Tag: Coober Pedy

 

After reviewing the defenses against dingo incursions, the expedition returned to Coober Pedy in search of breakfast.  Surely in a town full of miners there must be a cafe or two that make a hearty meal.

 

A cafe, didgeridoo, opal, and art shop caught our eyes.  The gate was open.  We were hungry.  We decided to stop in at the Underground Cafe.

 

Inside we found a shop full of digeridoos, opals, art, boomerangs, and one rather peculiar Serbian.  Were Slobodan Milošević not dead and buried, I could swear that this man was the Slobodan Milošević that we all saw on the television during the Kosovo War.  Lord Bailey felt the same way.  Without knowing his real name, we took to referring to him as Slobodan.  Here we were, in Slobodan’s digeridoo shop.

 

 

Our first order of business was breakfast.  The signboard advertised breakfast however Slobodan told us the story of how his cook was on vacation in greener climates.  As we were about to leave, he insisted that we stay and he would make us drinks.  We proceeded to inspect the merchandise.  The digeridoos were all supposedly hand-made by aborigines in the region and had all supposedly been hollowed out by real termites.  It is true that they instruments were quite beautiful but as any Albanian or Kosovar can tell you, Slobodan is not to be trusted.

After our hot chocolates were prepared, Slobodan led us into the underground didgeridoo concert hall and played a didgeridoo concert for us.  Slobodan was a gifted didgeridoo player and a gifted salesman.  He pressed the hard sale on the expedition, trying to outfit us with several handsome and quite pricey didgeridoos.  We escaped Slobodan’s House of Didgeridoo only having to pay for our drinks.  The expedition had witnessed a true curiosity that only can be found in Coober Pedy.  Slobodan Milošević made us hot chocolates and played the didgeridoo.

 

Back outside, the expedition continued the review of Coober Pedy.  This bus was supposedly used in the Mad Max series.

 

 

 

An interesting art display.

 

A crashed spacecraft from the movie Pitch Black.

 

 

 

Underground galleries and other stores of ill repute.

 

Sadly the underground bookshop was closed.

 

 

 

 

Upon arriving at Coober Pedy, the expedition found a barren plain full of small mounds of earth and rock.  Few people were visible in the dusty streets or the scattered, low-slung buildings.  It was already dark, the wind was blowing, and the temperature was rapidly dropping.  Then the expedition found a sign pointing down a dirt road to “underground camping.”  Soon, tents were being pitched in a mine shaft.  Out of the wind and in a relatively warm place, the expedition settled down for the night with many tonnes of rock and dirt hanging above the camp.

 

 

 

 

 

The underground campground was quit extensive and custom-build for housing wayward expeditions.

 

Another expedition pulled up outside the underground campground.

 

 

 

 

 

Yet another beautiful Australian night sky.

 

 

 

The moon rises.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No smoking or anything else that would make fumes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The entrance to the underground campground.

 

 

 

 

It’s hard to tell there’s a city here.

 

The campground is buried in the hill behind the expeditionary vehicles.