Coober Pedy

Was a long, dull old drive to Coober Pedy and the desert was getting more and more arid as we drove in. Coober Pedy in one of the hottest places in Oz and is very inhospitable land. It's hot and dry and with very little greenery. People settled here as there are opal fields galore. On the drive in we saw mound after mound of earth dug up for opal mining. We found an underground motel room to stay in run by a greek family. There are many nationalites in this little town as people came from all over the world to mine for opal. The majority of people live in underground dugouts, necessary to escape the heat. 2 weeks before we arrived it had been in the late 40's!! We spent 2 nights here and went on a bus tour of the area. We were told all about the mining and how hit and miss it is, it's created plenty of millionnaires but a lot of people only just manage to scrape a living. We had a go at 'noodling' which is sifting through the earth looking for bits of opal. Only managed to find a few bits of 'potch' (worthless opal) though. We visited this fellas place too. Crocodile Harry is a tourist attraction in himself!! Now 83, he lives in a huge dugout (that he dugout by hand!) which is decorated with all manner of parafanalia, bizarre bits of 'art', photos of his adventures as a young man and the like. He was a bit of a ladies man in his time and there are bits of underwear hanging from the ceiling signed by various visiting ladies, I didn't offer any of mine, I've only got 4 pairs of pants, can't spare any, plus they're all looking a bit raggy now!! Anyway, he's called crocodile harry as he used to hunt crocodiles before he came to Coober Pedy.

Many films have been made in Coober Pedy (Mad Max, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Pitch Black) and there are various set pieces scattered around the town including a crashed spaceship from Pitch Black! It's amazing that people live as it's so baron, but they make every effort to be just like every other town, they just have to do things a bit differently! They have a golf course but there's no grass on it! They had to colour the earth with oil to make the putting 'greens'!

It was an odd place but I liked it and the way people have adapted their lifestyles to suit the harsh conditions.