Cutlers Cruz Aus: Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy looked like a town of dust with not a great deal going for it. But once we went on the town tour with Yanni (John), who owned the family parks caravan park, he changed my mind a little.

It was still a town of dust but had some cool underground homes, an underground church, multi-coloured sandstone and lots of beautiful opals. Yanni’s local went for 4.5hrs and he said if there was question about Coober Pedy by the end he would give us our money back.

The best part for the kids was, he said if they were good he would give them all an opal. They had it in their minds that they would be rich, hoping he would give them a black opal. The most expensive of them all. I must say they were very good, even when they were bursting to go to the toilet.

Yanni took us top see a working mine, but no one was working. They blow their budget digging and don’t find anything so they go and do something else to make money. He took us to “The Breakaways” which are beautiful coloured mountains and the set for quite movies, like Priscilla Queen of the desert, Red Planet, Mad Max and a couple others I can’t remember.

As we looked at an open cut mine Yanni told us the process of mining for your opals. You can buy a permit to stake your claim and then you peg out the area you want and you can have 14 days to dig to see if want to secure that claim or continue digging. If you don’t find anything you have to pay the big bucks all over again, so its best to strike it lucky first round. Opals are very hard to find and its not about knowledge it more about having good luck.

We stopped and looked at the famous dingo fence which was 1.6m high and went for over 5000km, runs from Surfers Paradise Qld to Bight near WA big job. We also went to an underground house ( it doesn’t matter what the outside temperature is the house remains at 23°C to 25°C). Awesome idea considering the temperature can range from -5°C to 40°C +. Another famous site was at the cemetery , where a man choose not to have a traditional headstone about used a keg instead on his grave. Yanni did want us to know that just because they are in the middle of nowhere they don’t miss out on the fun stuff. They have a sports oval, which is the only grass in the town. The only problem is a few days before a football game the aboriginals go walkout and then there is not enough people for a team. Coober Pedy also has a nine hole golf course with very small patch of green ( fake grass to tee off) then the rest of the greens is dirt sprayed with oil. The oil is to stop the dirt blowing everywhere and to highlight the holes and to stay on course.

Arriving back at the caravan park Yanni told the kids to come down to the office to collect their opals, so racing down there we waited for some time as one of the girls in the office told him why we were they. A while later he appeared with a paper bag he passes it to Alizah and gave her instructions to wash them in a plastic container and then show all the kids at your school. Thinking that was pretty good, we said thanks and got a photo with a really nice genuine man. We walk out of the office and Alizah opens the bag and says “it’s just full of stones and cigarette butts”. He obviously thought the kids wouldn’t come and collect their prize so in the rush he had to dip up his smoke garden. At a better look next day the bag had heaps of opals in it just waiting to be discovered.

Yanni is also an award winning pizza chef, and has the most yummy tasting pizzas around and not to mention ENORMOUS.

SO Coober Pedy was certainly a great place to visit but Yanni didn’t change my mind about wanting to live there. So its back to the highway of road kill and burnt out cars.

The driving is taking its toll on Jamie and I so we invite games to play to pass the boredom. Our favourite is the “Wave Game” you see a car/ caravan coming in the opposite direction and one person has to say if they are a waver or not. Then the next level is what type of wave, the one finger, the whole hand or the hold tight of the steering wheel like they are going to crash. The last level is who is the waver, driver or passenger. I know its sounds silly to you all but there is a real etiquette to driving with a van on the back and I’m sure a lot of people are unsure about it as we were when we first started travelling. Some questions asked are …. If you have a van, do you wave to camper trailers, motorhomes or wicked campers or vice versa??? Should the passenger do all the waving so the driver can concentrate ??? The questions continue. So I think after we arrive home I may write a book , TO WAVE OR NOT TO WAVE THIS IS THE QUESTION, A COMPLETE CARAVANERS DRIVING GUIDE. Your thoughts would be most appreciated.

See you in Ayers Rock