Wednesday, 27 July 2016

South Australia & Coober Pedy 09/07/16

It was really strange waking up this morning sharing a room with different people. We had to be up early to meet our new group and tour guide PJ.

We had a long drive to get to Coober Pedy. En route, we stopped at the border sign between the Northern Territory and South Australia. It was quite sad to be leaving the NT as I really enjoyed my time there. I managed to get a photo with my standing in both states.



One thing I did find unusual was that you aren’t allowed to carry fruit between state borders due to fruit flies. So we had to throw away all of our fruit. On the sign there was a picture of the Stuart Desert Pea, which is the state flower.

We got to Coober Pedy after a few hours, which is famous worldwide for mining opals. We stopped to get a photo of the sign but it's so cold we didn’t want to be off the bus for too long!


Our accommodation was an underground bunker which I really didn’t like. Most people in Coober Pedy live underground as the temperature gets so hot during the summers that it is cooler down there. I hate the idea of being underground so I spent as much time outside as possible. There was also a mouse in the bunker which some of the other girls found.
We had a mining tour booked for the evening but I decided to skip it. Instead I looked around the museum and at the opal jewelry. We all got to watch a film about how opals are mined and the history behind their discovery in Australia. Then we were shown how they mine opals, and turn them into jewelry. I bought a gorgeous opal ring as a souvenir. I especially wanted one as it’s also my birthstone.

We went out to a pizza bar in Coober Pedy for dinner. It had the biggest pizzas I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t eat any, but they did look good.


After dinner we went back to the bunker. I gradually got used to it and managed to fall asleep but I didn't like it all. Being really tired definitely helped. 

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