COOBER PEDY – 9th June

 
We got into Coober Pedy late afternoon, totally covered in mud and since we had quite a bit of bore water on board which we didn’t want to keep due its saltiness, we decided we would stop at the area just before the dog fence, which is the longest fence in the world, and wash off the mud. We got a few strange stares as it was cold and windy but it did the job except for the salt streaks all over the car.
Coober Pedy has a 24 hour water dispenser, where you can pull in and fill up your tanks, you put 20cents in the dispenser (it’s like a petrol pump) and works on a timer so depending how fast your rig can take in the water you get up to 30 litres. (Reported to be the 5^th best water in Australia, it’s desalinated) So we pulled in there first to fill up and then since we were late in we parked under the Big Truck for the night and met a couple of girl campers who had done a bit of noodling (rummaging around the waste heaps for bits of opal) and they gave us our first bit of opal which I was very excited about.

We were quite glad to get back to phone and internet, Tv (for news of course) etc.
The next day we headed off to the info bureau and somewhere to stay. We found the Clothes Barn Op Shop site. It is basically a fenced in block of vacant ground where you can camp very cheaply, $5 without power and $8 with a bit more if you have a large rig and there is water available. Can totally recommend it, the guy looking after it is really helpful and very nice.
Coober Pedy is a fascinating town, very very different from anywhere we have been, what with the dug outs with small pipes stuck up everywhere to allow for ventilation and gravel back streets, dust , and lots and lots of opal shops, and thousands of tailings stacks absolutely everywhere. There are warning signs up all over the place to alert visitors to the dangers of open pits. Plus one cannot forget the amount of dogs roaming loose everywhere.
We loved the public toilet in the main street, totally automatic, just press the button on the outside to get in, you are serenaded with music after being warned that you only get ten minutes after which the door will open again. After using the loo there is an auto dispenser for soap, then you move along to the water bit at which time the loo flushes automatically and finally to the hand dryer-loved it.

OLD TIMERS MINE
Visited the Old Timers mine today, For $10 you get a demo on how opal is extracted and then a self guided tour into a disused opal mine complete with leftover opal, demo living quarters and a museum, very interesting.

 












BREAKAWAYS
These are a small section of hills just outside of Coober Pedy that are full of colour which varies depending on the time of day you visit. Very cold and windy but also very enjoyable.

Update on the loo, Ian had to go, but the toilet malfunctioned and set off an alarm (very similar to a car alarm)with a disembodied voice proclaiming illegal entry and that the police were being sent for LOL.

Visited Boot Hill –the local cemetery today where Crocodile Harry is buried, he claimed to be the first crocodile hunter before Steve Irwin and the original Crocodile Dundee. With the other photo of the keg on the tombstone, the guy asked for it.

 
Check out the photo of the local golf course – very funny.

Off to Ularoo, so we possibly will be offlinefor awhile.