The hostel is fantastic although having no door is an abslute pain in the arse! ALL NIGHT there were people walking past, chatting and making loads of noise - plus it was absolutely freezing underground. I woke up at 9am and Nikki had already had a shower, so I quickly got up and had one before having bacon sarnies for our breakfast and then checking out of the hostel.
Once we were out of the hole and back up on the surface we went out exploring around the strange town that is Coober Pedy. We started by walking next door into the underground Church - which has literally been dug into the floor. Apparently, most of the people live underground here, and if they want extra rooms in their 'dug-outs' - they're within their rights to just start chipping through the walls!
Next we walked to the edge of town and booked ourselves onto an opal mining tour for this afternoon. Before we went on that we did some more exploring. We went in a couple of shops and even a museum - all of which were either underground or built into a huge hill. We managed to walk up to one of the highest points of town and looking down was quite surreal. If we'd not know better we'd have thought that nobody lived here - and that the town was only half built. There are only a handful of buildings on the surface! Coober Pedy looks like the surface of a planet in a sci-fi film. It's even been used in a couple, including Mad Max!
This afternoon we went on Tom's Real Mining Tour, which - as the name suggests - is a tour of a working mine. We got to see all the opal mining machinery on the surface, before going 45 feet underground. It was amazing down there - with loads of tunnels going off in different directions. We could see little pieces of opal in the wall - and I even got the chance to try and mine for some! I was getting really excited, hammering away at the walls - and can definitely understand how people get hooked. Apparently someone made an opal find of over $483,000 just a few weeks ago, so you never know!
When we got back to town, we went into Tom's shop and, as we're in the opal capital of the world, bought Nikki an opal as a present. It's pretty big - and looks really sparkly! Afterwards, we came back to the hostel for some food and packed our bags before going back to the bus station.
This evening we boarded the bus for Adelaide, which set off at 7pm and is expected to arrive at about 6am... we hope!
Living underground is... interesting!
1 comment:
Nikki, as a child always liked to go fossil/mineral hunting. She would set off with a hammer and a sandwich/drink and head for Trooper's Hill but she only ever found slag or the glassy green stones from the graveyards.
( I still have them all Niks)
MummyJ
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