Once bitten twice shy and this time we decided to stay above ground. We found a good motel-type place at only $88 per room which was clean and well equipped and welcome after our recent experiences of sleeping in tents and cabins. Had a quick shower then headed back
to Tom & Mary’s for more delicious garlic prawns and a couple of carafes of wine. Then we went back to the hotel bar which was full of weird locals and having had our fair share of wacko’s recently, Debs and I decided not to hang around and we left John & Gordon to get to know them. We later heard about the multi-millionaire who had an opal ring bought for $4000 but supposedly worth $50,000 (which Gordon said was garish and ostentatious) who came from Brazil – another fugitive from justice? He was 60 but had a young trophy wife, Yvonne, who was fine until she smiled and revealed a full set of black teeth! Then there was the Brit – a carpenter who had lived in CP for 27 years (why?), had 6 children and readily admitted to being “quite wealthy”.
He was originally from London and came to Australia as a carpenter and somehow graduated to the opal mines where he made his fortune. He still goes ‘noodling’ i.e. sifting the mine waste for missed opals which can be quite lucrative. (They can make $100-150K/year) Gordon and this guy really hit it off and after we got back Gordon sent him a set of chisels as he finds it difficult to get hold of them in Coober Pedy – well, he would! We were quite sorry to leave in a funny way. There are many stories in Coober Pedy – this has been just one of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment