Our Truck on tour in Europe
Fiery Stones in the mobile opal mine through Germany.
The truck transports the most precious opals. The dimensions of the truck are overwhelming,
with an even bigger trailer holding a remodelled twenty-metres walk-in opal mine in its interior.
Breathtaking Opal Exhibition on tour in Europe
in a traveling opal mine, full of sparkling Australian opals.
A twenty-metre-truck is on the road through Europe. The "Opal Express" transports a piece
of Australia across the continent, fascinating people in Alesund, Norway as well as in Barcelona,
Spain as a unique "travelling opal mine". Wherever Attila Pereghy and his "Opal Express" stop,
crowds are attracted by the free exhibition.
Far more than 1000 colourful opals travel across the countries in the Opal Express.
The collection is presented within the "Australian Truck". In foyers and business premises alike,
the gem exhibition is a welcome guest to ateliers and casinos, leaving even experts gaping with
astonishment. Exhibits like a 165.000 carat boulder opal or a 120 million year old opalized dinosaur
vertebra, have made many a layman an opal lover. Watch and experience how opals are found in the
atmosphere of a real opal mine.
The opals themselves and the passion to find them –
Attila Pereghy has many stories to tell. There is no holding him back when he is talking about
the "Stone of Hope", as the opal is also called. "The opal is incomparable to the diamond, being
a gem for very emotional people. There is no paint box in the world with so many colours as you
can find in an opal". The home of the opals has also become second home to Pereghy, who has been
commuting between Australia and Europe since 1978.
With sparkling eyes, Attila Pereghy talks about his life in the lonely outback of the Australian
bush, his occupation as a miner in the family mine, and last but not least, about his finds. But
before you find anything at all, you have to dig in the soil for weeks and weeks. Conditions are
nearly unbearable for impatient people, as Pereghy can tell you from his own experiences. "You
have to cut open thousands of stones, before you find one opal". Environmental conditions are also
very hard with temperatures up to 30°C in winter and boiling hot 49°C in summer. The next station
where you can get water and food is 350 kilometres away.
But the opals' attraction is bigger than the fear of the rigours of the outback. Finds like a
sparkling blue peacock eye – a magnificent specimen of the opal express exhibition - make all
such efforts worthwile. The stone is eye candy, a rarity scarely seen. "The raw stone is 250
million years old, the opal about 50 million," according to expert Pereghy. Even 2000 years ago,
opals were highly sought after collecting pieces. A story goes that Egyptian Empress Cleopatra
set her desire on a beautiful opal, that was owned by Roman senator Nuntius. Her lover Marc
Antonius wanted to give it to her as a present of love, but Nuntius refused to part with his
treasure.
This story and a lot of others are as colourful and multifaceted like the gem itself. Attila Pereghy
knows how to tell them both vividly and informative at the same time, thus making the visit to the
jeweller's a breathtaking experience that attracts old and young visitors al.
