This post is super late, but I had it all written with photos so thought I would just post it anyway!! We are in Alice Springs and in the next post will fill you all in on our latest change of plans!!!!
Well we made it to Coober Pedy “ The opal
capital of the world” where 95% of the worlds’ supply of commercial opal comes
from. Most of the population lives
underground in ‘dugouts’, which are thought to have been introduced by soldiers
returning from the trenches of World War 1.
The miners quickly discovered the advantages of this when the
temperature outside can be over 40C and inside is a comfortable 23-25C all year
round!! Its estimated that around 50% of
the population live underground now, with most of the homes excavated into
hillsides now rather than being dug from the mine shafts themselves.
I had been really excited about
experiencing this whole staying underground business so we spent a couple of
nights above ground in the caravan park whilst we had a
look around town and
then treated ourselves to 1 below ground.
Opal itself is a solution of hydrated
silica that has been concentrated by evaporation to forma gel which permeated
through sandstone and deposited in cracks and cavities in the rock below. Over 2 million to 70 million years since
then, this gel has hardened under great pressure to form……OPAL. The amazing colours produced come from very
small spheres of silica, the way they are stacked causes them to act as a prism
and as such, this ‘play of colour’ changes when you move the stone, so every
opal is unlike any other opal! The main
factors that determine the value of an opal are its ‘brilliance’, the colours
visible (predominant red colours are the most expensive then green and then
blue), the pattern, the weight and to a lesser degree the shape.
This is the oldest underground church in town.
We stayed at the ‘The lookout
cave-underground motel’ timed to perfection for the 40C day by my personal
meteorologist-Lyndi!!! It was so weird that outside was boiling and then by
walking a metre or so into the hotel it was perfect, and all without
air-conditioning. The patterns on the
walls are all made from the machinery that excavates the rooms and then they
just apply a coat/lacquer to it, no need for wallpaper or paint!! Cheap and
really interesting to look at!!
Water is super scarce around these parts,
with town water coming from somewhere a long way away!! (I cannot remember where)
and it is filtered about 3 different times but it tastes amazing!! The caravan
parks themselves don’t even have water taps, you go to a water station in town
which is just like a petrol bowser!! You put your 20 cents in and get about
30-40 litres, we didn’t even really need any, but just wanted to do it for
novelty value!!
I will leave you with the hilarious warning
signs that are everywhere around town!!!
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