Margaret and I headed off to the office yesterday morning to book our tour for Sunday. However, they DID have a tour available that started at two o’clock in the afternoon. So we opted for that, considering that was the hottest part of the day and we weren’t really doing anything.
So at 2pm we headed off by Coaster bus to learn about opals and the general local knowledge. Our driver was not only a local, but he had been a miner for 12 years before injuring himself.
Our first stop was the jewellery shop, so he could show us all the different aspects of opals. After our demonstration, we headed out to see the area.
Our first stop,..the local golf course. For those who enjoy a game of golf, an 18 hole golf course in the middle of the desert. It’s also sponsored by the St. Andrews golf club in Scotland. Once again, water is at a premium here, so artificial turf is used for tee offs. You’re given a piece of it to hang around your neck for those tee offs.
If you look quickly, you could almost be forgiven for thinking that these look like pyramids.
A shaft is driven down to create a hole where they then start blasting their way through the dirt.
This is the ‘Noodle” machine which sifts through those mounds of rubble that’s sitting above ground. None of the holes are filled once they’ve completed. Each of the holes created are an “asset” for the miners, so they never fill them in.
We’re sitting on top of the Breakaways. Similar to the “Painted Hills”, this area was once covered by ocean millions of years ago.
Sacred Aboriginal land, this place is called Two Dingoes. A white one and a brown one.
It doesn’t show up well here, but this is one of the underground houses used. This is a 3 bedroom place and if you go downstairs you can continue mining your claim.
These steps were created underneath the above loungeroom. A catacomb of caves were down here for mining more opal.
Most of the buildings here are underground. there are a few above ground, but for the 25% above ground, there’s another 75% underground.
Truly one of a kind, this Serbian Orthodox church is the ONLY underground church in the world.
Made by the locals, whose artistry is comparable to the architecture of Old World cathedrals.
The man who carved these pictures had cancer and managed to finish them before he passed. The arched ceiling giving wonderful acoustics for the singers. And as with many churches, the sense of peace you get when you enter is magical.
We ended the day with a stopover at the local underground hotel whereby the driver “shouted” (bought) us with drinks. It was a wonderful end to a really great tour.
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