It's another early start (am I repeating myself?) but our next door neighbours think they have the campsite to themselves and that they are the only people in the world to get up at 4am as they shout and call the dawn chorus for their own sunrise trip.
It's not only the sky that's the blue, the air is too, as I tumble out of bed and drag my clothes on in the dark.
It's a long day driving over the Simpson desert with only the occasional toilet and lunch stop at one of the remote roadhouses. As we pull into our overnight stop in Coober Pedy, it looks just like an overgrown quarry with big drills and temporary housing. Even in the centre, it looks deserted and there is even a rusty old spaceship in the car park to complete the moonscape.
A tour of the Opal mines for which this place is famous, is our first task and it becomes clear why there is so little of the town visible on the surface. Most of it is underground, to avoid the searing heat of the desert. Our tour begins with a video. The commentary begins with ' It all begins with dirt..' and I'm transported back to a former life a long time ago, before time began. At least, aluminium has its uses. By the end of the tour, we all know how difficult it is to find opals, how to cut, grind, polish, layer and set them but are still none the wise on their value to society, apart from jewelry. Answers on a postcard please?
Our accommodation tonight is a huge cave dormitory and we are all together in little cave side cubicles. It really is a one horse town and I am not sorry that we have to leave early the next morning.
It's not only the sky that's the blue, the air is too, as I tumble out of bed and drag my clothes on in the dark.
It's a long day driving over the Simpson desert with only the occasional toilet and lunch stop at one of the remote roadhouses. As we pull into our overnight stop in Coober Pedy, it looks just like an overgrown quarry with big drills and temporary housing. Even in the centre, it looks deserted and there is even a rusty old spaceship in the car park to complete the moonscape.
A tour of the Opal mines for which this place is famous, is our first task and it becomes clear why there is so little of the town visible on the surface. Most of it is underground, to avoid the searing heat of the desert. Our tour begins with a video. The commentary begins with ' It all begins with dirt..' and I'm transported back to a former life a long time ago, before time began. At least, aluminium has its uses. By the end of the tour, we all know how difficult it is to find opals, how to cut, grind, polish, layer and set them but are still none the wise on their value to society, apart from jewelry. Answers on a postcard please?
Our accommodation tonight is a huge cave dormitory and we are all together in little cave side cubicles. It really is a one horse town and I am not sorry that we have to leave early the next morning.
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