Tue 27th May – Day 19: Coober Pedy

An early start as it seems everyone around us was headed somewhere else this morning so dawn seemed a good time to start! Pancakes and hot showers improved our moods after such an early wake up call and we headed off to the ‘Old Timers Mine’, which started life as an underground dwelling in the late 60’s for a miner and his wife. When expanding their dug-out to make a room for their young daughter they blasted their way into an old mine dating back to 1915 – the passasge ways were a fascinating incite into the lives of the early opal miner and the kids were entertained for a good couple of hours. Toby is now addicted to ‘noodling’ in the heaps of discarded blowings and found a good pocketful of opal chips. A demonstration of modern mining equipement including the drillers and blowers which dot the horizon around the town topped of a great morning.
Lunch at Johns Pizzeria and we had had enough of mining for the time-being and headed back to camp for an afternoon of chores. On arrival our friends from Maree pulled in with their 4 kids, so they all had a wonderful afternoon creating adventures in the playgound.
Pete did more repairs on the trailer (which we have nick-named the ‘space shuttle’ after all the things that keep falling off it!) and the washing, while I drove Into town to do a shop - not a great idea as the truck from Port only comes Thursdays and everything was running low – no milk, no meat, some stale bread and some very limp looking vegies – Oh well, luckily we forgot to turn the fridge over yesterday from gas to 12V so the freezer had defrosted and my 2 frozen chicken breasts (bought in Marree at $16…ouch!) were looking very green but the steaks from Dubbo did the trick on the BBQ.
Coober Pedy Sturt Caravan Park (Powered $35/night)