After a long and dusty drive we reached the Opal capital of Australia, Coober Pedy. Coober Pedy is a small town and a mining mecca for these gemstones in the middle of the dessert. We had the feeling that we drove into a post apocalyptic wasteland, but it is definitely interesting!
There are 44 different nationalities in Coober Pedy, whereby most of them came here for the mining of Opal. The Opals were discovered her roughly 100 years ago and until today 95% of all the Opals in the world are coming from this area.
Opal is one of the world’s most beautiful and precious gemstones. It is one of only six types of precious gemstones found on the planet, together with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and pearls.
Coober Pedy is not a standard tourist town, with temperatures of around 40 degrees, swarms of flies and the isolated location in the middle of the dessert but they try to make the best out of it and there is a fare amount of hostels, campgrounds, restaurants and shops. It is actually a good place to stop if your are on the way to Uluru from Adelaide. We really enjoyed it!
The first thing we did when we arrived is buying a “head fly net”. It was the best $ 3.5 I have spent in my life! It is definitely not fashionable but really, you need it! The swarms of flies are the worst here in the outback of Australia.
We discovered the town in a half day, it is pretty small and after 3 pm we were completely roasted so we decided to head back and relax in the shade. We stayed 2 nights in Coober Pedy at a cool campground in the town owned by an old Opal miner. For $5 a night we had a campsite with shower, toilets and electricity, not bad at all! He gave us a lot of useful information about the town and what you need to know when buying Opal.