Wednesday night October 5^th we arrived in Coober Pedy the world’s largest Opal mining area.  It has the feel of a frontier town surrounded by a lunar landscape.  It’s a strange town of 3000 interesting and colorful residents where half live underground to escape the extreme 

 

summer heat and winter cold.  It was the film location of Mad Max 3 and other end of the world science fiction flicks because it looks like it.

Annette made reservations to stay at the Desert Cave Hotel.   

Nice room but not sure of the cave part until we toured the town and saw how the locals dug into the hillsides creating caves that opened to street level. They then build the face front wall with an entry door and windows leaving the rest of the ”house” as cavern.  

 

 We visited a Greek Orthodox church that was completely underground except for the front door and stain glass windows.

There seems to be no science to opal mining.  Just throw your hat and start digging where it falls.  The mining equipment looks home built, but that’s how it’s done.  Every other shop was selling discount opals or places for tourists to “noodle” …look for opals in the tailings of mines.

We’ll be back soon since this is a required 30 minute stop on the solar race.