I will start with a word about Coober Pedy which is a RV friendly town. Next to the council chambers where the visitors centre is they have a well set up dump spot (to empty toilet cassettes) and a water filling station. The water costs 20c for 30 litres and 2 vans can fill up at one time, using nozzles like petrol bowsers or using their own hoses. Surisingly not all residents live underground, there is quite a big settlement of normal houses above the ground. There are also a large number of underground dwellings. I don't know what the numbers are but it makes for a rather picturesque town. My morning walk from the caravan park took me to neighbouring mines and to what I think of as a moonscape, at least that is the word that came to mind. There were lots of deep holes in the ground, some very narrow (test drills with some sort of mechanical core drill), some big enough to lower someone down to check for signs of opal and a couple of very big excavations. We were told yesterday that there is no scientific way of locating opal, then one of our friends told us that they use something like a water diviner!! Either way it appears that finding opal is by luck only. Then we headed south after the usual bit of shopping.

Very soon after leaving town the evidence of mining ceased and the landscape reverted to flat plains with very small shrubs. Then suddenly in the distance comes mining, this time in a relatively confined space but busy with at least 12 of their machines (actually they are big vacuum machines that suck the mulluch out of the shafts). Then back  to flat plains but with a couple of road bridges crossing fairly substantial roads going I know not where. Then another big mine mound so we stopped and looked. There were the expected holes in the ground and a big excavation complete with an entry to some sort of dugout?

Back on the road the scenery varied from the plains with low scrub to bigger shrubs and some small trees. Also a few low hills, some depressions in the ground that probably hold water when it rains and a very long fence, several kilometres, with fence posts made of tree (or shrub) branches. It seems to me that even similar looking scenery has its own character and this makes for interesting travelling. Finally reaching our camp for the night call the Mulga Well rest area about 250 kms North of Pt Augusta.