Happy 8th Birthday Jarrah

I was woken early this morning by Jarrah bursting out of his skin with the news that it was FINALLY his eighth birthday.  There was going to be no sleep in for me today.  He managed to wake Jack and Fletcher by yelling "lollies" but had a little more trouble with Bruce.

 

Soon enough, however, we were all awake and had joined Jarrah around the table to eat lollies and open presents.

 

Jarrah got very spoilt with lots of pressies, cards and over $200 in cash.  Thank you to everyone for remembering him on his birthday.  His smile says it all!

 

With his new penguin warm-up toy

 

Nutella and fruit tingle pancakes for breakfast

 

We spent the rest of the morning eating pancakes and building lego.  It was Jarrah's day so he got to decide what we did.  Mostly.  But first we had a couple more local attractions to check out.

 

 

First stop was Crocodile Harry's Underground Nest.  Crocodile Harry was one of Coober Pedy's most infamous characters and he created and lived in one of the most bizarre dugouts.  Eccentric, wacky or just plain weird, it was worth a look.

 

Originally from Latvia, Harry spent over 13 years in the north of Australia hunting crocodiles. He then decided to try his luck looking for opals and mining in Coober Pedy.

 

 

Harry died in 2006 but his dugout has been immortalised in the underground scenes of "Mad Max-Beyond the Thunderdome".

From strange to sacred, next we checked out the Serbian Orthodox Church.  It's underground, of course.  50% of all building in Coober Pedy are.

Built in 1993, the whole complex contains a church, community hall, a parish house and a religious school.  It is carved in the sandstone between 3 and 17 meters under the ground level.  With its rock carvings in the walls, high ballroom roof  and stained glass windows,  it was cool, peaceful, unique.

As amazing as the church was, it was Jarrah's 8th birthday and time to have some fun.  In the sun.  

41 degrees and it was off to the town pool.

 

There wasn't many people at the pool when we arrived, but it had only just opened.  By the time we left at 4.30pm I think half of Coober Pedy was there.  And who could blame them?

 

At Jarrah's request, we chilled out in front of the air conditioner in the caravan for a couple of hours, building some more lego and watching an interesting documentary about "Opal Fever".

 

About 7pm we headed out once more, for some final noodling and a special birthday pizza.

 

We picked up a few more nice pieces of opal, and it was without a doubt the best pizza we've had since we've been on tour.  Thanks to John's Pizza Bar and Restaurant for the great Spartan pizza! 

 

 

  And lastly, even though he had his birthday cake a week ago, we couldn't let the day go by without singing Happy Birthday and having at least one candle for Jarrah to blow out.

 

Note that this photo was taken at 10.30pm.  It is now 12.30am and it is still 36 degrees.  Bruce has been asleep for several hours but the kids are ALL still up!!!  I had a weak moment a few days ago and told them they could stay up as late as they wanted on Jarrah's birthday.  After almost four hours in the pool today I thought they'd all be exhausted.  Guess I got that wrong.  Oh well, I'm going to bed!