SUNDAY MAY 24

Another pleasant day.

We had been seeing some advertising about the place, for the annual Opal Fest, late July/early August. After a little discussion we decided that, since we have had “beach” weather here, without the sand and sandflies, it might be enjoyable to come back here at that time – if we could get in here. For me, the greatest joy of beachside stays is long walks in the shallows; with the current ulcerated leg, doing that would not be possible. So the attraction of the coast had waned.

I visited the office and enquired about site availability. The very nice lady there did some juggling and managed to get us twelve days, back on the en-suite site we are currently occupying. How good was that? I’d asked if fourteen nights was possible, but very happy to settle for twelve. So we would be back at the end of the row of en-suites – wonderful. Now we just had to hope that the weather would be as nice.

John went to the Sunday morning markets in town, to buy some more of the lovely fruit cake.

We walked across to the park’s fossicking area, off to one corner of the undeveloped part of the grounds. Just wanted to have a look at their set up. We’d had some discussion over whether the heaps of mine dirt had been brought in, or came from shafts right there. To me, they seemed too extensive to have been trucked in. The park was located right at the extremity of where there had been diggings, so there might have been some mining here.

Fossicking area

A sign over the gate to the area named it as Ratters’ Flat. On the fields, a “ratter: is someone who sneaks around and steals opal from other miners’ claims.

There were definitely shafts there. Plus the full assortment of equipment usually found on claims, including an agitator made out of an old cement truck.

All the gear of a mining claim

Gave dog some exercise while we were over there.

 Great place for chasing the ball…

 Had heard some talk that the park owners were planning to add more sites, across in the area where we have been dog exercising. There was certainly the demand, at this time of year. When I took dog walking around the park, in the late afternoons, and mornings, it was rare to find an empty powered site, and there was often overflow into the unpowered parts. They even often have a van parked in the central access road – which is wide – plugged into one half of the double power point on the side of the septic tank. Prime location?

Did a little organizing of Bus, for tomorrow’s travel.

SATURDAY MAY 23     LIGHTNING RIDGE

Weatherwise, another very pleasant day. I have really been enjoying that aspect of being here.

John was feeling like a quiet day in. He spent time on his laptop, interspersed with taking Couey over to the exercise area for a run.

I read, walked the dog, wandered around the park, taking photos.  Drove to the IGA to stock up a bit on food.

The row of en-suite sites…and whimsical metal art

Later in the day, John drove to the shops and picked up the Saturday papers and I read those.

Every couple of days, there was a stall set up in part of the camp kitchen, selling opals and jewellery made from same. I wasn’t sure if it was always the same people, or if the privilege was shared around. I had not really bothered to look closely as these, as such set ups tend to feature doublets and triplets, put into pre-cast settings, which I usually fins overly ornate and cheap looking.

John went across to today’s stall and came back having bought a pendant, which I really liked. Eat your words, Wendy! So he said I could have that one and went back to the stall to buy another one for his daughter. I went with him this time, and finished up buying a pair of earrings for me and a pair for M, for Xmas. Some of the jewellery on display was quite good value.

Camp kitchen area with powered sites beyond

I roasted chicken drumsticks for tea in the electric frypan, set up outside. Roast vegies too.

THURSDAY MAY 21     LIGHTNING RIDGE

After last night’s rain, the caravan park grounds had lots of small puddles, but they had built it up well, above the original black soil flats, before putting on the surface stones, so it was not too bad. I was very glad we were not out at Lorne!

When I got up and came outside, noticed that the neighbour had a lot of water pooled in his awning roof, to the extent I was surprised it hadn’t given way. He was out and about and eventually noticed and drained it – water everywhere!

John was up about 9.30 – early again. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to bowl today as the grass would be heavy and hard on his shoulder. Eventually he decided to cancel.

We had some rain showers through the morning, then it eased off.

Rain at the Ridge

Drove into town, to my favourite shop, the Opal Bin. It was a relatively small establishment that largely stocks just their own locally mined opal.  They have really good quality jewellery and cut stones. I picked out a ring I liked – both the stone and the design. But the stone wasn’t fiery enough for John’s liking. After much discussion, I ended up buying an oval stone with lots of greeny flashes in the dark blue background. They would have it set by their Sydney jeweller, which could take up to three or four months, as his work is in much demand. The opal lady and I sketched out the design for the setting. It would be worth waiting for.

A pair of unusual earrings caught my eye. Large ovals of grey, polished, potchy stone, with thin veins of bright green opal running through. Had not seen anything like that before, so had to have those too. That’s my Xmas and birthday presents for this year well and truly taken care of.

