Jeremy and Leana go UNDERGROUND!

This brings us to the last day of our holiday, and we definitely went out with a bang!  Cooper Pedy sounded like a fascinating place - and it didn't disappoint! 

 It was on this leg of the journey that our odometer clicked over to 300 000 kms.  We paid special attention and made sure to get a picture.  Fingers crossed that our awesome Subaru keeps hanging in there!

 As we got closer to Coober Pedy, we started passing opal mining fields.  These piles are from the miners digging holes looking for opals.  Now, if you haven't heard of Coober Pedy you're about to learn some pretty interesting stuff.  As usual, I'm handing it over to Wikipedia:
Coober Pedy is a town in northern South Australia, 846 kilometres north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. According to the 2011 census, its population was 1,695 (953 males, 742 females, including 275 indigenous Australians).^[1] The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. Coober Pedy is renowned for its below-ground residences, called "dugouts", which are built due to the scorching daytime heat. The name 'Coober Pedy' comes from the local Aboriginal term kupa-piti, which means 'white man's hole'.  Opal was found in Coober Pedy on 1 February 1915; since then the town has been supplying most of the world's gem-quality opal. Coober Pedy today relies as much on tourism as the opal mining industry to provide the community with employment and sustainability. Coober Pedy has over 70 opal fields and is the largest opal mining area in the world.

Besides being famous for opals, Coober Pedy is also known for the unusual dwellings.  According to Wikipedia, the harsh summer desert temperatures mean that many residents prefer to live in caves bored into the hillsides ("dugouts"). A standard three-bedroom cave home with lounge, kitchen, and bathroom can be excavated out of the rock in the hillside for a similar price to building a house on the surface. However, dugouts remain at a constant temperature, while surface buildings need air-conditioning, especially during the summer months, when temperatures often exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). The relative humidity rarely gets over 20% on these hot days, and the skies are usually cloud-free. The average maximum temperature is 30-32 degrees Celsius, but it can get quite cool in the winter.

Jeremy is standing in the underground room that we were booked into when we first arrived.  Having been camping for the last several days, we decided to upgrade our room to one with an ensuite so we didn't have to go upstairs to the shared toilets and showers, so we were only in that room for about 10 minutes!

 This is the room that we ended up staying in.  Just like a regular hotel room - but underground!

 While searching for a place to eat, we ended up having a conversation with a local.  He took us down into an underground building he had just bought and is planning to turn into an art gallery.  We had quite a long talk, and he ended up inviting us back to his dugout home to have a look at how the locals live in Coober Pedy.  These are some of his friends, some Dutch tourists, and a girl from NZ who is working at a restaurant in town.  I even got a free opal! 

 Part of the dugout house.  It was so amazing - it had six bedrooms, all underground and the temperature was lovely.

 We woke up and spent the first part of our morning doing a tour of an old opal mine.  It took us about an hour to go through on a self guided tour.  There was lots of information to take in, and I really enjoyed learning more about the town and the opal trade.  I would seriously recommend this place as a stop for people visiting Australia.  It's so unique!

 Hard hats were a requirement!

This sign is telling people how to behave on the opal fields.

All good things must come to an end though, and we had to wave goodbye to Coober Pedy and prepare to spend the rest of the day driving.  I would like to go back and explore it some more one day.