Apr 26, Coober Pedy to Northern Territory

Our day started with a tour of Tom's Opal Mine. Tom has retired, but Jimmy, from Scotland, gave us the tour. We walked down the entrance, but then he showed us how the miners would go down on a rope and plank seat. Opals are found in a horizontal layer of sandstone in front of a fault. Jimmy showed us the fault and the level, but pointed put that the miners find them using divining rods. They're L shaped wires, one held in each hand, and at the fault, they separate, then one of them points toward the front of the fault. We both tried it and it worked.

The miners use a clawing machine to get to the seam and the dirt that it breaks away goes to the surface via a vacuum machine. Then the dirt just piles up on the surface. The opals are mined by hand. The clawing machines are all homemade, no company makes them, so the inventive miners make their own design. Sometimes they have to use explosives and they make their own "bombs" with rolled newspaper, diesel fuel, fertilizer and fuse.

There are about 2.3 million holes for opal mines in the area. Jimmy said that on average, one tourist is killed falling down a hole. Usually they step in the hole walking backwards to take a picture!

95o/o of the world's opals come from Australia and they are sold to China, India, Russia, Brazil and the US. They are also the rarest of gems and the miners get up to $30,000 per Troy ounce for rough stones

After the tour we visited the underground churches in Coober Pedy. The Anglican Catacomb Church, had a miners winch as an altar. The Catholic Church had a bell tower outside and inside had niches carved into the rock for statues. But the Serbian Orthodox Church was magnificent. The carved ceiling soared above the floor and above the icon screen figures were carved out of the stone. It was remarkable.

We had a long way to go, so we went north. One of the things we were told was to gas up at every opportunity and there are stations every 200 to 300 km. and the price has been getting higher the further we go. We had paid $1.42 per liter in Port Augusta. At the last station, in the Northern Territory we paid $1.98!

We drove later than usual tonight. It's dangerous to drive after dusk because the animals come out and often feed at the side of the road. So we drove slowly and kept a lookout for kangaroos, luckily we only saw 2 and we spotted them as they crossed the road.

We're in a rest area near Uluru and Kings Canyon.

Pictures - Mining in Coober Pedy, Serbian Orthodox Church, Sculpture in Serbian Orthodox Church, The Catacombs Anglican Church, Underground Bookstore, Landscape, Samson leaving his shoes in Kulgera