December 5, 2015 by coloradotravelingducks

Coober Pedy and Nearby with Zeb and Eider

We walked around this little town and we have never seen so many opal stores.

One of several small opal shops lining the street in Coober Pedy

We went inside some, but the human already have some opals, and Zeb and Eider don’t think any new opals will be coming home with us. We liked this car, the Opal Bug, at the Opal Beetle.

Opal Bug at Opal Beetle Shop

We entered the Umoona Opal Mine and Museum.

Umoona Mine

Into the mine.

Entering the mine

Through the tunnels.

Walking through mine tunnel

A layer of opal still in the rock.

Opal still in rock

This opal is great and they had a wonderful gift shop. But still no opals going home with us. These rock formations are known as The Breakaways.

The Breakaways

Look at this sky. Love the clouds.

The Breakaways

Nearby is the dingo fence, or the dog fence.

We are at the Dingo Fence

This dingo fence is the longest structure in the world. It is even longer than the Great Wall of China. This fence now extends for 5,300 kilometers. At one time it extended 9,600 kilometers.

Longest structure in the world

The fence was built by ranchers to prevent the wild dingos from the north from killing the stock The dingo fence was built in 1946. We then visited the Underground Serbian Orthodox Church of Saint Elijah Parish.

Underground Serbian Orthodox Church

We are entering the tunnel leading to the interior of the church.

Tunnel to underground church

The altar is beautiful.

Altar of underground Serbian Orthodox Church

This is the view from the church balcony.

From church balcony

The church is built into the mountain, like a cave, so they can have these beautiful windows on one side

Dugout allows one side with beautiful windows

We really enjoyed our visit to Coober Pedy. We hope you visit also.

December 4, 2015 by coloradotravelingducks

Zeb and Eider Visit the Opal Capital of the World: Coober Pedy

Zeb and Eider Duck and the human are now in the opal capital of the world.

Coober Pedy is the Opal Capital of the World

We are in Coober Pedy, South Australia. Coober Pedy is in the southern outback desert. In the heat of summer, temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius have been recorded. For those of us using Fahrenheit temperatures, that is about 124 degrees. The first opal was discovered by Willie Hutchison in 1915, and the town was born.

Coober Pedy celebrates 100 years

95% of the world’s opals come from Australia and Coober Pedy produces more than any other area of Australia.

Beautiful opals

When World War I ended, returning soldiers came to find opals. There was very little wood to build homes and the soldiers had lived in underground fox holes during the war. With no wood and extreme heat, living underground was the best solution. The home were called dugouts, as most were dug out of the side of a hill.

Dugout is dug out of side of mountain or hill

The name of the town came from the aboriginal phrase, Kupa Piti,which means “white fellows in a hole.” Today over half of Coober Pedy’s population lives in dugouts, underground. The underground temperature remains a comfortable 24 degrees Celsius (about 73 degrees F) all year. We stayed at the Desert Cave

Desert Cave Hotel. We stayed in underground part in the back

in an underground room. This is the hotel’s underground hall to our room.

Underground hall to our room

Since we are underground, the emergency exit must be a staircase leading up to the outdoors. Here we are on the emergency exit.

Climb up for emergency exit

Our hotel has a bar and game room that is underground.

Underground Bar in our hotel

We like this place.

First underground bar for Zeb and Eider

Our breakfast restaurant, the Crystal Cafe, is also underground, as is the gift shop and the opal store, Opal World. Our hotel, the Desert Cave, has a tunnel from the reception to the restaurant and shops. We are going down the stairs and into the tunnel.

Down the stairs to our hotel tunnel

In the tunnel we discovered an opal mine and museum. Here is a pretend miner using the mine shaft to enter and exit.

A fake miner using ropes to enter and exit the mine

There is a photographic history of Coober Pedy in the tunnel. We are on some mining machinery in the tunnel.

We are on old mining equipment

We really liked our hotel and we like visiting Coober Pedy. If you visit here, be sure to arrange transportation to your hotel before you arrive. There are no taxis in Coober Pedy. Next time we will show you some of Coober Pedy. We like it here.

August 31, 2015 by coloradotravelingducks

Adelaide, Australia’s Rundle Mall and Memorials with Zeb and Eider Duck

Zeb, Eider and the humans took Adelaide’s free city bus to view monuments and more. This statue is in memory of those who fell serving and defending Australia.

Remembering fallen héros

The Honorable Dame Roma Mitchell is honored here.

Honorable Dame Roma Mitchell

She is a former Governor of South Australia, a former Chancellor at the University of Adelaide and a former Judge on the Supreme Court of South Australia. Wow! She was a great lady! Here is the front of the Memorial remembering those lost in World War I and World War II.

Memorial for World War I and World War II

This is the back of the Memorial.

Back of War Memorial. We ducks are on the steps

Humans also walk inside the memorial to view additional exhibits. The streets of Adelaide are very clean. These trash containers are part of the reason.

We thought this trash container is pretty clever

Put trash in one place and cigarette butts in another place and keep Adelaide clean. The Art Gallery of South Australia hosts a special exhibit.

Art Gallery of South Australia

Sir Walter Watson Hughes, one of the founders of and the first donor to the University of Adelaide, is honored here.

