Alice Springs is only 690 km to the north of Adelaide. Between the two of them is Coober Pedy, world capital of the opal, providing for 80% of the world's production. A curtain of dust rises in the breeze in an unchanging and inhospitable scenery, but shaped by the hand of man, within the rules of art. Those of prospecting: a miner never refills a hole that has just been dug. Coober Pedy has already snatched up enough that way.  (More) ...