Windy overnight, reminded us of the night in Townsville!
Jason & Leanne got up overnight to pull awning in and check for loose
objects. Then the smoke detector in the camp kitchen opposite our site went off
again, & Jason went over with the broom to disable it again... (as it had
been playing up that evening as well)....Arghhhh!!! We went into town centre to
get some provisions & called into the visitor centre, also had a look at an
underground church. We took the girls to do some "noodling" (
prospecting for opal) in the Jewellers
Shop Road site. This proved to be lots of fun, the girls got very excited when
they found a thin thread in a rock....after this we went to the Desert
Cave Underground Hotel to have a look at
some real opals and have a coffee underground!! Then it was off to a local art
gallery where the owner took in orphaned kangaroos and conducted tours of their
mine below / behind the gallery. We fed the kangaroos and watched as the youngest Joey
was hand fed its bottle. The kangaroos here were all either injured by cars,
and nurtured back to health or rescued from some of the locals dinner
tables!!!!! We had lunch in an underground cafe', a unique experience.After
this we went to a local underground house which was about 18 squares of house
including an indoor pool! The house was mostly dug out by its original owner by
hand and took 10 years to complete. It keeps a constant 23 degrees all year
round, despite the outside temperature in summer reaching around 50 degrees!!
Last of all we drove out to The Breakaways, which are a colourful arid area of land, of what remains of the inland
sea 70 million years ago. The colors of
the rock and sand formations were amazing, you could see why this site has been
included in several films over the years...( eg: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,
Priscilla, Queen Of The Dessert.) we also drove out to the Dingo fence which
runs from Qld all the way through to
Eucla on the Great Australian Bight. It is the longest fence in the world, built
to keep the dingos North of the fence so as to stop sheep attacks down South.
After a full days sightseeing we headed back to our van to have some dinner
with our neighbours and pack up ready for a big days driving tomorrow.
The underground Catacomb Church
The family doing some noodling
A shot of the town just near the main street
The Desert Cave Hotel where we had some morning tea.
The underground restaurant where we had lunch.
The Kangaroo Orphanage
The mine below the Kangaroo Orphanage.
Fayes House.
The hallway heading to the kitchen and bedrooms.
One of the three bedrooms, note if the furniture does not fit then dig a hole in the wall.
The Breakaways Lookout.
The Dog / Dingo fence.
A view of Coober Pedy Mining fields, something you have to see to believe it!!!