Ooodles of Noodles

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Up and off this morning to get to Coober Pedy nice and early. Although the hour difference between states did stump us when we got there.

It was another pretty uneventful drive and apart from the odd lizard here and there, both dead and alive there really wasn't anything else to see.

The first thing we did in Coober Pedy was the Old Timers Mine. It was cool to go down into the mines and learn about how they got the Opal. I'm glad hard hats were compulsory otherwise I'd have a very sore head. There was even an underground house which was really weird but strangely appealing if decorated! It even showed you big deposits of Opal still in the rock face. Outside we had ago at noodling for our own Opal through discarded rock. I got a few sparkly ones but nothing that’s going to bring me great fortune unfortunately.

Afterwards we drove up to the Big Winch to have a look over the town. We pulled up at a spot just behind the Big Winch and hopped out. A little man called Peter from Hong Kong popped out of his house and greeted us like we were the most exciting thing that had happened all day. He took us round the back of his house to show us his little mine shaft where he gets his Opal and then showed us his little shop come workshop. He was determined to get us to buy something, which I may have done if it weren't all tat!

Looking over Coober Pedy is surreal, almost moon like landscape. In the distance, because of the mining there are huge cone shaped piles of sandstone with clouds of dust billowing over for as far as the eye can see. The town itself looks like a desert ghost town, old, rusted, broken cars/buses/trucks are everywhere to be seen. The houses you can see are rusty corrugated metal sheds complete with matching car of course! There are several hotel/motels that are built into the mounds of dirt so that the rooms are actually beneath ground and, apparently there are peoples home which are similar.

We had a drive round to see if we could find me a nice piece of Opal jewelry and met some interesting characters on the way. Nick, at the Opal Bug was eager to show us all about Opal however he didn't have any jewelry. He does however own a shop in Melbourne so we're going to have a look once we're there. What's so interesting about this guys is that he uses poisonous creepy crawlies to look after his jewels. Hmmmmm anyone for a red back spider with your diamond ring or a scorpion with you pearls?

The next shop was owned by a Croatian guy, who although spoke very good English he still had a very thick Croatian accent and would give me "good price". To be fair he was offering me 50% off any jewelry, unfortunately there wasn't anything I wanted!

Finally I landed upon a shop owned by Greeks. It was family owned, using Coober Pedy Opals and the jewelry was designed and made there. There was tow particular rings that took my fancy and in the end I bought both, woops, but she knocked $100 off.

What I couldn't get my head around is why all these people from overseas would want to live there out of the whole of Australia. It's a novel place if you're passing through but far from paradise in the middle of no-where. Perhaps the Opal business is that good!

With nothing much more to see in Coober Pedy we hit the road again. The drive was as plain as it can be and then there was a massive lake. It was so strange to see after so much bush!

Now we're camping at Woomera and I've just done some more noodling, but this time of the 2min variety to have for dinner!

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