We have had a lot of unsociable get ups whilst we have been in
Australasia, but the 530am alarm on Wednesday morning to make our pick
up for the 6 day trip to Alice Springs was pretty much the worst one
so far, and it was only gonna get earlier over the next few mornings!

If we were feeling a little bit tired and quiet, we were in a damn
better mood than our driver who spent the whole morning stomping
around huffing and puffing - maybe he was upset at having to drive for
11 hours on Australia Day, but whatever the reason he was one grumpy
unit!

We caught some flies sporadically for the first few hours and
gratefully jumped out to stretch the legs at any given opportunity,
because being so cramped in that heat was not exactly pleasureable!
As we passed through Port Augusta, the last point of civilisation for
the day for a few hundred kilometres and an important crossroads for
Australia, shortly after 10am, the temperature was already creeping up
and our driver briefly gave us a bit of spiel in his own way-telling
us we would visit the old mine when we finally got to our destination
tonight (no Hutch, he did NOT say we are going wine tasting!!).

The rest of the day was pretty much spent counting down the hours and
kilometers to Coober Pedy, with the mood of the driver getting no
better along the way! Even our flip flops and bottom of our bags were
hot from the floor of the van and every time we got off the bus the
heat that hit you was immense and we proper felt like our brains were
being fried! We even came across a little snake that appeared to have
been frazzled to death itself when we stopped to look at a salt lake
that was very similar to those in Bolivia - and yes, it did taste very
salty!

Apparently we were lucky because the temperature was even hotter last
week - to the extent that the road bitumen actually started to move!
But 46 degrees at Coober Pedy was definately hot enough for us, and it
was a good job we were spending the night underground in caves built
in to the rock at a cooler 25 degrees!

After we pulled in to otherworldly Coober Pedy, the opal mining
capital of the world which reminded me quite a lot of Uyuni, we went
on a little tour of one of the old mines and got to see how the
underground houses that people still live in today to escape from the
intense heat were built, along with some original old mine shafts with
bits of opal still in the wall.

The heat was just unbelievable, and nothing like anything either of us
had experienced before. I literally felt like I was getting burnt
even when we were under complete shelter, such was the intensity of
the temperature in the air. I'm pretty sure it was melting my brain
as half way through a sentance I would start slurring my words and not
be ableto finish it off properly!

There was then a tense standoff beween the group and Tony as he
carried on with his appalling attitude (to the point where a snotty
letter of complaint has now been written!) and he got all protective
over his 'pots and pans'. Anyway once we moved on from that and had a
bit of a b**** about everything, we had a well earned cold beer with
tea before visiting an underground church and then, easily the
highlight of the day, a kangaroo orphanage. The 'roos were really
cute (though not to the point where we were tempted to buy some
'genuine 'roo poo'!) and we got to see them at feeding time as they
guzzled on milk through teats just like a baby does - maybe that is
why the couple that runs it let's them sleep in their bed at night,
which maybe took things a little too far?!?! They were really nice
though and then we got to hold a little 6 month old joey called
Jessica complete with a substitute pouch. I've never seen Hutch move
so quick as when they asked who wanted a hold first!!

For day 2 we gave breakfast a miss seen as we weren't willing to get
up at 5am just to satisfy Tony on a day where it seemed we had nothing
to do other than wait around for our proper tour guide who was
arriving at some point (his sarcastic suggestion of 'go for a run' did
not go down well!). But the day actually got off to a great start as
the other group arrived around 10am and the really fiendly guide
Trevor came bouncing through all our rooms saying hi!

So after hooking up with our new half the group we all went to another
better mine tour where we actually got to 'noodle' for some opal.
After lunch we headed out to a site called the Breakways where, after
some serious wilting (and sweatin from Hutch) in the heat, Trevor told
us a bit about the Aborigional culture from this area - including one
particular story which brought tears to my eyes about the male
initiation ceremony! It was a pretty amazing fact to learn that we
were in the driest state on the driest continent on Earth - kinda
ironic given all the floods that have been happening elsewhere! We
even got to see 'The Longest Fence in the World', which stretches for
5,300km across three states to keep the dingoes away from the cattle!
A dubious point of interest, but given how remote we were we couldn't
really expect much more!

Back in town after our nice morning we had some free time which we
used to get some respite from the heat and just relaxed in our
bunkhouse in what was relatively cool temperatures. For tea we had
pizza and a few beers followed by some free pool and jukebox action
before strolling home at around 11pm (when it was still 36 degrees) to
squeeze in a few hours sleep before the 430am alarm!