Day 5 - Coober Pedy 

Our day started with a sleep in, an 8am wake up call from Phil who had been awake but whose phone had run out of battery so he was bored. 

We decided to hang around town and see the sights. After having the usual tourist shots at the welcome sign, we moved on to our first destination. 

First Stop was Toms Working Opal mine, this was very interesting, very underground but my claustrophobic self survived. We loved the tour but opals aren't our thing so we left without souvenirs. 

After our visit to the mine we decided to visit a couple of underground churches, another highly rated Trip Advisor activity which didnt disappoint. The Serbian Orthadox Church was my favorite by far, it was stunning for an underground church. 

The christian church was also lovely but not as pretty. 

After the churches we made our way to the Painted Desert, about 120kms out of Coober Pedy and another 80kms on dirt road. Almost half way through on some wet clay we met some travellers coming back out. They flashed their lights and pulled us over warning us not to go through. They had tried, got 20kms out sunk and ended up digging their Mazda AWD out of the clay by hand. they didnt have any shovels. Needless to say they were covered in clay (themselves and their car) and had ripped off mud guards on the way and were having issues with their breaks. We then made the decision to make our way back to our site, had we had our trusty traveller Adam Dennis with us, we probably would have given it a go but with no winch or max tracks, we werent going to risk it. We got back to camp, repacked the car & trailer to allow for more room and sat down for a couple of drinks and a go at the racing car game in the games room.... the pool table was broken.

A big shout out to the IGA in Coober Pedy which is also a hardware store. This may save us as the wood screws in the camper holding down the actual tent are starting to give way. 

AND we finally got a sunset tonight, if only from the campsite. 

And for those uncertain about the view on the road, its a whole lot of nothing but beautiful all the same. Here are some pics to give you an idea. 

The above photo is the back of the car that warned us against going to the painted desert. 

That's it from us for now. We will aim for William Creek tomorrow however if we get rain the Police have advised we will unfortunately not get through. a