Coober Pedy - it's changed a bit since 1988 but it's still dusty! It was really windy when we arrived although the locals didn't think so; to them it was just a breeze.
There are so many opal shops on the main drag; too many choices! I'm not a real fan of opals but Robert thought that I might find one that I could use to make a piece of jewellery. I ended up buying some earrings (triplets set in black resin).
The International Desert Cave Hotel had a display area underground listing the different processes involved in opal mining. The texture and colours of the walls are really interesting and very tactile. It was about 33 C outside but underground the temperature was very cool and comfortable.
Driving around the town, we noticed many old, rusty cars or other machinery littering the sites. They looked as though they'd been left where they'd stopped. No-one seems to get rid of anything.
With so many underground homes, you can see tall air vents poking out from the hillsides. There are several lookouts where it's easy to look over the town out to the mining sites.
We drove out along the Oodnadatta Track to the dog fence which was 15 km from town. The road was flat as was most of the surrounding landscape. A water course must run occasionally here as in the distance, we could see a long line of trees that are synonymous with a creek or river bed.
Next stop was The OldTimer's Mine; a self-guided tour of a mine and how it operated in times past. Wearing hard hats, we walked through the mine looking at the different areas. Some were quite cramped and felt a bit uncomfortable. Luckily we had the hard hats because the 'ceilings' were very low in some places. This would have been a significantly hard life.
On our way to the Italian Club for tea, we stopped at Josephine's Gallery and Kangaroo Rescue site. This is a great gallery and an indigenous artist was painting while we were there. He also played a didgeridoo. Fantastic!!!! Really friendly person. I asked him about the "ownership" of the dot paintings and he said that as an artist, what comes out is yours so I feel comfortable using this method now.
The owner of the gallery took us out the back to watch the feeding of the kangaroos. He knew so much about them. There were 4 females, one male and a smaller female who was just learning to hop. It was like a little kid starting to walk; it hopped too fast and fell over. The kangaroos are rescued after the mother has been killed and most of them are released into the wild. Glad we did this one.
Robert was looking forward to a real beer at the Italian Club - no beer on tap so we had pizza.
When we arrived at the caravan park, there was hardly anyone here but by this afternoon, there were few empty spaces.
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