COOBER PEDY 4th July

We had a really nice dinner on Tuesday night at John’s Pizza Bar.  He might not be making a fortune from Opal mining, but his business is a goldmine!  It was the busiest place in town. We sat next to an American couple for dinner. They were here for 35 days, having started in Sydney, Melbourne, Great Ocean Road, Adelaide, Alice Springs, across to Cairns and flying out of Sydney. Driving all the way. They are doing more kms than us and we are doing 3 months.
Wednesday was a day to look about Coober Pedy. A drive to the local golf course and race track. They are both pretty rugged tracks, to say the least. When golfing, you take your own piece of grass to hit off, then onto sand scrapes. We weren’t really interested in playing it, we do prefer some grass.
They do have a sense of humour though. One “green” asked you to “Keep off the grass”.

In the afternoon, we did a tour which included a tour of the Umoona opal mine, an underground house, an underground church, then a drive out to the Breakaways, Moon Plains and Dog fence.
All really interesting, with our driver/guide giving great information about how the opals developed, how they were, and are mined.  He lives underground, and mines as well as runs the tours.  His partner is from Copenhagen!  What a contrast in life styles. There are many regulations in force in the town, including no mining.  However, many residents of underground houses do big extensions, which is permitted. (Not that they need 20 bedroom houses!  No mining going on there!!!!!)
The Breakaways are quite spectacular, especially as the sun was setting.  It is believed that this was all attached to the Stuart Ranges and the inland sea cut it off from the rest of the Range.
Our guide then took us into the Opal fields where he has a mining claim. More open cut mining going now, although still plenty of the older style.

It was a full afternoon of touring,  but fantastic.
Packed up this morning and back on the road, to Eruldunda which is the turn off to Uluru. It’s amazing how many people are out here traveling. Many places are booked out. I’m glad we have booked the important stuff.  Neighbours here have just come along the Oodnadatta track. Apparently crazy out there.  The big Red bash at Birdsville draws thousands.

About to watch the sunset across this vast land. Really warm here today.  30oC so the shorts are on.

Have watched a beautiful sunset. Chatting to some people who said there were 2000 people camped at Uluru last night. They could only get into the overflow area, which they booked several weeks ago.
Looks like the next few days will be busier than Bourke Street!

See photos on Facebook. No time to work out technical problems.

Cheers from the Red Centre.