Sir Walter Watson Hughs

Sir Douglas Mawson, Professor of Geology and Mineralogy was also an Antarctic scientist and explorer.

Sir Douglas Mawson

Australia honors many of its outstanding citizens. Adelaide is also home to the premier retail area of South Australia. Rundle Mall became Australia’s first pedestrian mall in 1976. We wandered around Rundle Mall just before sunset.

Rundle Mall. A retail destination

The street is lined with world famous retail stores.

Rundle Mall

We like the sculptures also. This fountain appeals to us. We find water soothing.

Water is soothing for us

Malls with flower shops always seem more friendly.

Flowers are so cheerful

Of course, mom found the local chocolate store.

Wonderful chocolate

We are glad she did; the chocolate was delicious. We like Adelaide. Tomorrow we will show you a little more before we leave town.

August 22, 2015 by coloradotravelingducks

Eucalyptus Oil Farm on Kangaroo Island with Zeb and Eider Duck

Today we visited a farmer that does not grow crops, does not have cows and does not have sheep. Lawrence, the farmer, does not use any sprays and no chemicals are used. He plants and cares for native Kangaroo Island Narrow Leaf Mallee eucalyptus trees. This is not one of the varieties of eucalyptus trees favored by the koalas.

Emu Ridge is a working farm

We were at Emu Ridge, the only commercial Eucalyptus Distillery remaining in South Australia. The eucalyptus oil is distilled in the traditional method. The eucalyptus plant is cut every few years and then taken to the distillery.

Eucalyptus still

The leaf is placed into a pot containing water, beneath which a fire is lit. The steam carrying the oil is passed through a system of cooling pipes. The oil separates and is piped off into containers. The raw oil undergoes another refining process to produce the final product, crystal clear oil. This is the process used to produce or distill eucalyptus oil over 100 years ago.

Old farm equipment still used

All parts of the plant are used in this process. There is no waste and any byproducts are recycled. They even produce their own electricity. Lawrence and his wife, Beverly, were sheep farmers, but in 1991 the wool prices took a sharp decline. They decided to revive the old custom of producing eucalyptus oil. Eucalyptus oil was the first true overseas export of Australia.

Why have eucalyptus oil?

The old shearing shed is now a plant nursery. Emu Ridge farm has been a major tourist destination since 1991. There is a retail outlet where you may purchase pure eucalyptus oil and other products.

So many products from Eucalyptus oil

Mom really liked some of the lotions and creams. Of course, the products also may be purchased online. Please visit http://www.EmuRidge.com.au for more information. The 4 minute video on the home page is really interesting. The humans were watching these kangaroos.

Kangaroos in the back yard

We really enjoyed seeing these kangaroos, too

We are watching these kangaroos

This is an emu, the inspiration for naming the farm Emu Ridge.

Emu at Emu Ridge

When you visit Kangaroo Island in South Australia, we hope you will visit Emu Ridge also. We loved it and we think you would enjoy it also.

August 10, 2015 by coloradotravelingducks

Clifford’s Honey Farm on Kangaroo Island with Zeb and Eider Duck

It is 6:15 a.m.; ducks and humans are waiting for a bus to the harbor near Adelaide, South Australia. We will have a 45 minute ferry ride to Kangaroo Island

We will get on the ferry to Kangaroo Island

and then a couple days of tours. Some people are taking cars on our ferry.

Cars are going on our ferry

We are not taking a vehicle. The ferry has left the harbor and we are sailing.

We love riding on boats

The back of the boat is a little chilly. Not much sun yet.

Very windy back here. We have to stay on the floor so we don’t blow overboard

We are docking at Kangaroo Island.

We are approaching Kangaroo Island

We board our tour bus and begin exploring the island. Driving we admire the green fields. As we continued, we saw some kangaroos grazing in the fields and some fields of cattle. We saw many sheep

We love the sheep

and some new snow white baby lambs. Our dirt roads are red.

Red dirt on Kangaroo Island

The color will vary across the island. This is a grass tree.

A grass tree

Our first stop is Clifford’s Honey Farm.

Clifford’s Honey Farm

This machine separates honey from the hive.

Getting honey from hive

There are three levels of honey in each hive. Humans only take 2 levels. The bees need the 3rd level for their food. Bees are working here.

Bees at work

The farm has Ligurian bees from Italy. Bees cannot fly far, so the bee line remains pure on the island. These bees are very quiet, docile and much sought after by bee-keepers. They are easy to work and very productive. The queen bees are exported around the world. We visited the store. Humans tasted honey. They liked it. They bought chocolate coated honeycomb and honey bears. Both were enjoyed! However, the honey bears were the favorite. Yum! For more information on Clifford’s Honey Farm, visit http://www.cliffordshoney.com.au On our way to lunch, we passed the Weatherspoon farm with this sign.

Creative sign

Can you read it? It says: Did you bring a beer long. A very clever and original sign! Next we enjoyed a buffet lunch

Good lunch

at Vivonne Bay Eco Adventures Bistro and Function Centre on Vivonne Bay.

Let’s eat at Vivonne Bay Eco Adventures Bistro and Function Center on Vivonne Bay

Let’s continue down the road toward our next spot.

Let’s continue down the road

We like our tour so far. I think you will like what we show you next time.

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