We continued through the outback, passing through the breakaways. These are rock formations in the desert. We arrived in Coober Pedy at lunch time. Coober Pedy is famous for Opal mining. After lunch we had a tour of an Opal Mine. First of all we watched a video explaining how opals were discovered in Coober Pedy. We then had an opal cutting demonstration by a lady who told us about the different types of opal and the different cuts and finishes you can do. After this we went into an old mine that isnt used anymore. It was like walking through a series of caves. You could see how different tunnels had been dug, some by hand and some by machine. There was a big shaft leading up to the ground that let in light and fresh air. We also saw some of the tools they would use to extract the opals and dynamite used to create the tunnels. Then we were shown around a traditional Coober Pedy house as in Coober Pedy everyone lives underground because it is so hot. The house had everything a normal house would have apart from windows. After the tour we went to the waste ground to try "noodling." This is looking for opals in the waste rocks the mines have dumped incase they missed a bit. A few people found a very small amount of some but I didnt find anything.

After that we visited a kangeroo sanctuary where we saw some orphans being fed. Then Bron revealed our suprise dinner of pizza at a local restaurant. What a treat! It was delicious. Afterwards we went to the underground bar in a hotel where we had a few drinks and took over the juke box. We put songs on that had dance moves to them like YMCA and Cha Cha slide. The locals must have wondered what had happended to their quiet little pub! A few hours later it was time to return to our bunkhouse.

We were also spending the night underground in a bunkhouse. When I say underground we didnt have to go down as the houses and bunkhouse were built into the side of a mountain at street level. All the hills in the surrounding area were covered with little chimneys sticking up out of them for the air vents. Our bunkhouse had a small kitchen area just inside the door and then had a long corridoor room with small alcoves on each side that had a curtain to pull across them. Inside each one was two bunk beds making little bays of four beds. It was similar to a hospital ward with all the curtains drawn across the beds. It was nice and cool inside and quite comfortable to sleep in. It was also the first night I had had a pillow for a couple of weeks, so that was a nice change. We also didnt have to get up as early as we had been doing so we were treated to a bit of a lay in.