We awoke to an overcast morning with rain threatening from the north west.
Today we had a lesson in the reason for the need to use checklists. Due to miscommunication, we did not switch our refrigerator from battery (via the car when travelling) to either power or gas when we arrived yesterday. “He” noticed that the internal refrigerator temperature on the external monitor was at 5 degrees with no power source illuminated. Fortunately the freezer was still frozen (as indicated by ice cubes that had not melted) and the cool night had saved the contents of the refrigerator. I think we can assume that the insulation on our Dometic three way fridge is very good. The fridge was back to normal (temperature) when we returned at lunchtime.
We had decided to have a relatively quiet day and we started with a trip to the local chemist to obtain something to put on broken skin on “Her” foot. Next call was to the “Old Timers” mine where we obtained some gravel to take home to explore for opal with our grandson. We also purchased a couple of tins of gravel said to contain a gem quality opal plus some other surprises. “She” also chose an opal for her birthday.
Next stop was the “Big Winch” which affords views over Coober Pedy so it was the perfect opportunity for more photos.
Our final call of the morning was to “Faye’s Underground House” to arrange dinner with the residents. We met Colin and his lovely wife June in 2007 when we learnt that Colin’s brother lived very close to us in Sydney. At that time we were able to take photographs of “Faye’s” to Colin’s brother who had never visited Coober Pedy. We have visited the house several times since and Colin and June were kind enough to invite us to dinner with them at the local Italian Australian Miners Club.
If you happen to visit Coober Pedy we recommend a tour of “Faye’s” to get a better understanding what it is like to live underground. The tour is not expensive and is excellent value for money. You can tour the house six days a week (Colin and June have Sunday off) during the day time.
We also recommend the Italian Australian Miners Club on a Thursday night when they have a $10 baked dinner including sweets. The food was excellent and the rice desert is to kill for. We also had excellent company.
The night was fairly cool when we finally hit the pillows around 11:30pm.