dazjet 'n family: 5x7 to Lightning Ridge and Beyond

After an enjoyable stay at Narromine, we left and headed around 369km north to Lightning Ridge via Coonamble and Walgett. We'd booked into the Opal Caravan Park - a large and modern place opposite the artesian baths a couple of km's from the town centre. We set ourselves up and quickly decided to make it four nights instead of the original three once we'd visited the information centre!

Each afternoon at 4:30, resident bush poets / comedians Mel and Suzie perform at the caravan park. We went along to their show the afternoon we arrived. It was very funny, and the kids, being the only kids there, 'volunteered' to be part of the act!

Our first full day in LR had us following the yellow car door tour. Using the information brochures we'd obtained, we followed the doors and read about what we were seeing on the rough dirt / stone track. Highlights included the view of an open cut from Lunatic Lookout.... you notice, this sign is only pointing at two members of the family!

There were lots of rusting cars, trucks and machinery scattered around. At the black hand sign (below) we visited the Black Hand Mine. The sign mysteriously appeared around 80 years ago - legend says that nobody knew who put it there. The mine took it's name from this sign.

The first layer of this mine which is all sandstone (no opal) - the chap who claimed this area for his mine decided to begin carving into the sandstone as a way to attract visitors. He had no formal training, and he only used his stainless steel (bone handled) butter knife and a small fork. He tried other tools, but preferred these rudimentary tools. His work was wonderful. There were some themed areas including greek gods, Egypt, animals, superheroes, cartoon characters, Star Wars, Australiana, caricatures of well known politicians and celebrities. We spent a considerable amount of time admiring and photographing his work! The sculptor, Ron is now 79 and has moved away from the area but he comes back occasionally and adds to his work. The two youngest kids of ours enjoyed the challenge of finding and counting the 'Where's Wally' pictures around the tunnels. They found nearly 30, but apparently there were over 30!

If looks can be deceptive, this church is a fine example of it! Made of rusting, scrap corrugated iron it looks like it has been there for years. However, it was built in the year 2000 as a movie set for a film called 'Goddess of 1967'

After lunch on this first day we walked over to the artesian baths... the large bath was around 40 degrees. Stayed in for awile but it really was too hot to enjoy in my opinion.

Late afternoon we went and explored the green car door tour. The tip is do this in readiness for a sunset as it finishes on a ridge facing west. More rusty relics, rocky, bumpy tracks, a few washouts to negotiate, but a great adventure. At the end of the track was a unique hut built from cans and bottles which was open - the invitation was to sign the guest book in the fridge, so we did!

There was also a plaque that remembered that the first mine shaft was 'sunk somewhere around here'! We sipped wine and ate nibblies as we watched the sun dip below the western horizon. With no cloud in sight it made for a nice, not brilliant sunset - but who's complaining. How lucky were we to be out here to witness it!

For our second full day we ventured further out of town, to the famous 'Club in the Scrub' and Glengarry Hilton, part of the Grawin opal fields. This required about 60 km of bitumen before hitting the dirt. On the way we saw many wild emus, many dead roos, a lone tomb of a fifteen month old infant in the middle of nowhere.

The dirt tracks were quite rough in places, the colour changed from orange, brown and pure white. In these areas even the trees and buildings took on a layer of white dust - it looked almost snow like! There were plenty of amusing signs and more rusting relics to look at. It really is a quirky area, but great to explore.

We stopped at the Club in the Scrub and had a coffee before trying our hand at a giant mullock heap which said keep out, as did the map, but Marian in the tourist info place in LR assured us that 'everyone noodles there - it's fine!'. Noodling here and back in the caravan park did result in some colourful yet largely worthless finds. Great souvenirs for the kids though.

The two golf courses out here were not well patronised today! You can see, they are not like your average golf course. Our next stop after noodling was the Glengarry Hilton and golf course. Nearby was Sweeneys crafts and souvenirs where we broused and bought!

The final stop on this fascinating day out before heading back to LR was at the Sheepyard Inn. You can probably predict, it too was full of quirky machinery, funny signs, rustic buildings and rusting vehicles...

On our way back into LR we stopped to look at 18 metre tall Stanley the emu - made mostly from parts of a few VW beetles!

For our final day in LR we explored the red and blue car door tours and visited a few places in town, including the John Murray art gallery. Love his colourful and sometimes humerous artworks. There are some of his work as murals around town too.

Right in town was this rusty holden ute... with a kangaroo behind it (a live one)... all I needed was a meat pie to complete the famous line from the song 'meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars...'

On the blue car door tour we stopped and had a look around Bevan's Cactus nursery. Started 60 years ago by the wife of an opal miner, it has many of the species of cactus to be found around the world, including this Arizona state plant... which is very tall and very old.

I wanted to buy a souvenir here for my mother in law... but thought better of it.

Butterflies - like this one abounded on one particular species of cactus.

Gem needed a photo by this road sign..

The red car door tour had a couple of 'castles'. The famous one, Amigo's was closed unfortunately so we did not get to look inside. We did find the world's smallest KFC.. although it sells no chips, burgers, drinks, or chicken for that matter!

Back at the caravan park, the kids had a swim in the pool, did some more noodling and then we went back to see Mel and Suzie again... and the kids got roped in again!

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Lightning Ridge, but it was time to move on. Our next stop was visiting some friends on a farm near Guyra - a 500 plus km drive from LR. The kids got to meet some new puppies that will eventually be trained to be working dogs. They also got to 'mother' a one day old lamb as it's own goatee mother rejected it. It unsure whether it would survive, but it did and Ethan was asked to give it a name that reflected its strength and fighting spirit. With some help he thought the name 'Lightning' fitted the bill, and it was where we had just come from!

Enjoyed a home grown lamb roast and set up the caravan out the back of their house for the night. The following morning we woke to an orchestra of animal noises... goats, some with quite a scream! Then there were the obligatory roosters, the budgies in an aviary near us, the dogs, distant cows and a few other native birds. No 'man made' sounds to be heard! Bliss!

About lunchtime we left and drove to Glen Innes, just 80 km's up the New England Hwy. Set up for the night before exploring town. This is right in the middle of Celtic Country - we visited the standing stones. Rather than being a tacky replica of Stonehenge, it was quite good!

We also visited 'Super Strawberry' and enjoyed the best strawberry milkshakes - each shake had a 375 gm punnet in it with milk and ice-cream - no other favourings or additives.