Day 14 - Henbury to Coober Pedy - N.T., S.A.

Day 14- We headed out of Northern Territory and back into South Australia towards Coober Pedy. Along the way we saw dozens of gorgeous Wedge-Tailed Eagles.

Coober Pedy is considered the opal capital of the world as they supply the majority of the world’s gem quality opals. The population is a little over 3,500 with over 45 different nationalities. Most live underground in dugouts.

It was Larry’s shout (Aussie term meaning to buy or give something to someone else) as he got all of us a wonderful room in a dugout motel called Radekas Underground Motel.

The two of us went to a local museum called Old Timer’s Mine and took the self guided tour. First mined in 1916 the Old Timer’s Mine is kept in its original state and is the only mine in the world that you can see opal still in its nature surroundings.

After garnering our hard hats and taking some photos in the mine we met up with Larry and Mick and went out to a local pizzeria to have tea. Greg had the famous Aussie pizza, which includes: cheese, bacon, egg and ham. However the pizza wasn’t much to write home about but the wine wasn’t bad. We decided to come back to the motel and have a couple drinks and chat. Overall we all had very nice night.

Entering once again South Australia.

Wedge-tail flying towards his lunch. Unfortunately there were a lot of dead roos on the road.

Another Wedge-tail in flight.

Danger Danger don't walk backwards talking photos.

You can see the raping of the land with all the domes from opal digging.

Our bed at Radekas Underground Motel.

What a wonderful room it was.

The only thing that was strange was walking up in the middle of the night and trying to find the toliet because as you can imagine there are no windows and it was pitch black. Dead silent too.

Room two.

The Old Timer's Mine. An original opal mine dating back to 1916. The old time miners had backfilled the shafts, hiding the mine below. It is not known why they never returned to dig out the opal still waiting. It wasn´t untill 1968 that the hidden mine was accidentally discovered when an underground home extension broke through, revealing much precious opal which is still there for you to see today.

These are opalized sea shells.

Carved right into the wall was a statue of the first camel in Australia, named Harry.

Natalie relaxing.

Nightmare in Coober Pedy, starring Mick Kruger.

Natalie and Mick enjoying a Vic Bitter.

Mick and Larry sipping on port.