Our longest drive so far, but really nice. Heavy traffic (relatively) leaving Port Augusta. It soon thinned out though. Nice stop at Woomera to look at the rocket museum. I had to drag Pam out kicking and screaming. I never knew how much she loved rockets. It was extremely cold at Woomera.
Booked into Big 4 Caravan park in Coober Pedy. Small but very nice. There's a coin operated machine in the shower. Twenty cents was plenty for a shower though. (for Pat) There was nearly enough room in the shower area to get dressed etc. Water's precious. You pay to fill the caravan water tank (about 80 cents.) Water used to be carted in 200 km. On camels.
Had a tour of the town and an ex opal mine. Guides were George and Rudy, both ex miners. Town's population is about 2500-3000 with about 90-100 miners. Rudy had lots of interesting tales of mining in the sixty's. No cops, just natural rough justice. One bloke caught stealing was given a hiding and two hours to get out of camp. He did. Until recently, cops weren't allowed to live underground. Too easy to drop gelignite down an air shaft. This was 1960s, not 1860s.The golf course is 18 holes on hard packed sand and rock. You carry a bit of carpet to hit off from. Greens are circles of sump oil to keep the sand from blowing away.Learned some new words: Miners use blowers and noodeling machines. Potch is opal without colour (or value).The houses and other underground buildings are great. We saw inside the Serbian church and a house attached to a mine. There's also a '5 star' hotel, complete with pretentious waiter. “Have you a booking?” he asked as we looked around the empty dining room. We ate at John's though. Pizza, steak etc. except there's a forty minute wait for any thing individually cooked (like steak). Pizza was great. Chatted to a nice couple who come from Adelaide for the serenity. I tried the local pub on the second arvo. Learned to avoid eye contact with wildly inebriated local. The phrase 'hard men' struck me. One very large chap with an Eastern European look appeared to have been punched in the forehead a bunch of times. No apparent damage. Another local had just had his mail catch up with him. One letter from the government was a bill for $11000 in back support payments and $20,000 in late payment fines. How was he supposed to know he owed that much? He had only recently come to Coober Pedy from the Territory. The barmaid saved me the trouble of suggesting an ombudsman.
Lots of people live underground in "dug-outs" for the cool constant temperatures. The name Coober pedy is the aboriginal name for "white man's hole". Today, if anyone finds opal, they keep it to themselves, to stop people setting up claims right next to them. Coober Pedy is a town of secrets.
You are the best writer in the family, Pat.
ReplyDelete