David and Carol Arnold graciously invited us into their lovely dugout home and provided us with a sumptuous Australian barbeque dinner.

6/20/00: Got up a bit later than planned.  Quick breakfast of cereal and toast at the dugout.  Off to David and Carol’s.  David took us to some more mining fields.  Steve and he went down the shaft via a tractor seat sling with a winch…let themselves down 1 at a time into a 60’ foot shaft.  A miner was in the mine working…in large ballroom type design…where a vertical tunneling machine and blower were in operation. This miner was all smiles, as he was on opal!  David took us to see what was left of some equipment…there had been an equipment bombing the night before…a miner was giving a payback to a night shifter (term used to describe a miner who steals another opal miners opal at night when the mine is deserted) who had been stealing his opal.  All miners are experts in the explosive department.

We enjoyed a barbeque lunch with David and Carol.  Steve and David worked on a web page design for our opal business.

Supper at a Chinese restaurant with opal dealer Tony Wong, and Ed and family.  There were 8 of us for dinner.  Tomorrow we meet with Tony, wash clothes, and try to be tourists for a few moments.