Coober Pedy is the opal capital of the world and an 8 hour bus journey from Alice Springs. Apart from the opals, the interesting thing about Coober Pedy is that many inhabitants live underground in dugouts. The hostel we’re staying in is 6m underground!
It’s quite an isolated place - halfway between Alice Springs and Adelaide - in the middle of a desert. The landscape around the town is dotted with 1.5 million holes in the ground and a similar number of piles of excavated dirt from the mines. It’s so other-worldly that even an abandoned spaceship doesn’t look out of place!
We toured an old opal mine and underground home and went out on a star gazing expedition. Out in the middle of the desert the stars are much more visible than in town where the light pollution is higher. Unfortunately the moon and patchy cloud hid some of the fainter constellations - but we did get a couple of close up pictures of the moon through the telescope.
While we were in the tourist info office, we got the offer of a lift into the Breakaway hills near Coober Pedy from a retired couple called Bob & Diane. We took up their offer with our usual gratitude and also got a glimpse of the world’s longest dog fence (over 5000kms long end to end). They are bringing the frog with them to photograph at all the scenic lookouts they stop at.
Just before we left, we tried to get a look at the underground church, but apparently the priest was away exploring the nearby wilderness (reminds me of uncle Fr Paul).
Original post by Iff and software by Elliott Back