Ryan's Journal: Days 19 - 21

Day 19

Distance travelled: 185km

We woke and packed up quickly, so we could get to Coober Pedy as early as possible. Coober Pedy was bigger than we expected. It even had a supermarket! The hills all had vents on top of them, showing that they had underground inhabitants. We made our way to the underground motel that we had booked. It was great! For the first time in three weeks, we had a bed! And a TV! Mum and Dad went shopping and bought food, and lots of it! The rest of the afternoon was spent snacking on food while watching the netball grand final and some other TV shows! The motel was great! That evening we  had a pizza called "Coat of Arms" which had both emu and kangaroo meat!

Day 20

Distance travelled: 17km

We woke in our comfortable beds and pitch dark rooms to breakfast. There was cereal on the bench, and we were allowed to eat as much as we wanted! Nick and I took advantage of that, and went back for ‘thirds’! We had another look around town and decided what we’d do for the day. First we went to Fays Underground Home, which was one of the first homes to be built underground in Coober Pedy. It was huge. It also had a swimming pool in it!

Next we went looking at opals. About every second shop there were opals being sold. They were so cool! After looking through about five shops, we decided we’d had enough and went to the Old Timers Mine. It was an old opal mine which had a self-guided tour. It was great! There were opals worth about $20,000-$40,000 still in the walls.

We still had a bit of time so we went back to the opal shops we liked best and Mum got a ring!

Back at the Motel we just lounged around on the couches, still eating for the rest of the day.

Day 21

Distance travelled: 431km

Sadly we had to leave Coober Pedy, and the motel with it. Our next big goal was to get as close to Uluru as we could, so we left early, and went to the Breakaways – a set of mountains north of Coober Pedy. They were amazing, colourful and big.

Back in the car, us kids watched movies while Dad drove. We were going to stay at a rest area by the road, but decided to continue driving. We eventually set up camp at a place called Kulgera. There wasn’t much there, but we set up camp and got ready for bed. There was a peacock there who stalked us all evening and the next morning as we were packing up!