We are on holiday!

I can’t believe a week is already past! Today has been an interesting explore of Coober Pedy. Bonnie and I started with a haircut first thing – turns out we are camped next to an underground hairdresser! It was so fascinating to meet a local – Lize has been here for a year from the UK, but was born here and has always wanted to return. Even though she can’t remember the place, and had been away 46 years, it feels like home to her. Her underground home is just beautiful and so spacious!

Following this we went for another walk around town, stopping for coffee at a hilltop cafe with great views, and what must be the only patch of lawn in Coober Pedy! We checked out Umoona opal mine – an underground museum that has some really interesting displays about the inland ocean that once covered central Australia, the fossil records from the region and the geology of the area. It really helped to understand what we are driving through!

We stopped for lunch back at the tent, then did a tour of the ‘Old Timers Mine and Museum’s – this is where we are free camping so we thought we should do the tour in return for the tent pitching ground and use of toilets. The tour was fantastic though – through a hand-cut mine, still with intact seams of opals, and opalised shells, then into an old home of a family. Absolutely worth doing, and the kids loved it too (they also didn’t have to bend down to walk through the mine! 😂). I don’t think I would be climbing down a mine shaft anytime soon! 😱

Bonnie and Richie returned to the art gallery to watch the artist paint again, while Otis and I ‘noodled’ for opals in a pit set up for tourists, so we have a few opal shards to bring home 🙂. Then pasta for dinner, and a quiet night in preparation for a huge drive to Uluru tomorrow.