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Published: November 13th 2017
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That’s us in the morning!
A little rough at 5am after an 11-hour bus ride. Well, here we are. It’s 5 am and we just got off the bus in Coober Pedy. There’s a Shell station across the road that’s open, at least the store and the bathroom, not the restaurant. So we sit on the outdoor chairs and wait for sunrise. Ferdy had called the owners of the Lookout Cave Underground Motel yesterday, which we had booked and paid for, and they had said they would pick us up after 8 am. You see, there are no taxis or local buses here and things don't open too early.
We met two other Canadian women on the bus, both retired. Both volunteer in Australia, one as a teacher, the other as a house sitter. They get to travel a lot. We spend some time with them waiting for 8 am. When the owner of our resort arrives, he kind of chided us, saying "had we thought at all about how to get back to the bus the next morning (leaving at 5:20 AM) since it would be way too far to walk with luggage (about 4 Km) in the dark". We said we had hoped he could drive us, but he was not interested at
Sunrise
Waiting to be picked up. all to get up that early, instead suggesting we cancel our booking with him and stay at the motel right across the road from the bus stop. Can you believe that? We were too tired too argue and too stunned to insist, so we cancelled our online booking for the underground motel which we know to be very nice, and spent another $140 out of pocket for a lesser place. We were very disappointed but we're seasoned travelers and realize these things happen sometimes. But we will definitely not give this place a favourable review!
We decide to walk into town, having left our luggage at our new location. First we check out the Desert Cave Hotel, a sprawling hotel and underground shopping area. Note that as many as 70% of the town’s people still live underground! It would be very expensive to cool above-ground houses in this desert-like place, when many caves are already available to live in! Underground homes are nice and comfortable year-round!
First goal for today was to replace the opals in two of Marion’s rings that she had lost some time ago. Check. She got a good deal for the solid opals she
Desert Cave Mall
Sprawling underground hallways. bought direct from local miners. The Catacomb Anglican (underground) Church is some 3 km from our new hotel and located not far from the underground motel we were supposed to stay at. We walk there in significant heat, in the area of 35C, although it’s partially cloudy and breezy.
The award-winning Old Timers Museum is really worth of its reputation, showing how mining was done and how people excavated and lived in underground homes. St. Peter and St. Paul Catholic Church is also underground and worth a visit. Although rain was forecast for the area, not many believed, since annual rainfall amounts to about 10 mm here. So, we did the unbelievable today, we got stuck not just in the rain but in a thunder storm, in a Catholic Church, underground, in The Outback!
The bus driver’s warning about the threat of local Aboriginees did not prove true, although we did see many hang around in various spots, particularly the liquor/beer store. It’s probably because of over-imbibing that there are strict booze regulations here, you can only buy 1 bottle of liquor, or two bottles of wine per day. We did see people buying a 24 of beer,
somewhat less restrictive. Ferdy needed a passport to buy two 340 ml bottles of beer!
Tomorrow comes early, but at least we only need to walk across the road to catch our bus.
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