The metropolis of Lightning Ridge

We then went and browsed the John Murray art gallery for a while. His art is of the quirky Australiana style – quite unique. Stylized emus feature often. His designs have been put onto postcards, mouse mats and the like. There were prints in a variety of sizes, and some original works of art. The latter were well beyond our means! I bought a stubby holder for M and two smallish prints, already in mats, which John could frame. These really captured the essence of the fields, I thought. Then John was captivated by a Murray emu – a sticker about 50cm tall of its neck and head, with the typical puzzled/resigned expression on its face, that Murray emus have. He said it would go on the glass panel beside our front door. Well, that will make for an entry with a difference!

John was really pushing for me to see the opals at the Chambers of the Black Hand. We drove out there. The two men were there, but they said to come back just after 3pm, as now was lunch time. My thought was that they were really quite lackadaisical about business and I was inclined not to bother at all. But John was determined so back we went at the indicated time.

 There was a group of maybe a dozen people, starting the 3pm tour. We were to follow them down to the gallery level. I was not sure when “might bring up trays to show you” got transformed into me actually going underground, but that was what happened.

We had to walk down some sixty steps, of varying depth and width, cut into the rock. Care was required. Once down there, after the tour people had disappeared further into the depths, we browsed fairly thoroughly. They had quite a lot of doublets – pretty, but I prefer to buy solid opal. There were a lot of other items where the stone had been cut to fit pre-cast settings, which I rarely like. But I did find an irresistible ring – a plain gold setting, with a sparkling blue-green stone, with a flash of red. John bargained and got quite a good deal. He also bought an $80 jar containing about eight really nice little opal pieces. I think I am now on to my 2016 presents!

When I went to pay for our acquisitions, my two cards would not get approval, because my earlier transactions had hit our daily limit. A bit embarrassing. We arranged for them to hold our purchases and we would go to their office in town, tomorrow lunchtime, pay and collect.

I was not at ease, underground, and was very happy to be climbing back up the narrow sixty steps to daylight.

We had certainly done our bit for the economy of Lightning Ridge.

On the way back to camp, stopped so I could take a photo of the town airstrip. This was fully sealed – it is a “proper” airport – but I’d noticed, driving past, that the sealed strip appears over a rise, goes down a dip into a hollow, then starts to rise again. Could be an interesting one for pilots new to it…

The undulating airstrip

Tea was pasta with bottled sauce – a chargrilled vegetable one.

The rain set in again at night.

WEDNESDAY MAY 20

The day began warm and sunny.

It was the usual start to the day, though John was up earlier than usual. He went off to the Bowls Club where he listed his name for a game tomorrow afternoon. Then he went on to the Chambers of the Black Hand, whose literature says they have rolling tours throughout the morning. Not so. They told him to do the afternoon tour. This was arranged, with pick up from the caravan park at 2.30pm, for $35.

There were a couple of local tour operators who came to the park to pick up customers. They did a steady trade. Coaster buses were their vehicle of choice. Every time one of them came past, Couey would jump up to look, but she ignored the others. I thought that one must be a similar model to ours, and sounded the same.

Couey was not happy when John walked off and away to the pick up point by the office. I had to put her inside Bus, where she sat for a while with her nose plastered to the window.

While John was away, I read, spent time on laptop, and took Couey across to the area where she could run after the thrown ball. She regularly amused some of the neighbours who watched us come and go: when we set off, she must carry the ball and was out front, pulling on the lead. When we returned, she was docilely at heel and I was carrying the ball.

Cloud was building up through the afternoon. By about 4pm it was particularly dark in the north and northwest.

Skies becoming threatening

Then there was a series of rally strong wind gusts, on a day that had hitherto been quite still. Fortunately, the body of Bus blocked most of that wind from affecting the awning. There was dust in the wind too. For a little while, I thought that I’d be trying to do a solo drop of the awning in high wind, as John was still away. Then the wind dropped a bit and rain came. It was fairly heavy at times, and continued on and off, through the rest of the afternoon and night.

Storm looming over the park

I dropped one corner of the awning a couple of notches, to prevent water from pooling and to encourage the run off at the end away from the route to the en suite.

The rain was good for the region, in general, and there was a fair total overall.

John said the tour was very good. He was really impressed with the sculptures. They went down about sixty feet, which he did say he didn’t feel very comfortable about. Part of the tour was, of course, to look as a display of opal and jewellery they had for sale. John said there were some really nice things there. The problem was that I did not want to go down to see same. Down being the operative word. He thought they might be persuaded to bring some items to the surface for me to look at, but I was reluctant to make that sort of fuss.

Tea was hamburgers on a slice of toast.

SUNDAY MAY 17     LIGHTNING RIDGE

Another pleasantly warm morning. As I had breakfast, sitting outside, could hear the sounds from the pistol club that is behind the caravan park. There is a Serbian Church next door, but there was no sound from them. In a small settlement like Lightning Ridge, the presence of this church is an indicator of a significant element of the population.

