Coober Pedy. Strange place.

Scuse the lack of interaction, internet's been more than dodgy. Fear not! I got back from Coober Pedy last Wednesday. It's a place so out of touch with my own experience that it's hard to form an opinion on whether I liked it or not. It filled my need for something different, let's put it that way. There was a film set unreality about it, err...a bit like being on the King King ride at Universal Studios. Know what I mean?



When it's not being all famous n that, Coober Pedy is a real, working opal mining town where real people live and work underground. They're laid to rest there too, in graves where beer bottles are left as a mark of respect instead of flowers. One beer keg headstone was engraved with the solemn words 'Have a drink on me'. I'm reliably informed that they did.

One thing's for sure, the town and alcohol have an uneasy relationship. The main street is a designated 'dry zone', like several other inland towns near Government funded Aboriginal settlements where alcoholism is rife. It's such a problem that the the two Liquor Stores are banned from selling casks of wine before 3pm (because everybody knows alcoholics don't drink after then). From the interactions I see on the street and the stories I hear from a local, the white people and the Aboriginals have an uneasy relationship, too. But we'll save that one for another day.



There was the local radio station, aptly named Dusty FM. A drive-in cinema, still screening a film every Saturday night. My hostel room was 6.5 metres below the surface (see above). On Monday 11th January, it was 45 degrees, yet my room was a cool 20 with not an air con unit in sight. Outside of town, there were vast empty plains which used to be the sea bed, but is now used to replicate the surface of the moon in mostly bad films (apart from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. That's good).

There were kangaroos hopping down the unsealed roads, dogs wondering loose. A few tourists, motels, locals and lots of opal shops graced the main street, while spaceships and other sci-fi props sat gathering red dust at the side of the road. Just like any other day.



Overall, Coober Pedy, with its eccentric and indigenous inhabitants seemed like the kinda place that anything could happen. And to be honest, if the town notice board is anything to go by, I think it probably does.