kathndes: activities at Lightning Ridge

Saturday, in the rain, we took a bus trip to see some underground carvings. These were in an old mine at a level of 40feet also included in the tour was a look at the working part of the mine at 60 feet. An old miner explained how the opals formed and showed us how they find them in the clay layer. The guy who did the carvings started it as a hobby. They are quite incredible in detail and he has chosen many themes to display, even children's characters. This was the first night that we discovered the artesian baths. Open to the public 24/7 and free, the water is 40 deg. and mineralised so is good for all sorts of ills. We made it a daily occurrence after this. On Monday we visited the opal fields 70klm west of Lightning Rdg and met a bloke who runs one of the pubs, called Sheepyard Pub. He told us we could come and camp here. Went fossicking for a few hours and found a couple of interesting bits. Will find our fortune later. At this point, Des tells me I must put in, "He is really behaving himself". We had lunch at the Glengarry Hilton out here, quite a place. We also visited the Bowls Club for lunch and looked through the Opal Centre. Wednesday we packed up from the caravan park and headed for the opal fields west. This place is unreal. Real redneck country, very interesting though. Plan to do lots of campoven cooking here and just fossick a bit. We have flush toilets and hot showers, all for free, so what else could you want? Check out the pickies below and you will be sooooooooooo jealous. To get a better view of the photos, double click on the photo and it should bring it up full size on your screen.