Caravan park gardens, and church next door

After John got going, we drove into town.

First stop was an old tin cottage that dates from 1910. Since opal mining only started here in the first years of the 20th century, this hut dates almost from the beginning of the town.

Maybe they were shorter a century ago?

We explored around, and in it, for a while. Obviously it had been amended and altered over the years, but its essence remains.

Corrugated iron – termite and fire resistant

Inside the hut

The backyard dunny

After that, it was to the Bowls Club, where John went in to suss out games. He came out and said he’d just put his name down to play on the afternoon of the 17th. I pointed out that today was the 17th. He went back in and removed his name, not feeling like playing today. He was definitely in holiday mode now – no idea of days or dates.

We went on, to have a browse at the regular Sunday Markets, set up in the surrounds of the Information Centre. Since they only go until noon, and it was almost that, the stalls were packed – or packing – up. Still, there was a bit to look at. On the recommendation of one stall holder, I bought half a boiled fruit cake from another stall – for $6.50.

Chatted with a couple of stall holders who still had some opal on display. When I asked him, one of the miners said there was still plenty of opal in the area. John got talking to a wholesaler of opal parcels and found he could buy a little parcel for $400. Fortunately, it was not here on the spot, as I could tell John was interested. He did get the man’s contact details for his office in town.

I talked to another stall holder, who said he’d had a good morning. I bought a couple of booklets by a man called Len Cram, about the Ridge and its opals.

Then to the PO. so John could post a birthday card to elder daughter. The Opal Cave shop was over the road, so we wandered over to look in there. It was a big place, totally geared to dealing with mass tourist shoppers. I think just about every visitor to town visits it. The stock – and there was an enormous amount on display – ranged from the very cheap and kitsch souvenir extreme, right up to some very lovely pieces of opal priced well into five figures. They stocked a lot of triplet and doublet opal in pre-cast settlings, thus keeping the prices for these attractively low (doublet and triplet opal is very thin shavings of the stone, glued onto a potch backing).

We had been in here on our last visit and made it clear from the outset that we were not here to buy anything, other than some postcards. Still, the man behind the counter kept trying to guess what might tempt us and telling us to look at this and that, and generally applying the hard sell tactics. I really dislike this so we did not stay long.

Drove back to camp, via some different back streets. Passed the Lightning Ridge Caravan Park, whose sign said they had en-suite sites. More information for my mental file. It does have the advantage of being right in town, if walking to the shops is one’s priority. Could do that from the Opal, too, but it would probably be a round trip of about 4kms. Just from the quick impression gained as driving past, I liked the Opal better.

Lunch was late. John wanted an “electric sandwich” – a jaffle toasted in the electric sandwich maker, which he’d spied was lurking packed away in the oven. I had cheese and salami that would make a decent filling for him. Made myself a salad. The fruit cake was every bit as delicious as we’d been told.

Relaxed for the rest of the day, in between taking Couey for walks and over to the undeveloped area for ball chases. Her morning had been spent in the Terios, while we did our stuff, so she was owed some exercise,

John watched footy on TV. I read, and checked my emails on my laptop. I texted my son to pass on birthday wishes from me to grandson, who turned nine today.

Changed the dressings on my leg. I thought there may have been some improvement. Hoped! John got me to have a look at his leg, where a couple of the wounds from the removal of skin cancers several weeks ago, were being very slow to heal. He was troubled because the lower leg and foot were swollen. I said he should be wearing his compression stocking. He could not find that, so got me to put on an elastic bandage, which he said I did not make tight enough. After a couple of hours took it off because his toes were darkening. Not tight enough – yeah, right! I offered him one of my stockings. Tomorrow, he said.

It clouded over in the late afternoon. On such occasions, sunsets seen from Nettletons Lookout, out to the west, are supposed to be really colourful. We discussed driving out there but couldn’t raise the energy to do so. The sunset did not look at all colourful from the park.

Tea was lemon chicken, with rice and zucchini.

I watched some TV then went to bed. John stayed up late working on his computer game.

SATURDAY MAY 16    LIGHTNING RIDGE

I woke, as usual, about 8am, to a beautiful warm, sunny morning. It was a delight to be taking Couey round the park for her initial morning walk. We went around the perimeter of the powered sites area and spotted a place set up for van and vehicle washing, and a dump point. This park had everything!

Our route continued around the edge of the unpowered area and back to our site. A good length walk and dog was well ready for her breakfast.

I enjoyed mine sitting outside in the sun, which was just the right warmth.

After John was up, I did the washing accumulated since back in the Canberra stay. Two loads at $4 each. The laundry was well set up, in keeping with the rest of the park. I had no trouble finding a machine free, or line space. There was a light breeze – a good drying day.

