Day 49 Possibly

Oh right, so there's about 3 people reading. Hmmmmm.

So today, our first full day in Coober Pedy. The pizza last night was verrry good. We slept fairly well in our underground cavern, despite the sighing of the Greek chap next door. I think it was him snoring too. Paul had managed to scald her hand quite badly with herbal tea, so this morning we were continuing the application of tlc, first aid and anything else we could find. So not up and out quite as early as planned. We wandered around town trying to find info about the tour flights but eventually found our way to the Old Timer's Mine. F-A-B.

The Old Timer's Mine had been back-filled by the claim holders who were presumably going to return, but they never did. More recently, someone had the idea of creating a museum etc out of the place. It is really interesting. Most original opal mines were dug by hand, in the usual dreadful conditions. The place was like a rabbit warren which would originally have only been lit by candlelight. The excavation for the entrance, museum, shop etc actually uncovered a rich seam of opals which the first miners had only missed by ten inches. You can do a self-guided tour with the aid of a leaflet and numbered exhibits etc. It was great but frightening too, in its way. When you see Paul bending down to go through the passage in front of you, you know the ceiling isn't that high! The rocks still contain opals and gypsum (not seen as useful or valuable here so they ignore it). The marks of the pick axes are there on the walls. The foot holes to climb up and down the shafts are there and so on. There was a really good sense of how it was. After the mine itself there was the museum stuff, with artefacts and memorabilia, newscuttings, another dentist's chair (!) and so on. Really really good.

By the time we left the mine we were hungry and headed for the German bakery we'd seen advertised. Another gem! We had what looked like Cornish Pasties but totally vegetarian, made by the lady behind the counter. For dessert, we had mouth-watering cakes: an apple strudel and a pavlova-like thing. FF would be on the plane. Again. So while we were savouring the pud, the Hungarian chef comes over and says there's a new cherry pie coming out of the oven in a few minutes. We got free samples...... WOW. He came back for our opinion and then explained that he only uses fresh ingredients and 100 year old recipes, no preservatives. We had to flee otherwise we'd still be there and getting fat.

Since then, we've done postcards and wandering about. Looking in on shops and galleries and art collections. We've decided to stay an extra night so we can go on a tour tomorrow lasting about 4-5 hours, coincidentally run by the chap at the place we're staying. However, we've had independent witnesses tell us it's a good tour. So, we're still thinking about doing a flight in the morning if there's one going and then the tour is at 1pm.

The chap working here is slightly mad. You have to be to live in Coober Pedy but he's making the most of it. Perhaps he's been out in the sun too long. Anyway, they have three bearded dragon lizards as pets. They come out of an evening to sit on the bar :o) I've also held one. They're very well behaved.

We like Coober Pedy!

G'day from your wombling underground correspondent!