Day 5 - Coober Pedy

So on January 6 we traveled from Port Augusta to Coober Pedy, SA (South Australia). Coober Pedy is the ultimate opal mining town where the only businesses revolve around mining and tourism. Did I mention that Coober Pedy is in the middle of nowhere? It is off one of the only sealed roads that go through this area of Australia and thrives on selling opal jewlery to people passing through.

Here's a map to Coober Pedy. It shows how far we've come and far we still have to go.

Just to give you an idea of what the landscape looks like in the middle of Australia, here are some photos we took on the way ....

The moon was out in the middle of the day...gorgeous! I tried to get the desert and the moon together but the moon was a bit too high in the sky! Oh well... its a cool photo anyway!

Our first wild emu sighting!!!!

And here's some photos from Coober Pedy..... there's not much in the town but I was laughing at these signs. How many times do you see that in your life? ha ha!!!!!

So fun stories related to camping in Coober Pedy. First of all, Sam and I got sucked into buying an absolutely gorgeous opal ring. It was for my birthday so I didn't complain too much! ha ha! Then we headed to the pool to cool off after a day of sweating out in the sun. Sam went to take a shower first and decided he would try and use only 20 cents of water (the showers were pay showers). Turns out he finished his shower in less time than he thought and had extra minutes of water...so he lathered up again to get an extra wash and had just finished when the water turned off. He had to run back out to the tent covered in soap to get another 20 cent piece to wash off the soap.

When I went to take a shower after the pool it was pretty late and therefore dark. The showers cost 20 cents so I started my shower determined to finish in one go and not use another coin (although I did take an extra coin so I wouldn't have a re-run of Sam's shower). Unfortunately the lights in the bathrooms are also on timers and halfway through my shower the whole place goes black. So here I am thinking 'crap!'...do I get out of the shower, run naked to turn on the lights and risk running out of water time or just shower in the dark? I ended up showering in the dark until a nice lady came in towards the end and asked if I wanted the lights on! Needless to say I will check the light timers BEFORE I shower from now on!

Did I mention Coober Pedy is in the middle of nowhere? I did? Well did I mention it was HOT??? Because whoa buddy!!!!!! Was it ever hot!!!!

And we had to sleep on rocks. That's right...there is NO grass in Coober Pedy...

not even in the caravan park! Bummer...

Here's a picture of hills of dirt from the opal mining...these are everywhere you look!

Alright party people, that's it for now, but keep checking back. Our next stop is Uluru (or Ayers Rock) and there should be some awesome pictures from that!