Leaving Lightning Ridge

Hello,

Tuesday.
This morning we farewelled our fellow travelers as we went in different directions from Lightning Ridge. We travelled with 2 other couples north to Hebel, a small community just over the Queensland border, stopping for morning tea. From there we went to Diranbandi then onto St George and stopped by the river for lunch.

Back on the road we then travelled to Westmar, another small community, between St George and Dalby. We "free camped" here for the night. We set up our vans and made a campfire in the middle. We sat back and enjoyed looking at the stars as we shared stories around the fire.







Wednesday.

We were back on the road early this morning, driving to Dalby, Oakey and onto Esk where we stayed for the night. We had a small amount of rain today and a small storm as we arrived at the caravan park at Esk. We spent another great night around a log fire.

Thursday.

This morning we all headed back home. Peter and I went to Blackbutt to visit Peter's brother, then arrived home this afternoon. We travelled 2,300 kms on this trip.

Cheerio till our next trip,

From Lesley and Peter.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Lightning Ridge - Saturday, Sunday, Monday

Hi again,

Saturday morning was spent washing, ironing and a bit of cleaning before relaxing and socializing with others from our group. Peter spent the morning photographing various things around Lightning Ridge. After lunch we had the club meeting then all headed to the Bowls Club for dinner. After dinner Peter and another photography enthusiast went out to do some night photography.

Sunday
This morning we went to the Sunday markets. Most were selling opals with some trash and treasure, plants and some homemade cakes. I was amazed that at one stall there were large coke bottles filled with round up. The bottles still had the coke labels on them and other than a sign on the table it was unmarked. I couldn't believe they could sell poisons like that.

After lunch we were entertained by a local singer before sharing a roast dinner with 3 other couples.

Monday
Earlier in the week when we went to carpet bowls, the organizer of the bowls invited us to their property to show us around, so we went out today. Firstly we sat around a campfire with morning tea while she explained about the mining of opals and showed us some of the opals they have found.

After digging the opal layer, large cement mixers are used to wash the clay off the opal bearing rock. Then they go through the washed rock to look for opal. 2 of these 3 cement mixers were working today.



A few years ago they found 1 million dollars worth of opal.

This is typical of the landscape around Lightning Ridge. This is still on the property we visited. The rules about mining is very complicated, but if you own property you can still only stake a claim 50 meters by 50 meters and you can only have 2 claims in your name. You have to re-register your claim each year and if you don't re-register someone else can take it over. So owning land doesn't mean you can mine wherever you want.







This is a simple machine used to pull the stone up from the mine -



Back in town is this old cottage built in 1916.



This is the " long drop" out the back. Don't think it's been used for a while. They were often built over old mine shafts.



This is our last day here, we will be leaving tomorrow morning. The weather has been perfect since we have been here. Today was 27 degrees so it has slowly warmed up in the last week.

Bye for now,
Lesley and Peter.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Lightning Ridge - Friday

Hello,

Today was a "free" day to do as we wished, although we can do as much or as little that has been organized. However about half of the group decided to do the "3 pubs in the Scrub". This is about a 160 km round trip to 3 pubs in the scrub as the name suggests. There are some dirt roads which are a bit rough and if there has been reasonable rainfall it's best to stay off them, but all was good today. These pubs are in the middle of the Grawin Opal fields. The first one was the Grawin Club in the Scrub. There were some very interesting locals here as well as interesting buildings.





We were told that this is the pub where you have a beer. Of course I didn't have one. So then it was off to the next one which was the Glengarry Hilton where we had lunch. Food was pretty good.






After lunch we drove onto the Sheepyard Inn. We were going to have a coffee here and were told the Vanilla Slice was the best. By the time we got there they had run out of everything including coffee beans and vanilla slice. Also the girl that was working there said she didn't know how to make a cappuchino as she only leant this morning to make coffee. She was a back backer from Ireland so obviously hadn't been here long.






This was in the oven in the bakery used to bake the bread - nothing flash around here, but they said the bread was good.



Apparently a lot of trucks don't have brakes around here-



This is one of the mines next to the road. We didn't see many where they were working but they were at this one today as we drove by.


About 10 kms from Lightning Ridge on the Castlereagh Highway is a sculpture called "Stanley". This is an 18 metre emu made with a ton of scrap metal, 3 VW bodies and a pair of rusting satellite dishes. Artist John Murray started the project and many locals helped to make it a reality. This sparked the interest of many local blokes so they will be adding to this with several sculptures along the highway over the coming years.




Tonight we are going to the local Italian Restaurant which we have had good recommendations for.

We have had another great day in a Lightning Ridge.

That's all for today.

