Lazy Sunday - no school! We clear out of the expensive underground hotel and into the caravan park. Much easier in the daylight, less wind today, we fully unpack the car. Toilets are very clean, kitchen awesome, we have hot Tacos for lunch.
Opal mine tour
We started in the shop. Graham the guide showed us examples of polished ones, fossil opalised snails, rough pineapples, and a broken pineapple (that's about 50,000 down the tubes with one hit).
We check out the powered buckets that make moving dirt out of the hole easy.
Then we go for a wander underground. The earth is soft, so making a nice corridor is easy. The guide shows some opal in the wall and some rocks from Antarctica. These rocks were broken off by glaciers, then carried by ice bergs. It's amazing to think of Plesiosaurs swimming and ice bergs from Antarctica floating around here.
The guide carves some wall down. The hydraulic scraper has a paddle on the end and is electric powered and silent. You must listen for the tinkle of glass to catch the opal seam, then stop immediately before you smash it up! The miners use screwdrivers for the fine work. He asked for a volunteer. Louis is right at the front, the only one to shoot his hand up. Lou furiously scours the dirt. Then Ollie also gets in. After searching the fallen dirt, then they both start attacking the wall with screwdrivers. Lou is still going when everyone else has left and the guide has to ask him to stop, to his strong disappointment.
Dinner at the sports club - met Lindsay the owner of the White House dugout, and another guy who found a opalised Plesiosaur bone now sitting in the Smithsonian.
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