Trip to Lightening Ridge

Last month a collegue and I drove to Lightening Ridge, 200km NE, one of the few places in the world that mines black opals. The recent rains have caused very lush growth on the sides of the road and we saw emus and kangaroos grazing beside the road

I collected a yachtie friend, Chrissie off the bus from the Gold Coast and Kay caught a bus North the next day Eric and I met Chrissie and her husband Jim in 2006 when clearing customs and cruised Tonga and Fiji with them, going our separate ways in NewCaledonia. They are now in Australia doing a refit. Chrissie spent 2 weeks here with me in Brewarrina.

The next day we explored the town, visiting the art gallery, opal stores and had a tour of the Black hand mine.

One particular art gallery was memorable and if we had room aboard 'Erica' I would have liked a painting

John Murray is a famous outback painter and his paintings are humorous and unique.

We drooled over the opals and jewellery in the shops, then succumbed during a tour of a mine and bought some

This is the black hand mine. We went 60m below ground and had a 3hr tour for $20. It was off peak and Chrissie and I had the tour guide and sculptor/ artist to ourselves
The 2 miners have opened the mine up to tourists. One of them has painted and sculptured the walls and chambers. It is superb.
"David "was one of the hundreds of paintings

After our opal purchases here we took a tour of the countryside following coloured car doors as sign posts. The red door tour took us to castles that had been built some years ago

It was a great couple of days seeing the sights.