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.
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