So after leaving Port Augusta on Saturday 5th December we started our journey into the outback with our first port of call being the opal mining town of Coober Pedy. After a 5 hour drive we arrived in the town where to give you an idea of what it looks like they filmed ‘Mad Max’ and ‘Pitch Black’. There aren’t many trees or plants, most of the landscape is filled with the remnants of mining piles of small stones which have been finely search for any of the precious opal. A high percentage of the towns residents live in underground caves burrowed into the side off mountains or furtherley excavated mines. Apparently some are like mansions with dozens of rooms and even pool table and such. No the reason they live like this the average yearly temperature is 35’s and in the summer it can be regularly 45’c were when you live in the rock homes it’s a constant 20’c or so all year round.

For one night only we checked into Riba’s underground camping were you take your tent in out of the elements and pitch up in a cave. It was well cool and included in the price was a tour of a mine on the site. Anyways we had a few hours to spare so had a little look around the town. Heading up to the big winch looklout, a look around the underground catholic church, a little opal shopping (Corinne got some ear rings) and a few big props from the movies mentioned earlier. We had time to grab some dinner from John’s Pizza which lived up to its reputation for damn good pizza. Back at Riba’s we had the tour around the mine which was no longer used and the various techniques used for looking for opal.

We had such a goods night sleep underground not effected by the heat or the early rising sun AND NOT EVEN the flies which don’t like it underground which were really starting to become a pest.