Today we got out of bed around 7:10 and aimed to leave Pimba roadhouse early so we could get to Coober Pedy at lunch time. We left at about 8:40 and drove to Woomera rocket park.
When we arrived I ran over towards a big missle and read the sign. It said that the Blue Steel Rocket was a British air launched, rocket propelled nuclear supersonic missile, built to arm the V bomber force. It allowed the bomber to launch the missile against its target while still outside the range of surface to air missles. Eventually we got to Coober Pedy and filled up our water tank. Soon we got to our campsite at Ribas caravan park, Coober Pedy and set up the camp trailer.
On Wednesday we drove to an underground Serbian Church. It really freaked me out when we went underground because I thought the roof would collapse on us. I thought the people made by the different colour window panes with the sunlight from outside the hill was really cool. I noticed that there were no seats, Mum said that in Serbian orthodox Churches they did not sit down. By the time we got out I had overcome most of my fear of being underground. Next we drove to a underground Catholic Church. When we walked in I realised that the church was dug out into a huge Catholic cross.
Next we drove back to camp and had a shower. On Thursday we drove to Toms working Opal mine. When we arrived we walked into the office/start of mine to talk about all the safety conditions. Part way through the talk I vomited and had to walk out. I think it was just nerves. Next me and Dad sat in the car and talked about what the big trucks with the barrel and the pipe did. Me and dad looked up what they did and in the end we found out that they had big tubes going underground and when they turned on the drill in the underground tunnel and scooped the dirt into the tube (The blower),it sucks it up and when the big barrel gets full it drops it in a different spot and creates big piles.
Next we decided to go do some noodling at the big piles of dirt. (Noodling is when you scoop the dirt into a sifter and shake it all out so the Opals stay in the sifter). Soon Mia came up to the noodling pit and took us down to eat some scones. Soon we had finished eating our scones and we went up to do more noodling. In the end I finished noodling with 17 Opals. Next we went into the underground building and checked with the man if they were real Opals. They were all real Opals. The man gave me 1 chupa chup and 1 chocolate. Mia decided that she wanted to buy some Opal earrings. While Mia was buying her Opal earrings the lady gave me a little jar of 4 Opals for free so then I had something that was worth the same amount of money as the tour. Next we drove to a huge 2 metre high dog fence created to protect South Australian farm life. The dog fence is the longest fence in the world, running for 5,600 kilometres. Since the fence was built it has had one job keep the dingoes out. So far it has been successful.
In the Breakaways, next we saw a white hill and a brown hill. The local Aboriginal tribe believed that the white hill was a white dog and the other a brown dog. The different colours were caused by erosion.
Tomorrow we will leave Coober Pedy and cross over the Northern Territory South Australia border.
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