Day 24 Rest Day – Coober Pedy

If I didn’t know better I would have thought I was in some hard scrabble town in the southwestern U.S., maybe in Arizona or New Mexico. Instead of a population of displace native Americans, there are the displaced Aboriginals . The parallels of white settlement and resulting displacement of the native population are strikingly similar. The toll of alcohol and substance abuse is likewise similar. To try to quell the spread, the town observes a strict dry policy outside the tourist venues.

Opals and opal mining are the tourist draw of Coober Pedy. Underground hotels, houses and churches created to provide escapes from summer temperatures approaching 130 are common. Having mining equipment at hand, and skilled operators make such construction an obvious solution.

Joe and I walked down the main street in town checked out some opal shops and part of one underground hotel then headed back to our room to relax.  I updated the journal while doing the laundry. Tomorrow we are back on the road.