First stop the info centre to get some advice as to what to see in Coober Pedy…..so much choice! The town is really interesting  with its opal mines everywhere and underground shops pubs and houses.

We went to the museum  and discovered much of the history ot the area including the geology, discovery of opal and developemnt of the opal industry. Anyone can apply for a mining permit and you can self sekect a claim of 50 x 50 square metres to mine. Previously mining was all done by hand but now tunnelling ,achines are used to drill core samples and shafts…once opal is seen in the diggings, machinery is stopped and opal is dug out by hand. Rudi an 80yr old miner shared some of his stories from the old days…seems the town ran on cash, opals and the beer economy and opal mining has proven very lucrative to quite a number of people…We saw some beautiful opals samples and jewellery….and decided to come back for the mine tour at 2pm.

Morning tea was waffles, pancakes and coffee at the local coffee shop run by Jimmy an old Scottish engineer who had been mining in Coober Pedy for more than 36 yrs and had more interesting tales and photos…..

On to Kate’s underground house for a tour…this house was hand dug by 3 women in the 1970’s and included an indoor swimming pool! The underground houses are the preferred accommodation in Coober Pedy as the temperature underground is a consistent 22–25 degrees all year round ….outside the range can be from -4 to 45….highest recorded temp 55 degrees! The swimming pool is not used much as the temperature of the water is a consistent 20 degrees…too cold for some! Ventilation shafts are dug for airflow….the pipes coming out of the hills all around Coober Pedy indicate airshafts going into the houses and underground shops.

At the Big Winch lookout we had a great 360 degree view over the town which gave a real picture of exactly what Coober  Pedy looks like…..some things come here to stay and never leave!!

Back for the mine tour…really fascinating the way the mines were dug by hand in the early days….the mine was a maze of tunnels.

After the tour we decided to try our hand at noodling….the only way to search for opals without a mining license. There was a public noodling area in town where hills of old mine rock was located….you can fossick amongst the piles and keep any opal you find. After an hour or so we had found quite a lot of quartz crystals and other interesting rocks. I found a couple of small pieces of rock with seams of opal in them….nothing big or impressive but opal nevertheless!

Dinner that night at the Outback Bar and Grill…. $12 schnitzel night!!