Coober Pedy!

Morning stroll (to hot to walk any faster) through Coober Pedy.

All the essential services are here. IGA supermarket, hospital, various eating places, an Italian Club a golf course minus the greens and needless to say a pub! The pizza bar is voted Australia’s best pizza. Now that’s a huge claim to fame!

Temperatures can soar to 52˚C in summer and as low as 4˚C in winter and there’s no natural structure to protect you from the fierce winds.

The area is treeless, nothing grows due to the low rainfall; they haven’t had decent rain in over two years, therefore when opals were discovered here back in 1915 the only means of shelter was to dig burrows.

We visited the Umoona Opal Mine and Museum and went on the tour into a dugout and mine shaft. The temperature within the dugout sits at a very pleasant 25˚C.

It was fascinating to hear our guide Rudy an 82 year old veteran opal miner, talk about his mining days and how he built his underground home.

Movie producers have used Coober Pedy and the surrounding area as the location for some very well known films.  Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome and The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Walk around town and you can see the remains of props used in the movies.

It’s very hot here and the flies are a pest. They seem to love hovering around your face. Fortunately, I bought a fly net for my face before we left and the aircon is running so we are very comfortable.