Dementia Demons Go Exploring: Lightning Ridge, The Land of the Black Opal

3/12/10 It’s still overcast as we pack up our caravan at Moree. SS decided to take down the awning without me and in the process smashed the front side window. Great start to the day!!!

After packing up we had one final dip in the thermal pools and then took off to Nindigully Pub via Boomi and Tallwood (don’t you just love Aussie town names?) Neither of these towns are very interesting but the trip certainly was. We were told it was sealed all the way but not so. The bitumin was washed away in places due to all the rain, there were giant potholes full of water and to top it off there was 5-8 kms of gravel and it’s pouring!!! On the radio all the news is about floods and road closures!!! I hope we make it home for Christmas.

Finally arrive at Nindigully Pub, back in Queensland, which has a free camp site in the middle of nowhere. When we went to set it up we found a metal sign stuck in our awning and it’s all bent – Shit what did we hit? Must have been a road sign somewhere. Oh well!!

The pub is brilliant and if it wasn’t for the mud and rain it would be a top place to stay right on the river with good facilities. The last weekend in November is the Pig Races and about 500 people come. It would be great.

The pub is reknowned for its Road Train Burger. It feeds up to 4 people , has 1.2kg of mince and has a diameter of about 300mm. 2 big blokes ordered it but didn’t even come close to finishing it.

It poured all night but once again stopped raining as we packed up, we have been so lucky.

Next day we’re on our way to Lightning Ridge. We stopped at Dirranbandi for a late breakfast and SS went to get the paper and was attacked by a magpie. He came back with blood all over his cheek, not so lucky!

The roads were cut by flood waters in a few places but not too bad. SS even got me to run ahead through the flood water so I could take this picture of our rig.

It poured all the way to The Ridge but stopped for us to set up again. We went for a drive around this amazing town then out to another thermal spring. This one was 40 degrees, bit hot for me.

On Sunday we booked a tour of the town and opal fields but the bugger didn’t turn up, we reckon the driver was too hungover. Luckily we weren’t too late for The Black Hand Mine Tour. This was fantastic. The mine owner wasn’t ,making much money out of the opals so started carving the mine walls . There are now over 450 sculptures in this mine – It’s amazing!

In the arvo we did a few self drive tours of the opal mines which are signposted with old car doors. e.g. The red car door tour. We saw a castle built by some mad man called Amigo, a cactus garden which is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and the opal fields themselves where the miners live in caravans and shanties. Atleast today has been hot and no rain. Still plenty of talk about flood waters rising so tomorrow we will check out another opal field before heading south east as we have to be on the other side of Wee Waa or we could be cut off for a week or more.

Unusual shape cactus!!!

OMG the Grawin opal field is even more out there than the Ridge. It's like stepping back 50 years or more. There is 1 club, The Club in the Scrub and 2 pubs, The Glengarry Hilton and the Sheepyard. These have so much character and the publican has many stories to tell. This area is amazing. We did a bit of fossicking in the mulluck hill but no luck.