John was feeling very tired today. Fair enough, after battling with the rotten road yesterday. He said we should, basically, have an “in” day.

I set up my laptop and sent an email to friend M, currently hanging about in Broome.

In the early afternoon, after I’d gotten the washing in, John decided on some activity.

We drove to where his friend Ando had his mining claim and residence.

Ando’s place on Kangaroo Hill

I believed that the terms of mining leases preclude having proper permanent residences, thus opal claims have a great variety of structures as their “camps”.

Ando had a small shack/house, plus an old railway carriage. There were a number of these on claims around the area. I must ask Ando, some time, whether this was a matter of one person buying a decommissioned carriage and bringing it up here, with others copying the idea, or whether some enterprising individual bought a number and sold them off.

The guest accommodation…

Remembered that Ando had been telling us about his drama, last year, when the ground under one end of the railway carriage had given way – old shaft under there – and it had partially gone down the hole. He had described to us the hard work of getting it lifted back up again and supported properly. At the time, I had said to John there was no way we were parking Bus on the claim!

We could see at least three mine shafts on the place – covered with heavy wire grilles, as they are supposed to be. There were waste dirt piles all round.

Ando’s claim was in the area known as Kangaroo Hill, just on the edge of town, right where the sealed road changed to gravel. As the name suggests, it was up on a rise and he has a good view of the black soil flats extending below the ridge. Not bad. Would be a great place for a proper house – provided the underpinnings were solid ground…

Country to south and east of Kangaroo Hill and Ando’s diggings

Ando had lived here full time for a while and ran a business taking tours around the town and area. There were still signs advertising these, around the place.

He had told us on the phone that he’d laid in a supply of wood so that, if our visit had coincided with his, we could have campfires and a BBQ. We could see the signs of that by his terrace area at the back of the shack.

BBQ set up at Ando’s

While we were wandering around, exploring and taking photos, a man came out of his house on – presumably – a different claim, over the back. Found out later that this friend of Ando’s keeps an eye on the place, but knew we would probably be coming up to look around, so did not need to check us out any further.

Road towards Lorne Station from Kangaroo Hill

Next stop was the Information Centre. There was a fair sized fossicking dirt dump maintained there, for visitors to have a try at. Occasionally one hears of worthwhile opal being found in it.

In the Centre, I bought an attractive mouse mat, a bird list guide to the area ($2), and the mud maps and guides to the Car Door Tours ($1). We bought John a good polo shirt and I got a couple of postcards. We chatted with the lady running the place. She had been in town for only eleven months and had a house on a claim. Said she was doing up the house.

There had been statistics kept of visitors since 2009, as evidenced by visitors to the Info Centre. The numbers seem to have levelled out in the last couple of years. Maybe they would rise again this year, with the lower Australian dollar “encouraging” domestic rather than overseas travel? Her numbers for this year to date, seemed to be up. The overall numbers certainly show the value of the tourist dollar to the town.

John could not be bothered sussing out the bowls club about games, so we continued on to the IGA supermarket – the only supermarket – where we very quickly picked up the few items on my list, like Factor 50 sunscreen for John.

He was anxious to get back to Bus to watch, on TV, Carlton playing football, at 4.30. But, after all the rush around the IGA, the broadcast match was not of Carlton at all. He watched what was on. I read, outside, enjoying the warmth, fresh air and the birds – mostly miners and parrots – in the trees.

We had a neighbour swap today. The ones closest to us changed their mind about leaving, and managed to get an extension of a couple of days, but had to move sites to do so. The new neighbours who replaced them had booked an en-suite site, but had arrived a day earlier than they had anticipated and so had to take a night on an ordinary powered site – about which they were a bit miffed. They did not like the site they had been allocated, she later told us, as they were not close enough to the amenity block. I thought, but did not say, that they should consider themselves lucky to have gained a powered site at all.

I watched as they came in, and made an absolute hash of getting onto the site, almost taking their awning off on the en-suite roof. Hard to believe you could mess up driving frontwards onto a drive through site!

After they had gotten sorted, he came over, ostensibly to make friends with the dog, but really to inform us they had friends coming in later today, onto the now empty site on our other side. It was almost like he was expecting us to volunteer to move, so they could be adjacent. Real sense of entitlement there. I’d met it on occasion when working in tourism jobs – never pretty! I guessed there would be a great deal of to-ing and fro-ing, around our site. Better not be through it…I WILL be nice….

This morning I put out a couple of scotch fillet steaks to defrost for tea. Prepared mushrooms and red wine garlic sauce (packet), beans and potatoes. Ice had obscured the writing on the freezer bag, and my beef turned out to be lamb. Could have been worse…