Lightning Ridge - St George

Our last day at Lightning Ridge we started with a soak in the Artesian Pool then we followed the mud map around Lightning Ridge vicinity, passing structures built by eccentric inhabitants over the years. Then it was into the township to the Opal Shops and to visit the John Murray Art Gallery. We were picked up in the afternoon by the courtesy bus from the Chambers of the Black Hand Opal Mine and then taken to view the remarkable underground carvings that have been sculptured and painted into the wall of the mine by Ron Canlin. After descending some 80 steps down the mine shaft we emerged into a chamber where you were presented with an opportunity to purchase a large selection of Opal items after viewing the many tunnels and chambers that displayed the paintings and carvings. We also had the opportunity of descending further into the mine where you were shown how the Opal is found and originally mined, we were now 60 feet underground! Baz & I  thought we did re-markedly well as both of us do not like being in confined spots, to keep my mind off where I was I would think about the Opal I was going to buy on the way out. When we reached the surface it was starting to rain and by the time we arrived back at the Caravan Park it was bucketing down with water over the roads and mud and slush everywhere! We had 88 ml of rain in 2 hours, the noise on the caravan roof was deafening just glad we were nice and dry inside after the bus driver dropped us at our vans.

Thursday we left Lightning Ridge travelling further north to St George, along the way we again had to dodge a lot of road kill  and we had to be aware of  the wildlife as numerous very large kangaroos, Emus and Cows had come out of the scrub after the rain. We had a coffee break at the Hebal General Store then made our way over the road to check out the historic Hebal Pub.

 It stated raining again yesterday afternoon and continued steadily into the night not letting up to 4am this morning. Around 2am we heard the sound of a collapsing awning, looking out to the caravan beside us we could see that the rain had been too heavy for their awning and had broken the roller in half. There was not much they could do until the morning when Baz and Brian were able to help them to manually roll it back into position and tape it to the van until they can get a replacement at a major repairer.

Only a tin shed above ground!

Steps down into Chambers of the Black Hand Mine

Carvings in the Black Hand Mine

Coffee stop Hebal

Hebal Pub

Pub window

Torrential rain Lightning Ridge

Rain drenched caravan park (Lightning Ridge)

Oh no, our poor neighbours bad luck!

Another rain drenched caravan park (St George)