Coober Pedy and on to Agnes Creek

From Lake Eyre, we could have continued up the Oodnadatta track through Oodnadatta to Marla, or headed West to Coober Pedy. We opted for Coober Pedy hoping to see some underground housed, and fairly early in the day, we drove in through the outskirts of town past piles of mine tailings - contrasting white or cream against the mostly red gibber.

Piles of tailings adorn the landscape

From coober pedy

We opted for a tour of a really old opal mine an house combined. The mine was rediscovered when the underground house was being discovered and still contains thousands of dollars worth of opal. Instead of dig it up, they converted both into a museum. We also got a demonstration of mining equipment and a chance to ”noodle”. That is the term for searching through tailings looking for opals. We all got to have a rock sucked from our hand by a blower truck which seems to be the main way mine tailings are taken from the mine - very energy inefficient but very labour efficient. All up, is was a fascinating place.
Again, we were planning to stay at least a couple of days but after a night of big trucks driving past in the wee hours, we decided to head off. Not before maggie got to check out the local Op-Shop (which wasn't really an opshop as it turned out) The piles of mine tailings continued to litter the plains for many kilometers after we left Coober Pedy. The extent of the opal mining is phenomenal. No wonder it is a buyers market (or so we are told).

That night we camped at a rest area at Agnes Creek. It was much nicer than the caravan park at Coober Pedy with a series of campsites strung out along the bank of the dry creek bed. The kids decided to go and sleep in the dry creek bed. I know you should never do that, but I was pretty confident there was no rain coming to the little catchment upstream of us. In the middle of the night, I heard Bro outside the tent. He needed to go to the toilet and was looking for the shovel. I felt ashamed, sorry for him and proud all at once. Anyway I got up and helped him, and he headed off back to the creek. 10 minutes later he was back – he couldn't find the place they were sleeping on the creek, so he joined us in bed for the night.

From coober pedy

New birds – correllas, budgerigars
John