Bye from Lesley and Peter.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Lightning Ridge - Thursday

Hi,

It was a bit cooler this morning but another nice day. The clouds appeared as the day went on and we had a small storm this afternoon but not much rain. Peter got up early to take some photos at sunrise. I did some washing then later we went into town for a few things. There is a hardware shop which has everything from underwear, toys, craft, camping, hardware and much much more. I found a couple of rolls of Kodak film and on closer inspection discovered that the use by date was 2009. It was on special for $11.95 per roll. What a bargain!!!

After lunch I went on one of the underground mine tours. We had been to the same one when we were here a couple of years ago, so Peter decided not to go but to go and take photos around Lightning Ridge.

This underground mine is no longer a working mine but a tourist attraction. For 16 years one man has carved over 600 carvings in the sandstone, 12 meters underground. Here are just a few of the amazing carvings ranging from Disney characters to politians, fictional characters, animals, famous people, The Last Supper etc.















They have an Opal shop set up underground. Last time we were here I bought a necklace so this time got matching earrings.

We ended the day with the usual happy hour. One of the members brought some samples of his home brew to share with us all - 3 different beers, ginger beer and apple cider. I only tried the ginger beer which was very nice.

That's all for today.

Bye from Lesley and Peter.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Lightning Ridge trip - Wednesday

Hello again,

Wednesday
We woke this morning to beautiful clear skies. Still a bit cool but very nice.
We had an early start this morning with a 3 hour bus trip showing us the sights and relics of Lightning Ridge.

Our first stop was at a castle which has been under construction for about 30 years. Every stone has been moved by hand and put into place. There are about 90 cats living here.










Another stop was an old hut, which is a typical miners hut. This was owned by an old man who was still digging by hand when he died at 90. There's a photo of him inside the hut. He is wearing 2 pairs of pants - long ones underneath and shorts on top. This is to cover up the holes in his long pants.





Here are some of our group hoping to find their fortune near one of the mine shafts. No luck today.





After Happy Hour this afternoon some of us went to the bowls club for dinner then played carpet bowls. Most of us had never played before but it was a great night with the locals. This isn't a very clear photo but Peter is in the middle ready to bowl his perfect shot. Well he was hoping to!!!



That's all today
Lesley and Peter.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Lightning Ridge trip - Monday and Tuesday

Hello,

We spent Monday in Moree. It was wet, windy and cold so didn't venture out in the morning. By the afternoon it improved slightly so thought we would check out the places of interest. Unfortunately we didn't really find anything. The artesian pools and the "big plane" appear to be the attractions. I'm not a pool person so wasn't interested in that, so the next option was the big plane, but that wasn't very interesting either. It's a plane that was used in New Guinea and was brought here as a tourist attraction. It's at a tavern so I guess they are hoping people come for a drink and meal while there.


Tuesday
We left Moree for Lightning Ridge which is about a 3 hour trip. We saw kangaroos, emus, goats, sheep and cattle along the way. There were about 6 lots of cattle in the " long paddock" with several hundred cows in each group.



Just after we stopped at the side of the road for morning tea, a group of about 20-30 kangaroos went bounding across the road in front of us. Just as well we weren't moving. Then another group came along then another. They were very lucky no trucks came along at the same time as well.
It is very dry here although they have just had a small amount of rain to settle the dust.



We arrived at Lightning Ridge, famous for the Black Opals.



We met up with the Adria group and gathered for the normal happy hour later in the afternoon. We are staying at the newest caravan park in Lightning Ridge - there are 4 other caravan parks. There are 25 caravans in our group.

I am having trouble sending this in one blog so will try it in 2 parts.

Lesley.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Lightning Ridge Trip - day 1 and 2

Hello again,

Yes, we are on the road again with Lightning Ridge being our destination this time. We will be meeting up with the Adria caravan club on Tuesday and will be there for a week. We left Saturday morning with some very welcome rain, so hopefully we will have a bit of green grass to mow when we get back home. We headed to Toowoomba with very poor visibility as we drove up the range.







The weather started to improve slightly after Toowoomba. We drove to Millmerran which was our first stop over. The rain started just after we set up and got heavier as the night went on. However we woke this morning to a cloudless sky. They had about 30 mm of rain overnight. There was a cool breeze, so still a bit cool today.




Day 2.
We left Millmerran for Moree this morning. A big contrast to yesterday's weather.


As we headed towards Moree, via Goondiwindi, the clouds started to develop. As we have stayed at Goodiwindi twice in the last couple of years, we didn't stop there this time.




We arrived at Moree about 12.30. We had a bit of look around Moree this afternoon - nothing much happens around town on a Sunday!!!!
Moree is known for its Hot Artesian springs. This area proudly boasts the largest pecan farm in the southern hemisphere, olive groves, a high-quality beef-cattle industry, numerous cotton farms and cereal crops, such as wheat, barley, chickpeas and oats.

We will stay here tomorrow and leave for Lightning Ridge on Tuesday.

Bye for now,
Lesley and Peter.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad