Lightning Ridge

Wednesday morning, the 19th of May we woke to a very chilly morning. It had been a peaceful night sleep despite the highway being not far away. Had a beautiful breakfast of mushrooms and eggs and went for a walk around the showground, cleaned up and left Boggabri. We went on to Narrabri where we stopped in at Autopro to buy a fuel filter. Ross had bought one at Supacheap the day before for his Landcruiser but they only had one and I wanted one. So I rang and sourced one at Autopro at Narrabri, almost $20 cheaper would you believe. Ross was understandably annoyed so he got one as well and will return the Supacheap one. So with that done and a coffee in hand we left Narrabri and took the turn off for Wee Waa and stopped after that at Burren Junction.

We wanted to checkout the bore bath because it is closed at the moment. We had thoughts of staying there beforehand but shelved that idea when we heard it was closed. There is a fair bit of moss there but it didn’t look to bad. I guess the problem is that plenty of people are using it and there is little cleaning being done.

Having settled our curiosity we moved on and stopped at Walgett for lunch. Then for our last leg of the days journey we went to Lightning Ridge. We pulled in to my mate Dave’s place. Dave and I have been best mates for many years. Being all the way out at the Ridge I don’t get to see him to often so it was a great opportunity to come and visit whilst heading to QLD. He has a couple of acres of opal country that he lives on which is a comfortable walk from town. He has some good sheds there and we had power and water to hook up to. We were happy campers and Dave was a good host.

After relaxing for the rest of the afternoon we went out that night to the Bowling Club for dinner. Sam from the TV series, ‘Outback Opal Hunters’ was assisting on the door and he signed us into the club. More about that later. It was a good night. Next morning we had a relaxing breakfast and then I was keen for a walk and to start to build some fitness for some big walks in the Flinders Ranges toward the end of my trip. I took Dave’s dog Bear for a walk, wore him out the poor dog, NOT. Not an ounce of fat on him.

I walked along the ridge, which is what Lightning Ridge is named after and overlooked the plans below.

Walked out to the aerodrome. Then back to the edge of town where a massive amount of opal mining has gone on. If you have never been to Lightning Ridge you must go there. It is like a lunar landscape with all the mines and mulloch heaps around.

Amongst all the mining are the mining camps: Some are very humble, like Kev’s place;

Some are quirky (dwelling not visible in this shot);

Some are extravagant with alot of character;

And some are just weird liket this astronomers pad;

After lunch we went to the bore bath. The Lightning Ridge bore bath has always been a hot one but that day it was extra hot. The wind had been non-existant for a couple of days which probably contributed. It was still a great experience and it was very clean. It is well kept, much better than Burren Junction.

When Dave and I left the bore bath I asked him to show me where Pete’s depot is. Pete is one of the stars (just an opal miner really and very handy bloke) on the TV series Outback Opal Hunters. So Dave drove us around there. There are some amazing sculptures that he has there and I am guessing Pete is a welder by trade.

I got out and was taking photos and the man himself appeared and was working around his yard. I started talking to him and telling how much a fan of the show I was. Sam who I mentioned earlier as signing us into the Bowling Club had said they had “pulled the pin”. But I didn’t know if he meant they stopped opal mining or just stopped being on the show for the next series. Pete explained that the show was not paying enough money for them to be on it. Pete and Sam were not being greedy. It was a situation where if they are being filmed they lose a lot of time away from actually mining and putting material through their agitator. On a week of filming they might only put one load through the agitator but if they are not filming they may put another three loads through. That means they are losing out on the amount of opal they are finding if they are filming. The TV show then needs to be compensating them for that otherwise it is not worth their while. The show did not come to the party so they pulled the pin.

I asked Pete if Sam was still working on opal mining with him and he was, in fact, Sam was tailing out a load of material in the shed right at that time. So Pete, Dave and myself and a mate of Pete’s who had pulled up were chatting away and Sam came out and showed us five really nice stones that he got from the tail out. As a joke Pete tried to pocket them but Sam snatched them back as the find must have been his turn to keep. Anyway we had a good chat and I got to play an Outback Opal Hunter groupie for a while. It was a lot of fun and I got a photo with Pete in the pose they get him to do on the show. He had a name for it but I don't remember it.

I then helped Dave with a bit of shopping and headed back to his camp. We then got organized (sort of) and headed out to an escarpment of the Ridge that overlooks the highway for a view of the sunset. When I say ‘got organized (sort of)’, I mean we organized some drinks and chairs but no bicky and cheese. We got out there and I would have killed for some bicky and cheese that other people had. There was so many people out there to watch the sunset. It has obviously become a bit of a thing to do for visitors and local alike. The site was the first place opal was mined at Lighting Ridge. People have got into the habit of placing stones to form mounds and there is a maze set up with stones. I don’t get it really, a bit weird, but each to his own. Kids run around doing all this work with the stones but if you asked them to pick stones up in your own backyard to clean the place up they wouldn’t do it. To much work.

The sunset played its part, very beautiful.

It was a great thing to do, going out there. A good time, very cool.

Following our sunset viewing we went back to Dave’s camp and cooked a BBQ and ate el fresco. Another good night, great food and company. The stars you get to see at Lightning Ridge are hard to beat, just amazing. Had a good nights sleep and next morning we broke camp and headed north. It was great to visit my mate Dave. We had a wonderful time at the Ridge, again. Thanks Dave for your hospitality. I am looking forward to the next time I can visit. Missing you already mate.