Day 15: Coober Pedy

Well - wasn't planning on staying in Coober Pedy today, but discovered we had a flat tyre last night, and being Sunday nobody is working.

So, that gave us an excuse to see more things.

First off the bat was the Umoona mine and underground museum. That was great as it started with the whole story about Australia having a big inland sea which covered the area of Coober Pedy and much more. Many skeletal remains of Plesiosaurs have been discovered when mining opals in the area. One skeleton had actually opalised, but was transferred to the Australia Museum in Sydney.

There was also information on the dog fence which runs North of Coober Pedy. Richie can tell you exactly how long it is (5600 km) and how long it once was (9600 km).

Then we headed further into the mine below for a guided tour, where the lady told us all about how the mining was done and showed us some opal still in place which we took a good photo of below, where you can see some colour.

We had a little time in the afternoon to check the Serbian underground church, which had a particularly spiritual feel about it. You may have noticed that everything is underground. Well in summer if it is 45°c outside, underground it is 26°c - 28°c - Winter Nights can be Close To Zero°, Underground it is 20°c - 22°c.

Lastly we waited until late afternoon to see the sunset at the 'Breakaways'. It was quite impressive - lots of different sand colours. We checked out the dog fence while we were out that way too.

PS keep the comments coming as it's good to know when people are reading the blog and what they think. (By the way, you can comment on a particular day).