We eventually got to Coober Pedy a strange tatty looking Opal mining town. The name in local language means 'mad white man living in a hole'! It is where people live underground including our backpackers. When they were digging for Opals the miners realised it was more pleasant down in the mine than up above in the searing summer heat, so they build homes underground - with all mod cons, just no windows!
This is what it looks like around Coober Pedy - very barren with spoil heaps. Watch Pricilla Queen of the Desert, this are is used as a backdrop.
We also saw the longest fence in the world - not the rabbit poof fence (another awesome Aussie film from this area) but the dingo proof fence, which is still working no dingos south of here!
The town was somewhat underwhelming! The bus is outside the door in the rock to our underground dorm.
This door in a hill is an opal miners home - perhaps this was some of the inspiration for hobbits??
After visiting a local mine we did try looking for some opals ourselves in some of these spoil heaps! - No luck unfortunately.
Helpful signage!
The highlight of our visit was the kangaroo rescue centre where we met some very cute young and older orphan roos.
The baby one liked scarves and beards!
No comments:
Post a Comment