Life in Coober Pedy is relatively slow. We had a late start this morning with a bacon and egg breakfast and yes a real coffee. The espresso machine was fired up and we kicked back and watched the sun head for the west. Once we finally got going we found the local church which is built into the side of the hill, oh pretty much all the houses amd buildings are built in the same fashion. The strange thing is that every thing you touch has a coating of dust. The waste heaps sit in plain view of the roads and could be seen at every turn of your head. Oh we did go inside the church.

This sign was just outside near the parking area. I'm not sure if the pastor was a homie (homeboy ) and played a bit of rap music but the sign said God love Yo. Anyway we didn't see the pastor as he may have been somewhere in his crib.
We drove around  the town and surrounding areas looking at the way some of the miners live and the left overs of the ones that have left.

This was a bit of an oddity in the town just near the underground motel. It looks like something that George Lucas sent here to rust away. Someone probably brought it as a tourist attraction. I was waiting for Luke skywalker to appear.

Whilst heading out of town to do the scenic tour of the Breakaways we come across this working mine. Well we couldn't find anyone working but it was interesting to see some of the machinery they used. It seems that anything that can be driven can be used to move the removed rock/dirt into those waste heaps.



The old Holden ute was being used with a winch system to pull up the removed rock and then it could be checked for opals. The old truck below has a crane setup and would have been used for larger removals from the mines.

These vehicles are everywhere you look and can also been seen wherever the waste heaps are.







A seventy km round trip through the Breakaways was next on the tour. This was on  a dirt road and as they told us we needed a four wheel drive. That was a little over the top. We saw camper vans heading round the same area. The scenery was beautiful, with the colours of white, oranges, ocra and the odd bit of greenery scattered throughout the area.

The photo below is of the Castle and salt & pepper.

 This mound was used in the Mad Max movie The Thunderdome.

 The dog fence that runs 5300klms. Keeps those nasty dingos away from the cattle.

The sun starts to set over the waste of Coober Pedy 

 The sun goes down on day four of our trip.

We head off to Kulgera tomorrow and hopefully an easy days drive. Will keep in touch as we go along.