We awoke early today to start the long drive to Coober Pedy, our overnight stop. Our first break was at Mt. Connor, a 350m high and 750 million year old table-top mountian. Many tourists often confuse this rock with Ayers Rock and hence the locals have nicknamed it "Fooluru". We were driving south today and at the border between the Northern Territory and Southern Australia we paused for some photos. Here we were entering the true outback of the Simpson Desert and the Stuart Stony Desert, predominantly plains of dust and not much else. We had lunch at a little town called Marla before moving into the Breakaways Reserve. This is located just off the Stewart Highway, down a short dirt track. It is a vast expanse of colourful mesa hills, giving it the name of the "painted desert", and it vaguely resembles the moon. Despite the intense heat, this was a very enjoyable stop. We arrived in Coober Pedy in the early afternoon and went to our underground dormitory at Ulmoona Mine. A tour guide came to take us on a quick tour of the town and the Ulmoona opal mine. Coober Pedy's claim to fame is being the opal capital of the world. It was founded in 1915 by a boy, Willie Hutchinson, who discovered the first opals in the desert earth. Nowadays around 3,500 people live there, consisting of 47 different nationalities, and they still have difficulties providing the town with necessary supplies - water is very expensive due to the desalinisation process it has to undergo and fresh food can only be bought once a week. Due to the average 50 degree heat outside, over half the population live underground in homes that come straight out of hobbit world in Lord of the Rings. They only have one doctor in the town but for anything other than simple stitches you would need to endure a 2-hour helicopter ride to Port Augusta. Therefore getting injured is not really recommended. We visited the local underground Catholic church, hand-dug with a pick in the shape of a cross. It is run by one minister who has to cover a huge distance of 15,000 km sq on his own. There also used to be a publishing office for the Coober Pedy Times but it has been blown up so many times by angry citizens that its headquarters are now placed out of town. We were given a tour of the local opal mine and shown how to cut and polish opals. We were also told about the tradition of "Bomb Sunday". Every Sunday, after lunch, when we would normally go for a walk or watch TV, the citizens of Coober Pedy had home-made bomb making sessions which they would use in the mines the following week...very bizarre! For dinner, Brett took us out for pizza before visiting the underground bar at the Desert Cave Hotel. A few drinks, some competitive pool, a rather frightening encounter with the locals and some trolley-racing later, we returned to our cave for a deep night's sleep.