Opal Fields in Coober Pedy

Our 540km drive from Port Augusta to Coober Pedy, Australia’s Opal city,  was rather uneventful except for a stop at Glendambo Roadhouse for a feeding break and refueling.

We arrived late afternoon in Coober Pedy, early enough to check into one of the underground accommodations – or dugouts as they are called here – and take a tour around the town.

The famous golf club of Coober Pedy is worth taking a look at – regardless of whether your handicap is four or you feel handicapped for golfing overall, like I do. The teeing grounds are small patches of artificial lawn and the greens are the ‘greys’. Grass is no where to be seen on the entire course. The entire plot looks like the next Madmax edition of a grand sandrock-mole competition.

As the evening sun sent its red rays of goodbye from the horizon we admired the piles of rubble, which started to glow in all shades of white, yellow, orange and light red. It looks a bit like a landing site of extraterrestrial ants, who attempt to colonize the planet. As ugly as the sites are during bright, unforgiving daylight as marvelous the scenery becomes when the soft evening light brings out the colors.

The next day, we ventured to the Umoona Opal Mine and Museum. You get a 20min tour through the dugout with a bit of background information on the place and opal mining in general. Our tour guide was Rudi, an eighty-plus years old Austrian, who has spent most of his life chasing opals. When the tour ends, there is an optional video viewing with “Q&A”. Go for that one. It’s by far the most interesting and entertaining part of the museum.

When Rudi is in the mood. He talks about some of the opals and miners featured in the video and little stories that go with it. “I know this Opal buyer well. In the old days he had three fridges of cold beer in his office. And regardless of how big your parcel [set of raw opals] was, we used to empty those fridges after the deal was closed.”

The video rolled on and he caught the sight of an opal he truly admired. It’s a former squid bone, which decomposed in million of years underground and made room for the silica gemstone. “If I had found it, I would have kept it for my life and have it buried with me in my grave.” he uttered. “It’s so beautiful but almost impossible to grade [its value].”

Then he gets into the old times. “My buddy and I were heavy drinkers. On a Saturday evening, when we were in the mood, I drank 12 liters of wine.” Rudi says and you know he is not exaggerating. “My buddy died from it. His heart didn’t make it one day. I went sober that day. Cold turkey, you know. Never had a drop of alcohol ever since.” He also has hilarious stories to tell about the ‘good old days’ local police versus the outsiders from highway patrol. As you can imagine this story also included more than one intoxicated driver. Listening to his tales of Opal miners more than an hour flew by quickly. Unfortunately, we needed to leave and hit the road for Erldunda, our final stop of the day before we reached Ayers Rock and the Olgas.

From Coober Pedy to Erldunda

Following the Stuart Highway north for a few kilometers, we took a right turn onto a dirt road to the Breakaways. At the end of the 10km long road, there is an elevated lookout at the rim of colorful stone cliffs. It’s worth if you have ample time for sightseeing, but can skip if you are short on time.

In the evening we arrived at the Erldunda Roadhouse. At night we happen to sit for a minute in front of the reception area. It was just the three of us amongst a couple of benches and tables. I was holding our little one who was looking over my shoulder. At one point I noticed she was following something on the ground with her eyes. When I followed her gaze, I noticed a small ant making her way across the concrete floor. Good eyes sweetie! Only then I noticed the movement not far away from the ant and saw the tail of a snake disappearing under our table. It ventured from our table towards the main building and disappeared in one of the drains for rainwater.  We double checked our room for snakes that night.