Coober Pedy - Australia's 'Special' Place

Our first stop after leaving Yulara was the Erldunda Roadhouse again, and on the way a dingo ran across the road in front of the bus - the first one we've seen in the wild despite going to Fraser Island! After some second breakfast we set off again, stopping at the Northern Territory/South Australia Border, where we had a photo and toilet stop. We stopped again at a roadhouse in Marla for dinner, and our only other stop after that was a random one on a stretch of road as Celia needed the bathroom! We played a bingo game on the bus with playing cards, and if you got a full house you had to sing your National Anthem over the mike. And, of course, I was one of the lucky few. It was getting annoying by this point that everyone said I sound like a spice girl when I talk (even though, I hasten to add, NONE of them are from Manchester, never mind Bolton), so we had a few spice girl requests, none of which I conceded to. The only other highlight of the journey was Claire swallowing a fly!

We arrived in Coober Pedy, opal mining capital of Australia, in the late afternoon. A young guide from the Umoona Mine hopped o board the bus to give us a town tour, and she was the most stupidest-sounding Ozzie I've ever heard! She was totally monotonous and slurred her sentences together: "Would you like to live in Coober Pedy for 17 years? Like me?" - Er... No! No wonder Celia said the locals were 'special'!

Then we had to endure her further as we took a tour around the mine. She left us watching a cheesy video of the history of opal mining, and once it had finished we were all sat there laughing and taking the mick, when all of a sudden she slid the screen aside from behind and she was there stood behind the screen the whole time! Freaky! Then we had a look around an underground house (which had a resident stuffed koala, for whom they had left some food in the fridge). It was all quite interesting really, as the temperature in Coober Pedy (which means 'white man's burrows' in Aboriginal) gets up to 57C, and the caves stay around 23C all year round.

Once we had escaped (which I did so hastily that I forgot to buy a postcard) me, Claire and Paula went to the supermarket for some chocolate, and discovered a bargain bin with biscuits a year out of date. What a strange place. Then I had a shower and slipped in it - I now have a bruised elbow and a huge line-shaped bruise on my back, where my back fell on the narrow step into the shower. Ouch! For tea we went to the pizza bar and then to the hotel bar next door to our hostel for a few driks and pool. We stayed in dorms underground that night, but me, Claire and Paula ended up in the lads' room (cos we ran off to the supermarket while they were sorting rooms out), so I had to endure much snoring and farting through the night. Nice.