COOBER PEDY
What a unique town this. On the outskirts we ran out of fuel (nearly made it). Whilst i was topping up with the reserve cans a voice yelled “hey, com up here”. We got talking to an old German guy whom had decided to go for a look around 36 years ago & explore a bit of Oz. He’s still here at Coober Pedy today. That’s the type of people that make up Coober. The people here are friendly & seem to take life in their stride & don’t take much to seriously.
LIVING UNDERGROUND
Almost all inhabitants of Coober live underground. The temperature in summer so we were told will be 46 – 50 degrees for two or three weeks straight. The underground homes, churches, opal shops & motels keep an average temp of 23 degrees throughout this hot period.
Coober Pedy is dominated by the Opal industry. These beautiful stones were formed & continue to be formed as the water reaches an impervious level of the rock stratum and over time solidifies to form the opal.
THE COOBER PEDY CUP
Kaz had noticed that the Coober Pedy Races were upcoming when we were in the Flinders, so we thought we might try to see if we could make this coincide with our travels.
This cowgirl pictured with the boys turned out to be a real competitor & whilst she might not have taken home the cup in the big one she did manage to take out the blue ribbon in the barrel races. She was clearly a woman with real spirit & a genuine love of her horses.
