Road Trip = Day 43 (April 27)

Our last day in Coober Pedy. We all did washing, Kurgan got a bath and a bit of a tidy up in the caravan in preparation for a few nights bush camping on our way to Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Alice Springs.

Lance & I went out to the Breakaways, a formation in the Stuart Ranges which looks like it has fallen from from the ranges. I went with the tour group yesterday so few photos but got a couple that I didn’t get yesterday.

We took a drive through the main street so I could take photos of some of the shops.This one below is where I bought a watch which has an opal inlay on its face. The shops are not up market looking as you would find in a big city and sometimes look like they have used whatever material they could find when building them. In one shop I was shown an opal worth $35,000. Prices ranged from $15 for a chip in a cheap pendant setting to thousands of dollars. When you look at these shops it is hard to imagine the amount of money in opal there is inside the shop. Coober Pedy is considered the Opal capital of the world and produces over 70% of the worlds opal.

We commented on how it looked like nothing was happening around the place. We were reminded by the tour guide yesterday that all mining is underground and so many of the people live underground which is why there seems to be little happening.

We went on to have a look at Crocodile Harry’s Underground Nest. what a weird place.

Crocodile Harry was one of Coober Pedy's most infamous characters and lived in one of the most bizarre dugouts. Many people from throughout Europe know of him through the Lonely Planet's "Guidebook to Australia" . Other's may recognise his home from the underground scenes of "Mad Max-Beyond the Thunderdome". Harry sadly passed away in 2006 but his Dugout is open to the public. When I get home I am going to watch Mad MAx movie again to see if I can recognise this scene.

Remember I had to use a flash as all this is underground. This was his kitchen. Legend has it that for every girl he slept with, he pinned their bra to the stone roof of his home.

This was his bedroom. The light at the end of his bed was a Perspex window he had built into the stone. The round window was actually a ventilation shaft.

We have 720kms to drive until our next BIG thing to see, Uluru. We may be bush camping for a few nights with no internet connection.