme temperatures a lot of people live underground (especially before the introduction of affordable air conditioning) and there are even underground cafes and pubs and shops. The campground is based in an old quarry that has been modified slightly to create space for campers and there are also a few dorm rooms down there as well, with natural light coming from old drill shafts that reach up to the surface above. There is even an underground communal area near reception complete with a television room and internet kiosk!

Once we had got ourselves set up and fed we headed for the reception area where a small group of us were met by the owner of the campground, Rick, and taken on a guided tour of an old working mine. He started off by showing us the many different rocks that were in the rock and how the miners used the lines of these rocks to try to determine where any opal deposits might be found. We were then taken further into the mine where we were shown how people drill down to sample the rocks below and how they then use the explosives to open up a section of wall.

Rick explained how miners make their own explosives and the necessary precautions needed not only to ensure safety, but also to guarantee the most efficient use of the power in the bombs. The miners would drill nine holes into the wall in a three by three square, making sure that the middle hole was drilled downwards slightly and then they would light them in sequence so that they blew in the correct order. One of the most important factors was making sure that the fuses were long enough to allow each stick to detonate at the right time as well as giving the miners enough time to get to safety!

We were then told about the different methods of trying to find opals, from noodling in the dirt above ground (shaking soil through a sieve) to using black lights to look for them in the dark and using the machinery that is used today. He was quick to point out the flaws of the former methods as he showed us some material that shone under the black light that turned out to be just plain old rock (or 'Potch' as they call it out here) and noted the many signs around Coober Pedy about not walking backwards and not running as there are many open mine shafts around the area that noodlers have been known to fall into. We were also informed that there were no large mining corporations out here and that all the mines in the area are dug by regular Joe's looking to make their fortune.

We were then ushered into another room in the mine where Rick showed us how people look for where the movement of tectonic plates has caused movement in the rocks known as 'slides' that can be used to locate opals. He then went on to tell us that divining rods that are used to locate water can also be used to locate these movements, and he handed around a couple of pairs so that we could have a go ourselves. We started at one end of a tunnel and as we slowly walked along the rods started to move as we got closer to the slide that was evident along the rock wall. It was really weird feeling the rods seeing the rods move towards each other completely out of our control and we could actually feel a drag on them as if someone was pulling them on strings. The tour lasted for just over an hour and then it was time to retire back to our underground dwelling for the night.

This morning we headed into Coober Pedy town centre to have a look around an underground home that three women dug out in the 1960's and in which people still live in today. When we arrived we were shown around by the lady that lives there and told about the history of the house and how it was dug out by a woman called Faye (and later two friends also helped) using just a pick and her hands.

The site used to be a storage facility for the postman, which consisted of just one room that is now the kitchen and from here Faye dug into the side of the hill to create a home consisting of an additional dining room, lounge and three bedrooms as well as a small pantry. There was also an aboveground room built to house the swimming pool as it kept evaporating in the heat when it was initially built outside. All around the house there were matchsticks that had been pushed into small cracks in the ceiling as a warning sign to movement in the rock and if any are found on the floor then the people in the house know that there has been a tremor. There were also a few drill holes leading up to the surface that were used as instant air conditioning and it gave us an opportunity to see just how deep we were.

When we went into the aboveground room we realised just how much heat the underground houses retained as it was really cold up there. We returned back to the main house and the lady told us that another advantage of living underground, apart from the temperature, is that rather than having to get furniture to fit the rooms, you can buy what you like and then just chip away at the rock until it fits around the furniture! She also told us that when Faye built the house she had three dogs and on her first night there, they kept jumping on her bed and kept her awake all night. In order to stop this she simply built a big hole in the wall and put a mattress in there and just like that, she had herself a dog bed.

From here we headed back into town to one of the opal stores that Rick had recommended to us last night called the Opal Cutter. From the outside the shop looked really tiny, but when we got to the entrance we could see that it was just the shop front that we could see and there was a long hallway that once again led us underground and into the shop itself. Once inside we had a look around at many of the displays on the walls and all the different types of opals that were there. When we started talking to the girl that was working there we soon had hundreds of different types of opal in front of us as she showed us black opals, boulder opals and the cheaper doubles and triples that are often found in the souvenir shops in the major cities. There were also loads of different shapes and sizes and it took several hours for us to sift through them all and finally walk out of the shop with something appropriate.

After another long drive we are now back in Port Augusta for a couple of nights as we have a break from moving around, before heading off across the Nullarbor to Western Australia.