Been driving all day! A couple short stops but no longer then for a quick pee, a bit of a leg stretch and one stop at a salt lake for a short walk out on the salt... The army used to use this area for bomb testing so we were warned not to touch any bits of metal poking out of the salt...
After a quick lunch in Glendambo (pop:30) and a few more hours of driving we finally made it to our destination, Coober Pedy. Possibly the oddest town I've ever been to and where we spent the night in the strangest "bunkhouse". Coober Pedy is the worlds largest opal mining site and because is so hot year round most people live underground! Our accommodation was basically a dug out cave. Felt like the Taliban or something living in the hillsides! We went on a pretty good tour of an old mine and were able to explore some of the old tunnels... Very interesting history and current operations, I guess there's no fear of cave-ins because if the rock composition, very similar to concrete. Just dig down and start picking away till you get rich! Giftshop had a piece of opal worth $250,000! It was about the size of a fist. Beautiful stuff! Afterwards we got a little lost trying to find a place where you can dig through rock piles looking for your own free opal...never found it. Met up back at the bus and headed out for a night of pizza and beers! The group is starting to finally open up and we had a great time. There's an Italian couple on there honeymoon (which is funny because all of our sleeping situations are share bunks, hostel style or camping) and another Italian that knows very little english so their always gabbering on in italian. There's a couple girls from Sweden that I guess would have toured tassie with if I starred a day earlier! An older Israeli lady and British guy both traveling alone. An 18 or 19 y/o belgium girl that is an easy target for a lot of joking around, but a good sport, very cute French assent. Anna maria from germany and there's Sandra from Switzerland, very sweet girl and been hanging out with her mostly. She's got a diamond in one of her front teeth, bling!
After pizza we headed to an underground pub for more beers and pool, foosball and poker machines, I tripled my money! Won a whole $3! Met another Aussie traveller that we brought back to the cave with us to finish off a couple bottles of wine. This guy, sandra, anna maria and I all stayed up till about 1am drinking in the srperate dug out kitchen area... Normally ok but we knew we had to be up around 5 and on the road by 6 sharp!
-- Post From My iPhone
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