Page 19 - Southern Exposure - July '20

Southern Exposure, Page 19

travel from page 18

world could match the unique blend of Coober Pedy. freight. After the initial
Five hundred or so miles northwest of the urban city of construction, many were
Adelaide lies this truly outback desert town. For those turned loose and still
of you who have seen the movie Priscilla, Queen of the roam freely throughout
Desert, you can relate to my comments. It gets to 120 the outback. The Ghan
degrees in the summer at daytime and close to freezing got its name from the
in the winter nights. To protect themselves from the shortened version of
elements, the locals live underground in homes drilled into Afghan.
the earth. Not only homes, but churches and other types The Ghan made its
of occupancies protect themselves in this manor. Why, first departure north on
you may ask? Because, it’s the Opal Capital of the World, August 4, 1929. The
where the precious stones are mined and processed. line was narrow gauge
The extraction and capturing of the raw opals is done traversed by steam
in two ways. First an auger drills a four-foot diameter hole engines. Today, the
in the ground, brings up the sand, rock and (hopefully) line has had all of the
some opals. The hole can be 30- to 40-feet deep. If they old ties removed and
hit a vein, they drop a man into the hole to the level of replaced with ones made
the vein where he chips out the opal. This is how the area of concrete, termite-
got the name Coober Pedy. When the aborigines saw the resistant members. Until
operation they proclaimed, “Coober Pedy,” which means, 2006 the line ran only
“white man in a hole.” north to the center of
The second and less glamorous way to get opals is by Australia, where land
noodling. The material that is brought up from the hole trains then carried the
contains opal. That’s how they knew to stop drilling. This freight north to Darwin
loose material from the hole is hauled to a central location, and other destinations in
where it is fed by conveyor into a small (air-conditioned) the Northern Territory.
shed that is completely dark, except for black light. Opals Since the land north
will glisten in black light, so when the stones roll by they of Alice Springs is flat
are picked off the conveyor. and the road is straight,
Everyone in Coober Pedy has a story of how they made land trains made up of
it and lost it. Much the same as I would imagine the kind of king-size rigs that towed
stories came out of our California Gold rush. The people three to four full length
who live there are hearty. They have to be to exist! They trailers, transported the
deal in opals and cash with their own particular blend of goods and merchandise Admirals Arch in Flinders National Park
life. to the north. In 2006
Embellishing the blend of the great outback wouldn’t this last portion of the railroad was completed, and the seas and rivers of the world. Palm Beach Gardens Travel
be complete without the mention of the camels. Yes, 3,000-kilometer run between Darwin an Adelaide is made Leaders, his family owned and operated agency, is located
camels were left over from the building of The Ghan. twice a week. at Mirasol Town Square, 11360 North Jog Road, Building
When the world famous railroad line from Adelaide to South Australia’s diverse lifestyles, wine, culinary A, Suite 102-6, Palm Beach Gardens. The agency has been
Stuart (today’s Alice Springs) was constructed, there offerings, wildlife and festivals are set within a colorful serving the travel needs of the South Florida area for over
were no roads to transport the wooden sleepers (or ties and easy going atmosphere, which truly make it “a a quarter of a century. Contact him at (561) 694-9696 or
as they are often called) to the middle of the desert. So, beautiful blend.” Aussie@PBGTravel.com.
with typical Aussie ingenuity camels were imported from Don Kiselewski writes from his personal experiences,
Afghanistan to become the ships of the sand to move the having traveled in 122 countries and cruised the oceans, Photos by Don Kiselewski

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