Day Eighty Four - September 28th, 2013
Uluru to Coober Pedy

We hit the road and eventually made it back to the familiar Stuart Highway, and made our way down behind road trains and 'grey nomads' (older travellers, usually travelling slowly and towing a caravan with their names stuck on the back...). We stopped to get petrol and came across some semi domesticated emus pecking around in the scrub. I dozed some of the way as I'm still trying to kick the jetlag, but was wide awake when we pulled into the small car park at the South Australia - Northern Territory boarder. It feels like we've been in the Territory for SO long, and we were both ready to escape! I think it marks the end of the outback in our minds, and we're both ready to be out of the dust and away from the flies. Ironically, the flies at the sign were the worst we have experienced (hard to beat) and I ended up swallowing one. Get me to the car, and away from here!

We drove on past the barren landscape of desert, seeing very few people travelling in our direction. We gave the customary outback signal to other drivers (one or two fingers lifted off the wheel in recognition - that's how few people there are out here) but questioned amongst ourselves why people are headed in that direction! Can you tell we're ready to hit the coast yet?!

As we approached Coober Pedy, our stop for the night, the ground started to rise up in piles. This is mining country, and opals are rife. Everywhere you look, there are mounds of earth roughly dug from the ground in the hopes of finding the precious stones. The hotel which is built here is in keeping with the other dwellings of the town; underground. This way, the locals escape the heat and have no air conditioning bills. The hotel paid for itself when it was built - that's how many opals came out of the hole it now sits in.

We found a campsite and settled in. $27 a night unpowered, but showers cost an extra 20c for three minutes - water is limited here. We were tempted by the gourmet pizza menu on free from the campsite, but once we'd seen the kitchen we knew we had to cook. A completely sealed room away from the flies, yippee! There is a state of the art kitchen including an oven, and TV. We nipped to the shops and bought food we've been denied for a while; fish fingers for me and pizza for Elly (he fancied one after reading the menu!). It was so nice to eat indoors away from the pests, and we settled in for a marathon of nature programs on TV - I guess travel has changed me, I used to hate them!

Looking forward to bed after another long day in the car.