(Kate)
Day 94 – Coober
Pedy
We filled in our
border entry forms to return to SA – much more straightforward than the other
states (Good onya, SA!) and motored on to Kulgera, “the first and last pub in
the NT”, where we got diesel and some not super healthy but delicious tasting
lunch. We started to notice people
wearing masks for the first time, as they arrived in Kulgera from SA, still
wearing their masks, as is the custom in SA at the moment. We dug our masks out of storage in
preparation.
We went onward
to Coober Pedy and checked into the Lookout Cave Underground Motel – very cool! It was a unique experience sleeping in a
dugout. Some of our family were ecstatic
at having access to wifi for the first time in a while. Some of our family were ecstatic to have no
flies and prickles for 24 hours. We did
a tour at the Umoona Opal Mine and Museum.
Our tour guide was Rudy, an 84 year old who was very enthusiastic about
opal mining. He first mined opal in 1960
in Andamooka, and some years later moved to Coober Pedy, where he has remained
ever since. He said in the old days, it
would take him and his mining partner a week to dig a 4 metre deep mining
shaft, like the one in the museum where we could look up and look at the sky. He said opals are only used for jewellery,
and that success in opal mining is pure luck.
According to the
local tourist book, the name Coober Pedy is from Anangu words approximately
meaning “White man in a hole”.
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