Coober Pedy is a small opal mining town, about an 800km drive from Uluru. Coober Pedy is an Aboriginal word meaning 'whie fella in hole'. When the opal was discovered here, due to lack of timber and because it was so hot in summer and cold in winter the miners dug themselves homes underground as the temperature remained constant down there. We had a tour of the opal mine, and then a wander round Coober Pedy itself, it's deceiving because most of the houses are underground so it doesn't look like many people live there. Or hostel is built into the side of a rock, it is quite strange to be in a room with rock walls and no windows! Coober Pedy is the strangest town I have ever been in and I can understand why it's used in a lot of films. So surreal!
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