Day 310.

So today we have our LONGEST day of driving, about 750km in total. This meant a ridiculous wake up of 4:30am!? That morning was pretty much a slow parade of walking zombies from swag to bus! Thankfully this provided the time to actually restart this blog which has been terribly neglected during my working and farm time. So the bus ride began and so did the nodding heads of sleepy backpackers...

With 8 hours of driving to Coober Pedy ahead of us, it was crying out for some time filling so Clancy had arranged a Clancy Trivia Quiz... The reason I mention this is because during the answers session we head through a drug and alcohol station. They wave us over and take our guide out for a general spot check... Pretty average I thought, right? They then ask us all to step off so the dog can have a sniff around the bus... Again pretty average, right? I was about 6th off the bus and as I step out I'm totally unaware of this sniffer dog sniffing around me like crazy and begins circling me... Yeah, not so average right!? I look up, still blissfully unaware, to the group staring at me and a police man right next to me... 'Can you just step over here for a minute?' FUCK.

Ok let's just clarify, I don't do drugs but boy did I start shitting myself like a guilty man! Clearly, a very tired James who hadn't showered for a day and a half looks and smells like a drug lord! To be fair to the police man he was totally nice and just asked a few questions but asked me to point out my bag to which the dog had no interest in and he'd also lost interest in me by this point! Walking back onto the bus was a walk of shame though!! This wouldn't even be the last animal today to take a liking to me either...

After my drug scandal, we arrived in Coober Pedy which is the funniest little town! Approaching the town there was roughly half a million mounds of dug up ground piled all around. For those of you who don't know, Coober Pedy is one of the biggest opal deposits in the world of which anyone can dig a hole, find opal and claim that land! (#PassMySpade!) It's also a town of underground living, so driving through all you see is hill after hills with several chimneys poking out the top! They live underground because of the extremes Coober Pedy experiences, in summer it can reach highs of 50+ degrees and in winter it will be in the negatives! So they discovered from the mines that they remain a cosy 21degrees year round! 

We began our tour on the opal mine with watching a very dramatic 80's cliche video of the discovery of opal and the rise of Coober Pedy... After the surprisingly intriguing video our mine guide, Cibelle, gave us a demonstration of how the different way opal appears and can be used, she then showed us the stages of how it is cut, shaped and polished.

We then headed off down into the old mine itself which was surprising big! Well I say this because I'm not exactly tall but we have some pretty tall people with us who were practically crawling around it! Cibelle talked us through the creation of the mines, how people came from all over the world just to mine here (Coober Pedy families are said to come from 45 different nationalities, FYI!) and showed us some actual opal veins, how people spotted them I'll never know! It's the smallest glint of sparkle!

Exiting through the gift shop and talking several people into buying several pieces of jewellery my job was done and we settled into Bunkhouse 3 which was our dug out for the night! Strangely, with the door wide open you walk 2 metres through the door and you're hit with a wall of warmth! It just never escapes!?

For the evening we picked up 7 or 8 extra large pizzas and made our way to the Kangaroo Sanctuary.

Firstly a quick bit of information on this sanctuary. The sanctuary looks after an area the size of Germany of which people can bring kangaroos and other smaller animals to which are found when they have been hurt or hit in the wild, they also take in baby kangaroos who are found when the mothers have been killed in the wild. They run completely off donations and the good of their hearts. It's open everyday all day and they tend to the kangaroos amazingly. I swear the garden/yard which they live in is nicer than mine at home! It had lanterns hanging from a huge tree in the middle, room to hop and play and indoor areas with heaters which apparently they love to press their noses against in winter to warm them up!!

The sanctuary also sells aboriginal art and opal jewellery of which we browsed while tucking into our pizzas. As amazing as aboriginal art is, it's crazy expensive for dotty paintings!! We finished our pizzas, but saved all the crusts because the kangaroos LOVE pizza crusts and have come to expect it on a Wednesday evening! So we head out the back to their yard of which one kangaroo clearly knew it was feeding time because he was lined up at the fence waiting! I grab a handful of crusts, crouch down and hold my hand out for the kangaroo to grab hold of and tuck into! The other kangaroos soon came hopping when they realised treats were being handed out. Terry and Clancy sat on the other side of the fence with them while Terry shared several funny stories and information on the work they do. He was genuinely one of the nicest men I've ever met, you could tell he did this because he loved it and got so much pleasure from it. He then brought out Marcus, oh Marcus! He brought him out in what looked like a large handbag all wrapped up in a fluffy towel - Marcus is the baby of the sanctuary and is only 7/8 months old yet weighs about 6kg - because he's so young and without a mother he has to be fed a special milk formula every 5 hours of which Terry happily did! 

After Marcus had his bottle feeding he was up for a hop around the yard, he clearly loves a bit of showing off to an audience! There was no stopping him! After 30/40 minutes he'd gotten pretty tired and came and stood waiting to be rewrapped in his fluffy towel and put back in his 'handbag' which is similar to a mothers pouch. Before getting put to bed Terry told us how to introduce yourself to a kangaroo which is by them smelling your breath. So he brings Marcus over and I gently blow into his little nose and he rubs his nose against mine and gives me kisses!! It was possibly the most adorable thing I'd ever done! (Not to mention he kissed better than most men I've kissed!) 

After my smooch with a kangaroo it was time to head back but before going I was more than happy to donate to them, they had a wall of milk formula tin lids which you could write a message on after donating, so I got myself one of those and joined the already busy wall!

It was then time for a couple of tinnies before I had a well deserved sleep in our very own cave for the night!

And it was pretty novel not having to wear 4 or 5 layers to bed!!

x