Day 5: Exploring Lightening Ridge Township

 It looks like we are in for a rainy day with light rain falling from the early hours of the morning. Fortunately today, we plan to have a look around town. There is more than enough to see to keep us occupied.

The caravan park is really emptying out this morning, it is probably only about 20% full by late morning.

Our first visit this morning is to The John Murray Art Gallery. According to Ai " John Murray is a prominent, award winning Australian artist known for his whimsical, photo realistic acrylic paintings and public murals capturing the essence of the outback." He moved to Lightning Ridge 35 years ago and paints real life situations and landscapes with a well developed sense of humour. Seems to sum him up quite well.

We purchased this small print to hang in our caravan.

A stubby cooler was also added to the collection.

There was some great art on display in his gallery which he only operates in Lightning Ridge. There were several original pieces for sale.

Just down the road was a cafe, where we settled in for a cup of coffee. Great coffee and a nice little bakery.

The mural looks like more of john Murray's work

Walking down the main street, trhe local hardware store has bought merchandising to a new level, with the whole length of his footpath frontage loaded with products for sale.

Despite the name of the store, our guide from yesterday told us that the goods are anything but cheap. we continued down the street to a large IGA Supermarket that was well stocked and most items were reasonably priced given the isolation of the town.

It is still raining lightly, but we continue on in the direction of the golf course, something we have to see without any high expectations. 

The Clubhouse

Small sand greens and it is not obvious where the fairways are

It would be fair to say that todays conditions are not ideal for golf, but it probably doesn't make a lot of difference.

The 1st Tee

Green fees are $10 per round, probably a fair price to keep the volunteers motivated. I assume the course does not need a lot of maintenance.

There are a number of car door self driving tours, designated by a car door sign of a certain colour displayed on a main road with an arrow in the direction of the tour. Guide maps are available from the information centre and then a car door at the number destination of highlights along that route of the same colour coincides with the map. 

On the blue door route we went to have a look at Bevan's Cactus Nursery, but it was raining and the thought of wandering around a garden in the rain not appealing. We took a few photos and moved on.

Our next stop was an original miners cottage called Coopers Cottage. Built in 1916 it gives a rare glimpse of what life was like for the early opal miners. Construction materials were whatever they could find.

A bit worse for wear on the inside

On the yellow car door route we ventured out to see the Opal Miners Hall of Fame. It was a very impressive series of rooms (made from 40 ft containers, joined together and each one presenting ann aspect of the industry from how opals were formed right through to conversations from veteran miners on how they started mining here and why they stayed, many different Nationalities were involved.

At the entrance was a store selling opals run b y two ladies who spent a lot of time showing us samples of various unusual opal finds that had been found in the nearby field called 3 mile. Opal fossilised sea shells, parts of yabbies were among a couple emphasising that the opal formation took place after the disappearance of the inland sea  that covered this area millions of years ago.

It is time to take a break for lunch, which we have back at the van. On the drive back we pass a putt putt golf course which is closed, but the yard is filled with metal sculptures made from scraps and old machery parts, something Lightning Ridge has in abundance

The caravan park is looking more empty when we get back, maybe the weather is putting people off.

After lunch we take a detour down the red car door route through the old town area, not much to see except a lot of mud along the access road. The highlight is Amigo's Castle, which was built by an italian migrant over a long period of time starting in the mid 70's. Once again the weather put us off bothering to go inside and hear Amigo's story.  Apparently the remains of a dinosaur have been found in the tunnels under the castle.

Our last visit for the afternoon is Down to Earth Opals, a jewellery shop, opal buyer and cutter making their own jewellery. Each Wednesday afternoon at 3.30pm, the run a free opal cutting demonstration which we have turned up to see. It was well done and quite informative. the cutter was asked by a few of the audience if he could look at some of the stones they had found whilst fossicking and if they had any value. sadly his assessment wasn't favourable.

Back at the van by 4.15 pm, I have set up Starlink to watch the State of origin tonight. Local TV reception is minimal.

This ominous cloud that was moving in on us an hour or so ago, appears to have gone around us, and we are hopeful of better weather tomorrow to pack up and move on to St George in QLD.