Coober Pedy - what can I say. Everyone has heard of it, and these days it is as much a tourist town as it is an Opal town. That said, we loved every minute.
After visiting White Cliffs mid last year, we had decided that Coober Pedy was a must stop town on our adventure this year. We had been watching the daily maximum temperatures with trepidation leading up to our visit. Mid 40s was the norm, and frankly we were contemplating bypassing Coober Pedy this time around and coming down to it from Alice Springs later in the year. The big rainfall that had drenched us in Adelaide also brought the temperatures down inland - so we made tracks to Coober Pedy.
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| No prizes for guessing where we are |
We decided to stay at the
Desert View Underground Apartments - and booked into a two bedroom fully self contained apartment. Our host, Tony, couldn't have done more to make us feel welcome as we made ourselves at home. The kids were thrilled at sleeping in their own beds for a change. Ah, joys of space.
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| The original tree of Coober Pedy - to give to dogs of the town something to lean against. |
Coober Pedy has a host of attractions, and we visited a few of them. The Umoona Museum was our first foray underground, and we thoroughly enjoyed the displays and the tour itself. It had an excellent video presentation on how opal is formed, a tour through some old workings and a chance to walk through an old style dug out and a modern underground home.
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| Mr Determined - hoping to make his fortune |
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| Whilst my little helper is more happy to pose for the shot |
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| Noodling for our fortune... |
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| Our 'view' from outside our dugout |
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| Sunrise at Coober Pedy |
The following day we visited the Old Timer's Mine - marveling at how much earth was moved out of the ground using nothing but pick, shovel and bucket. They had an excellent self guided tour with plenty to keep the kids amused. The noodling area proved very exciting and the kids had a great time searching for their very own bit of colour.
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| Mum looks really happy in the old hand dug home |
Toms Working Mine on the edge of town took us through a more modern mine, and showed us how the machinery worked - by starting it up! Our guide, Ben, was able to explain how opal is mined today, and the various methods people use to extract it. For anyone thinking of making their fortune seeking opal today, it would be a really good place to start.
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| All the machinery worked - yes this ute hoisted us up the shaft |
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| Happy to be hoisted up - about to disappear up the shaft |
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| Checking out the suction of the 'Blower' |
The neat thing was that the three underground tours we did were all different, and we never felt that we were wasting out time. Being a quiet time of year, the tour sizes were very small, and our boys got to ask lots of questions - which was great.
We spent one day largely inside catching up on school work - appreciating things like doing schoolwork out of the weather with no bright sun or wind to contend with. In the afternoon we went for a drive to the Beakaways, a remnant series of mesas about 20km out of town. As we watched the sun set over this ancient land we knew we had indeed come to a special place.
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| The Dog Fence - near Coober Pedy |
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| The Breakaways |
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| Sunset out here was simply magic |
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| Absolutely magic |
Coober Pedy is a place that has to be seen to be believed. It is easy to understand the lure of the opal that brings many people here to chance their fortune - but I think it is the relaxed lifestyle as much as it is the opal that keeps people here. The lure to stay on was growing stronger, so we had to break the bonds and try something different. And something different we certainly found.
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