I 'awoke' at 03:15 for a quick shower, after which we rolled up our swags, loaded the trailer, and were gone well before 04:00. The sleep in the bus that followed was harshly punctuate by emergency stops, and the sight of Kangaroos or cows staring back from the middle of the road. Kangaroos have a rather erratic hop too, so it was difficult to predict whether they were going to then get more in the way, or hop away...
Breakfast was had at 07:00 at Kulgara, just north of the border. For me this consisted of a lot of cornflakes (I don't find them very filling) and trying to minimise fluid intake and hence the uncomfortable situation of needing the loo for chunks of our 9 hour drive today! More awake now, I saw a Dingo fence, which is apparently the longest man-made structure, and built to keep Dingos out of Southern Australia. In SA, sheep farming is more common than cattle farming, and sheep and Dingos do not mix...
The border came soon after, and we briefly hopped out to admire the white line and change our non-existent watches forward an hour. Driving into South Australia, we covered the remaining distance to Coober Pedy. On the approach to the town, I noticed lots of odd looking conical mounds of loose material. As we got closer, these areas were marked as 'Opal Mines', Coober Pedy being one of four major opal mining areas in Australia.
Eager to learn more, when we arrived in Coober Pedy we went into one of the now disused town mines. This is now a museum, and a short film told us how opal was formed from silicates and water remaining from the sea that used to cover the Australian interior. We also learned about different types of opal - from the non-precious white 'potch', to glistening coloured stones worth thousands of dollars.
The museum itself was attached to a 'dug-out', which is a dwelling dug out of the rock using small tunnelling machines an shaft borers. These dugouts maintain a comfy 20-25 degrees all year round and are therefore the homes of choice for locals. Indeed that night we stayed in a dorm dug-out, providing me with my best night's sleep since Alice Springs!
Before bed though, we wondered up to the lookout to take in what could be seen of the underground town. A lot of strange looking machinery was parked up as well as all the usual amenities such as a bar, which we went to later.
Something less normal was the Kangaroo Sanctuary we then visited. Here, a lovely couple take in injured animals (mainly brought to them from the roadside) and treat and look after them. Once healthy, the animals are distributed amongst other centres and homes, although if too badly injured they may remain in the centre as permenant residents. We met three of the permenant residents, some very friendly Kangaroos. All about six years old, and of the red variety, these kangaroos hopped about in the garden, enjoying our food offerings, and cooling themselves by licking their 'arms'. Finally, we got to meet Lelani, a baby kangaroo. Lelani is currently living in an artificial pouch, but we watched her being fed (lactose-free) milk from a bottle, then take a few wobbly hops, before being put to bed. She really was incredibly cute and soft.
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