5am was the start time for the day, It had clearly rained a lot over night as the paths were thick mud. The rain had washed away the ant trails and there were none to be found anywhere near the showers, which was pleasant for me at least!
We had some breakfast, and sorted the swags ready to be picked up. During the course of the morningwe saw a scorpion and a python of some variety. This was just a sign of things to come!
We were ready to go at 7am and set off for our next destination, Coober Pedy, one of the biggest Opal mines in the world.
The weather got worse as we travelled south, with there being pretty much no view of the scenery. We stopped for a loo break at around 9am, and then made it to Erlunda junction for around 10am
We piled out and looked for souvenirs, though the main goal on the agenda was an XMas CD since we hadn't listened to any christmas music on Christmas day!
After 25 minutes of shopping and grabbing tea/coffee, we continued on our way, making it to the border between Northern Territory and South Australia for 1122am
We all piled out for the ubiquitous photo opportunity, and dutifully posed despite the poor weather. Vanessa managed to find a spot on top of an ants nest to take one of the photos and decided to not try for more than one shot!
When we got back in the minibus, we put on the DVD 'Take it to the streets'. I really enjoyed the film, as it was about dance, It reminded me of another dance movie where street dance was mixed with Ballet
We stopped for lunch at a service station, and spent 50 minutes there from 1pm. We resumed the movie, and at one point, a phone goes off in the film, causing Terry to think his own phone has gone off.
We had some jelly snakes as a snack, and Tery suggested we try to play a game where you have to get the snake from your forehead to your mouth without using your hands - that provided plenty of amusement as we all contorted our faces to achieve the goal!
We made it to Coober Pedy aroun 5.15pm and headed to the museum, where we learned about the history of the place.
There had already been the gold rush (hence the naming of the Gold Coast in Queensland), and some pioneers were looking for opals as it seemed likely to be in the area. This was discovered at a point when some of pioneers had gone to check on something else and the boy in charge of the camp went to look for water and discovered an opal. The town itself was subsequently established in 1915.
Because of the normal weather in the area, the houses were made from the mined out seams, to escape from the 40+°ree;C temperatures. As the seams were developped more rooms were added to the houses. It became illegal to mine in the main town eventually, but an old law meant that you could extend your houses underground still - meaning some people could continue mining under the pretext of expanding their house!
After the museum tour we all went to enjoy some Pizza, and then to the pub for a beer.
We headed back to the museum area where we were to stay for the night, and joyed some games of Heads Up, an up to date version of cherades really. We all had a good laugh when we got to the 'act out the item' stage, and the subject was Football - everyone as miming kicking a ball except for Vanessa who through an American Football in her mime, and Justine immediately got it from that!