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Venturing to Coober Pedy, Australia (Actifit)

Venturing to Coober Pedy, Australia (Actifit)

June 2019 · 5 min read

This has to be one of the most random places I have ever visited. I watched a TV programme by Julia Bradbury as she was exploring this part of the world and even she, chatterbox lady, struggled to come up with words for it. So let me just talk about what I did today and you can let me know what you think in the comments section hey lol!

Airstrip On The Highway Near Glendambo

A random airplane runway in the middle of the highway which is used by emergency doctors and medical volunteers who are on call for any car accidents or emergencies that happen out in these parts in the middle of nowhere. It's quicker to fly to an incident than to drive. Our tour guide said on average these volunteers are called out every 2 minutes as they cover an area equivalent in size from London to Israel!

As you can see, it's pretty baron out here, not much except desert so you don't really want to be caught out!

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Coober Pedy Umoona Opal Museum

We made it in to Cooper Pedy today to the Opal Mining Museum where we learnt all about how the Opal industry started in Australia. This big town literally appeared out of nowhere in the desert.

Funny to think that a bit of crushed silicon with water trapped in it can be worth millions but they are pretty for sure.

When the ocean used to be here, there was a load of sand as well. Sand is made of silicon and over time, the water dried up leaving just the sand mostly. However some water seeped down through the rocks over time and carried some silicon with it and sat in little dimples with holes in.

Thousands of years passed with all that pressure building up, compacting the silicon and solidifying it. Some of the solidified bits of silicon had water trapped inside it which gives off these amazing colours when light shines on it - aka Opal.

Everything is under ground here and 75% of the population live underground. The temperature under the soil varies between 21-24 Celsius so nice and cool in summer (where it can get as high as 60C outside) and warm in the winter. We'll be staying at this place tonight!

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Crocodile Harry's Place

This is allegedly where the original Crocodile Dundee lived. A guy (potentially called Harry) had a crocodile in his house and looked after him for a few years. People would just visit and chat with him! Now it's just an abandoned home with loads of writing on the wall from people who have visited since and I've been lead to believe in his bedroom there's a line with underwear from girl's he got a little more personal with.

What a bizarre place Cooper Pedy is!

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Coober Pedy Golf Club

A golf club like no other for you here. You carry around a 1m x 1m patch of grass with you to hit the ball off and the green is made of bitumen so it really is soft and "grippy". There were people playing wearing golf attire as well haha! And they do have a sense of humour here as you can see by the "keep of the grass" sign... There's no grass in these parts 🙂

Apparently, this club reached out to a few others to ask how they could increase membership. The only club that replied was St Andrews believe it or not!

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Josephine's Gallery & Kangaroo Orphanage

Another quick stop off at a Kangaroo Orphanage where they rescue kangaroos that have fallen in to misfortune including joeys.

I discovered so much more than I expected about kangaroos! How the mothers control their hormones for birthing like some sort of production line and they have only 3 in "production" at any one time. We fed some of the roos, saw a joey being slung in a bag like it was a pair of shoes from a shopping expedition and they also had didgeridoos to play around with in the gallery.

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Serbian "Orthodox" Underground Church

What a really bizarre place this church is. You could say it's distinctly unorthodox lol! They do have services here but they aren't held very often. When we arrived, there was a spiritual song on the audio playing to add to the atmosphere. Unreal haha

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Coober Pedy Sign

Coober Pedy's version of Hollywood, why not wrap the day up here?

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Phew, what a day! You still there? Haha

Take it easy. May catch you soon, hope the pictures upload but this is the outback...

Nicky

PHC Top 3 - A Chance To Win From A Growing Prize Pool

Well, whilst I'm here, I might as well take the chance to tell you about a new contest that I've been a part of with the Power House Creatives called @phctop3. All you need to do is tell us what your top 3 favourites for a chance to win from a growing prize pool - more info here.

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Electronic Music Alliance (EMA)

EMA is a growing electronic music community run by electronic musicians FOR electronic musicians. We have weekly playlists on a variety of platforms to cater for all streaming preferences - make sure you follow our blog for your weekly dose here. We're also launching a new community run label called Electronic Alliance Records which aims to spread the word even more for our artists - check the latest developments and what music is coming up here

Don't Forget: Get Travel Health Insurance!

To make your trip a worry-free experience, TravelFeed recommends SafetyWing Nomad Insurance. It provides comprehensive health coverage while you travel, so you can focus on exploring, not the unexpected. Get a quote here



8385
Hiking, Walking
Height
180.3 ft
Weight
63.9 lb
Body Fat
%
Waist
in
Thighs
in
Chest
in

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