somewhere...

...over at the the end of the rainbow is Coober Pedy.

Today we should be exploring the opal town of Coober Pedy ( which means 'man in a hole') where some of the world's finest opals have been mined for over a century.
Folk literally live and mine underground and this was I must admit one of the reasons I was on The Ghan Expedition....to visit CP and visit this extraordinary place literally in the middle of nowhere.
However not to be...shucks I'll just have to do another trip!!!

So the reason we didn't get there?
Well it rained!!
What?
It's desert! (extra)
But yes and because The Ghan is so long we were at Manguri, a tiny siding some 40  minutes by road from Coober.
The road was flooded and the coaches coming to meet and transport us were stuck at a floodway.

C'est la vie!
However in our section... Marie Claire were onboard and also hoping to get to Coober for a fashion shoot.
Instead they were marooned in the desert as we were and what an opportunity for a blipper to watch all this while sipping on a glass of soemthing yummy....yes the bar was open!

My fellow traveller however was much more interested in his book! (extra)