To keep us entertained on the long journey we played car cricket, whereby we received points for getting people in cars coming from the opposite direction to wave to us, it seemed to pass the time and was good fun.
When we arrived at Coober Pedy we went on an Opal mine tour. It was fascinating! Learning about how opals were discovered, the machinery used, watching the opal cutting demonstration and about how people lived there. Due to the fact the temperature varies so much, 85% of the towns population live in dugouts which are basically like man made caves either on the side of hills or actually underground. The tour took us through an example of a dug out, it was so strange. The opal mine tour leader told us of how she had recently bought a dugout for $25,000 and yet her car cost her $40,000. Also what was interesting was the fact that as long as you owned a property(had an address in Coober Pedy) then you could look for opals within certain restrictions of land size-hmm interesting, Adam told me to get the idea out of my head straight away! After our tour we were then shown our dorm which was a dugout(underground bunkhouse).
It was strange looking up our air vent which was almost 8 metres high. We dropped our bags off and went across the road for dinner. We all enjoyed a couple of slices of different pizzas and then as it was Nadene’s birthday the next day (a brummy girl on the tour with us) Adam and i ordered a slice of cake with a candle in it and we all wished her a happy birthday.
Following on from dinner we made our way to the hotel/bar dugout where we enjoyed a few drinks and a couple of games of pool. Then it was time for bed.
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