Opal mining blower, Coober Pedy
We drove today to the “Opal Mining Capital” of the world. About 70% of the world’s opal is mined here at Coober Pedy. It is small scale mining, using small equipment. They dig down into the sandstone rock, then vacuum the dirt out using blower trucks. With the dirt they hope to also find opals. We stopped in a local shop and they have lots of opal, but it is still out of our price range. The salesman really tried to sell us, figuring he had some wealthy tourists (he thought we were British), and was going to give us 50% off the stock in his store. However, that would still have been almost $1000 for a pendant, so we didn’t buy anything. Yet.
Woomera protected area from Ingomar rest spot
We drove all day through miles and miles of nothing but red earth, scrub brush, and the occasional bird. We started early this morning so that we were away by just after 8:15, and it was still cooler, though warming up quickly already. Most of the area we drove through is the Woomera restricted area, which was used for nuclear testing in the 1950’s and 60’s. There are also a number of very large salt lakes. Everything is very red. For those who have seen “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” you’d recognize the country, as much of the outdoor footage in the movie was filmed here.
The town of Coober Pedy is in some ways itself reminiscent of a post-apocalyptic world, for there is derelict junk lying around all over, a lot of which reminded me of the movie. Someone has made sculptures of much of it. The original tree in the town is still there because it is a steel sculpture. They have planted some trees since, but very few. It is also very hot, and was 40.2 °C here today at 4:30 pm. Many of the houses are underground. They are dug into the sandstone or into old mine shafts. You can walk over the hills and there are ventilation shafts going down into the houses. Water for the town comes from a well 25 km away, then it is desalinated by reverse osmosis. The caravan park doesn’t provide water for the caravans and motorhomes, but you can buy it from the town (20 cents for 30 litres).