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Hi Everyone,
I know this is late but I've had difficulty getting it on-line, so here we go with an update re Coober Pedy, the Opal Fields of South Australia. it's a place so hot that the locals choose to live underground, well nearly, they have taken to building properties into the hill sides and then using old disused mines as accommodation, just to keep cool. The average temperature inside one of these dwellings is still 25 degrees, so quite reasonable. The area is littered with black moon rock, it just lays around the ground but there is a $5000 fine for anyone removing it with out a licence so sadly it had to stay where it was. We stayed in a bunkhouse which in fact had been hewn from the rock face and was an old mine, a peculiar place, with the scars of machinery visible where the separate bunks or dorms had been cut.
We had a lot of fun here, it's a bit like visiting the Flintstones but not so posh and certainly appears a lot less organised. Everyone apparently settles arguements with dynamite, if you have a boundary dispute, look out because here comes a present from your neighbour, boom, what boundary? The Police fair no better, after one local became dispondant at a decision of similar, he blew up the Police station, this has happened on several occasions, all good clean Aussie fun. Even when blowing out rock whilst mining, it has been known to blow a gaping great hole into a neighbours house!
I have read other similar Blogs on Coober Pedy in which the Pizza place has been described a 'brilliant' etc etc, well it wasn't, it was just a pizza! We also went to the underground Pub which was brilliant. You go down approximately 30 or so feet I guess via a large spiral metal stairwell and into a very plush bar carved from the rock. The locals were all there, an assortment of ethnic miners and 'ladies' who could well have been 'working' I'm not too sure but was not going to find out. Certainly thigh length boots were a bit over the top if that was considered 'normal'. We all stayed together and retired together. Now for some reason the wind had got up Staphane's tail and shortly after returning to the 'dugout' a pillow fight ensued involving the 'younger generation but ably assisted by some, actually, one of the older generation. We had a great laugh before going to our respective holes. The funniest thing was that once the lights were turned out it was pitch dark, you couldn't see a thing which only served to highten the sense of anticipation of an impending counter attack. Of course we were all too sensible for that sort of thing!
The mines are intersting, I thought that mining Opal would be a bit more technical but it appears to be totally hit and miss. They now have drilling machines and I asked our guide how the miners avoid destroying valuable seams of Opal. The answer is that they dont so potentially hundreds of thousands of Dollars worth of Opal is destroyed whilst looking. If a seam is found it is chased until it is exausted, even then there is no guarentee that the Opal will be any good. It was intersting though and we were taken to see a proper underground house and a seem of Opal preserved for anyone intersted to look at, it was good to see it in situ by way of example. Party of the old mine has wax work dummies dressed as miners, it didn't stop our Linder grabbing a piece of miner arse though, honestly, if she wanted an ol' timer, she only had to ask.
The following day we headed from Desert to the Mountains in the form of Mount Ohlssen Bagge and views into Wilpena Pound. The walk or climb to the top was quite good, most of us made it to the top where the temperature was considerably cooler. So much so that I put my walking jumper on . We are now in the Flinders Ranges which appear from no-where and then give way to desert again. Wilpena Pound is a massive area which sits on top of a fault line in the earths crust. Instead of the Mountains being totally pushed up, the contours have been caused by the Earth suffering subsidence on a huge scale.
Back in the desert we arrived at Lake Torrens, a salt lake with the most amazing amount of flies you have ever had to put up with in your life. We stopped for lunch but I wished we hadn't. The flies were everywhere, up your nose, in your ears, in your mouth when your tried to eat, in the food, it was disgusting. I didn't realise that if you dig down on a salt lake you come to water, it makes sense if you think about it, which clearly I didn't! Someone had dug a hole and there indeed was some very mucky brown water. Photos taken I just wanted out of there, it was aweful.
That evening we spent at a Hostel at an old mill in the town of Quorn. Now Quorn is famous for a few things, apparently General McArthur made his famous "We'll be back" speach from here? No. I'd never heard of that one either, the railway station and some other buildings are kept in their original condition because they are used as film sets for Westerns etc, and lastly Quorn is now famous as the place where yours truely got horrendously drunk with two locals and a barmaid. So much so that I am still missing an hour and trying to find out what happened between 2 and 3 in the morning. I know what happened at 2. I left the pub, which is an easy 5 minute walk from the Hostel. I know what happened at 3.01 because Staphane woke up as I climbed into the wrong bed!! But what happened in between times? I really don't know. Poor Staphane, he is probably scarred for life. Sorry my friend, no offence intended. Nice bum though. Whoops!! We did have a good laugh about it the next day because all I can remember is Stephane saying in a very strong French accent, "You are in za wrong bed" and at that point I sort of came to my sences. So now you know why all the girls sleep on the top bunks, spoil sports!
Moving swiftly on, we had a fairly uneventfull day, we did another short climb to some pieces of rock which were referred to as a cave but were more like a 'dent' and had some rock art reputed to be 5000 years old. However, there was very little information about the depictions and the fact that it was behind a cage of galvanized steel tubes made it all a bit unreal really. I noticed that there was a locked gate at one end and mentioned to Stephane, who was still talking to me, that I reckoned someone came along every so often and just did a bit of touching up on the old images and art work. You see it all looked a little too bright but credit where it is due, the artist who made the paint up obviously got the mixture right to have lasted all this time!
We continued onto Adelaide where we had 2 days or actually two nights and there in lies another story dear friends.
See you soon,
Chris.
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