My year abroad in Australia, Part 1: Opal Mining !

So, I've decided to make a mini-series on my year abroad in Australia, back in 2012.

Though I just HAVE to share this, one of the strangest scenes I have personally witnessed in my life, first (This has NOTHING to do with not having the thumbnail of this post be my horrid adolescent face... I swear !)

I... Wait... Seriously... DIAPERS on ALL of them !?!

First a bit of context.

0. Me before Australia...
My entire personality is based on a very open and joyous outlook at life... now.

Back then, I was only really happy interacting with my family or one or two close friends, spending the rest of the time reading books or playing video games...
If it wasn't for my parent's insisting I participate in sport clubs (climbing or canoeing back then) I'd never get out. (There was one or two visits to a friend...) I'd have done nothing else really.

Look at how mopey I was...

That was my idea of a smile...

After I (barely) managed to get my Baccalaureate degree, my father decided I could do with some experience of the world.
I agreed (reluctantly) and we reserved tickets to Australia.

Seeing as the universe has a weird sense of humour, one of my sister's friends, who I fancied, decided that me leaving was the perfect time to declare her flame (It's actually pretty vague who declared what... my memory has always been hazy).

So, not only was I suddenly going to Australia a week or so after graduating high-school, I now also had my first girlfriend... who I'd be leaving behind when going to Australia...

Yes... That's my room... It lacked as much personality as me XS (though Noemie does brighten it up ;) )

1. Arrival in Australia

So, spurred on by my father's encouragements (and slightly depressed because I finally had a girlfriend and I was leaving for the other side of the world XS) we set forth.

My father had everything planned.
Him and Beate, my step-mother, would take a plane to a city in Australia and get in contact with the people who stored their car and trailer over there (they'd bought it because they loved exploring the more remote areas, a few years back), and I would travel solo.

When I arrived, we then set forth in their car, sleeping in the caravan at night.
Oh, wait... That was them.
I slept in the tent outside (not enough space in the caravan). A bit chilly, if I say so myself !

After a week or so, venturing further and further into the outback, we arrived at White Cliff.
A little town known for its opal mining and... underground hotel and houses ?!?

Tourist destination N*1

At least the sandrock isn't exposed !

Hi parents !

After spending the night at the Underground Motel, we ventured out to explore White Cliff.

After some time, we entered an Opal shop, where various jewelry and such was available for sale.
My father, thinking becoming a miner sounded like a nice educational experience, asked the owner if there was anyone who had any job availabilities, and maybe a room for me to stay.

As luck would have it, a local miner did.

And, very fast, I found myself deposited with my bags in the care of a local miner, his wife, and their 3 children, hoping to find a job in White Cliff, while my father and Beate went on their merry way to explore the unpopulated side of Australia...

Home, sweet temporary home (no, it wasn't christmas... they just had better things to do than remove the decorations, apparently)

Here, I kind of have to take note of how notoriously inconsistent I was at taking photos back then... I'd shoot 10 blurry photos of the moon, but none of the bloody room I was staying in...
Jeez !

3. Opal "mining" and the Art of extending your house properly

White Cliff was a nice enough town, very calm.
If a tourist found a "pineapple opal" (one of the rarest kinds), they'd get an article about themselves in the local paper !

Now compare that to the horror stories from the other big opal mining town nearby, Lightning Ridge, where the inhabitants apparently had a tendency to make tourists who found valuable gems lose their possessions... or just outright "disappear".

Luckily, we had encountered White Cliff before Lightning Ridge, or I might have been deposited over there, and who knows what would have happened then !

During my time at the miner's, we did a lot of things, notably showing me around and such.

It's much better told through the (few) images I have from that time :

Look, White Cliff. So peacefull... By the way, every mound you see is close to a giant hole from some old miner's digging, and if you fall in you'll probably die or starve before someone finds you.

Ahhh... You can feel the "everything's trying to kill you" vibe Australia's famous for already !

Digging through one of said mounds too look for scrap opals the miner might have missed ! Popular tourist activity !

At the end of my stay, it was decided the kids needed separate bedrooms, as they were beginning to grow.
So... HOW do you make new bedrooms in a house that is situated underground ?

DIG, DIG LIKE THERE BE OPALS !!!

Old mineshaft. covered over because the mineshaft was converted into their house !

We made a plan.
The miner had to get a new mineshaft. He already had one very close to the house, but the location had turned up no veins of colored opals, only the white kind (And, though he had had a stroke of luck and sold ten kilos of milky opal, normally worthless, to a university a few years back, that offer was no longer on the table).

So, we were to dig a straight tunnel from his new shaft to his old shaft's main room (which was his living room) and then the future rooms would be dug out along the new corridor.

So, we started out in the new shaft, took some measurements, and began digging towards the living room... or, at least...
That was the intention !

Hey look, it wor... wait a minute...

Oops, me thinks we might have dug at a slight angle !

Hmm... we MIGHT have dug a bit too much downwards... probably NOTHING to do with that slight vein of opal he decided to explore on the way !

Opal Miner's are notorious for that... You might be enjoying your coffee one afternoon, and suddenly your neighbour bursts through your wall !

What's his excuse ?

" Sorry, mate. Found a nice juicy vein, and just lost track of everything else !"

Jeez...
One told me a story of a fellow miner who managed to dig through 3 properties without intersecting their tunnels, before intersecting the tunnel of a fellow miner following the vein In. The. Other. Bloody. Direction...

In any case, this is when I stopped participating in Project Bedroom, as my miner friend had found me a place to stay at a local farm !

But that's will wait till next time !

Stay tuned for part 2 : The Farm (where that nice lady from the very first photo lives... and where I encountered the strangest tradition I've ever seen... Hint: Look at the goat kid...)