We made it into Walgett, and by now the wind had gone & the sun was shining. We were seeing Walgett at its best, which is an ugly sight indeed. This is a town that caravanners avoid. The main street is lined with abandoned shops and rubbish. There are so many security screens and shutters, it is almost impossible to tell if a shop is open or not!! There were young Aboriginal kids everywhere, eating junk food and soft drinks. We were going to have lunch, but one look at the only cafe we could find was enough to have us rethink. At the end of the street, we found a small gift shop, that just looked like it had opened in town, and was serving coffee and some snacks. The young girl running the shop was lovely, and she made us a surprisingly good coffee with a couple of slices of quiche, so it all turned out OK. We hope she makes a go of it. She had some nice things in the shop. Just not sure who would be buying them.
It was only another 77 kms up the road to Lightning Ridge. Most of the way, the road was lined with yellow bush that resembles canola. It makes a real show, and sometimes stretches into the trees as far as you can see. We arrived and were immediately taken by how green it was. The other opal mining areas we had visited in South Australia, namely Cooper Pedy & Andamooka, were like the surface of the moon with mile after mile of mounds of white dirt & dust. There wasn't a tree or green grass in sight at either place. Here, was completely the opposite. The town itself was larger than we had expected and had a good variety of shops and services. More on that later. We found our caravan park, aptly named The Opal Caravan Park, and checked in. The girl on reception told me that if I didn't have a booking we would have been turned away! There are four caravan parks in town, and this one has the best reputation. It is quite new, and the facilities are excellent. There are trees, but no grass. All the sites are gravel and very large. We found our site, unpacked and settled in to go through the pile of tourist information given to us at check in.
First off the rank was the famous Car Door Tours. These are self drive tours that take you all over Lightning Ridge and are the perfect introduction to town. You get to see everything of note, and can choose which paid exhibits you think will be worthwhile to see in more detail. They are called the car door tours, because the guide posts for each tour are old car doors painted and numbered for each attraction! Quite ingenious really. There are four tours, Red, Blue, Green & Yellow. You call in at the Visitor Information Centre, hand over $1, and get your Car Door Tour Fact Sheet, Your Lightning Ridge Mud Map, and off you go!! As you start the drive, you really get into the quirky nature of "The Ridge". God knows how many misfits, dropouts & fugitives live in this town. We were told that everyone uses an assumed name, and you don't ask questions about their past! The majority of the towns people still live in camps on their opal fields, so the homes are shanty's, built from old caravans, corrugated iron, old drums, bottles, cans and anything else they can find! We did all four tours, seeing such wonderful sights as Amigo's Castle, a replica castle built by a homesick Italian miner so he could be reminded of home! Then there was the Astronomer's Monument a weird concrete monument, where when we stopped to take a photo, some old crone stuck her head out the door, yelling at us that we had to pay to take photos. We gave her the middle finger wave and moved on to door no.6! From Lunatic Hill we could view the open cut mine from which they took millions of dollars in opal, and at 3-Mile was the giant excavation where an amazing new Opal & Fossil Centre is to be built. Based on the model we saw it will be an incredible thing. We also came across an old church building made of corrugated iron. Turned out to be quite new, having been built for some C Grade movie set we have never heard of! We thoroughly enjoyed all the Car Door Tours.
Town itself was interesting, with many Opal shops selling the local Black Opal. We think the Black Opal is by far the most beautiful, with the rich & intense colours. Prices range enormously, with the most expensive thing we saw valued at a whopping $42,000!! It was a lovely piece with fiery red flashes in it, which was the reason for its value. Apparently the red is very rare. Artist John Murray has a great gallery. This guy does quirky, almost caricature like paintings of the Aussie Outback, often using those cheeky creatures like galahs & emus, as subjects, as well as topical themes like caravanners! We added a small piece to our collection of caravan art. There is also a hot artesian bath in town, which is just outside our caravan park. It is open 24 hours a day and entry is free. The water is around 36 - 38 degrees. An early morning visit is interesting, as you will hear many languages spoken, such is the multi cultural nature of the local population. The other huge thing in town is the swimming centre. It boasts a full size, Indoor, Olympic Diving Pool, as well as an Olympic 50m Pool and water park for the kids. The dive centre is one of only nine in NSW, and you have to wonder why????? The Variety Store is like a shopping centre!! You name it, they sell it! It is floor to ceiling stock, where you can find a Barbie Doll alongside a shovel and the engine oil!! There is a large Bowling Club, which we didn't attend, as so many travellers had warned us off the restaurant. Instead, we had a cold drink & a feed at three of the craziest pubs in the outback! Read on........
About 60 kms west of town is the Grawin Opal Fields. The drive out was through wide open farm land where we saw the biggest herd of goats we have ever seen. It is incredible how much goat meat we export from Australia. Grawin is a bit like inter marrying the casts of Deliverance & The Beverley Hillbillies!!! You can only begin to imagine the desperadoes that call this place home. Our first stop in Grawin was at "The Club in the Scrub". Being a legitimate Club with its own 18 hole golf course, we duly signed the book and stepped back a hundred years. It is a ramshackle old place made up of a collection of tin sheds, and wooden posts and beams holding up corrugated iron. It is a working club, and the members play golf every Wednesday & Sunday. The memorabilia hanging from the roof & on the walls is fantastic. The drinks come in cans or bottles to save water & washing up. Ladies drink through a straw! We enjoyed a cold beer & some interesting banter from the locals who all seem to have a beard 2 feet long!
From the club, we took a short drive up to "The Sheepyard". On the way up, we passed three beat up old cars, none of which had number plates! At the roundabout near the entrance to the pub, the sign said "Cars with Brakes Give Way!!!!!!". Now this place has undergone a major renovation, with new corrugated iron roof & walls, as well as a train carriage which serves as the kitchen and dining room. It is also a bit of a general store. Out the back is the "Bra Tree", displaying a few of its namesakes. Judging by what was on display, the Sheepyard is home to some big breasted women!!! We declined a beer at The Sheepyard, and resumed our pub crawl to stop number three.
"The Glengarry Hilton" is quite a famous Outback Pub. It is also a collection of corrugated iron sheds held up by iron bark posts. The kitchen, which has been churning out good tucker for years, is a 40ft Shipping container!! There was a good crowd in for lunch, and it appeared there was a staff shortage, as Grumpy & Grumpyher were cooking, serving & doing everything else as well. We shared a Works Burger & Chips, which took almost an hour to come, but was worth the wait. The dialogue among the patrons made the time fly. To the credit of the staff, they produced good meals for everyone, and no one went thirsty!! We had a great day visiting these iconic pubs & clubs of the Australian Outback.
When we got back to Lightning Ridge mid afternoon, we headed out to "The Chambers of the Black Hand". Forget the comic book name, this is an incredible place. It is one of those moments when just as you think you've seen it all, something very special comes along. This is a mine that is 100 years old and no longer producing opal. Seventeen years ago, the owner decided to do a few sculptures in the walls of the mine. Today, you get kitted out with a hard hat, and descend 100 steps into the mine, to view hundreds of sculptures from giant Buddhas to dinosaurs, to lions, animals from all continents, mythical creatures, Chinese Warriors and so much more. You find super heroes and local characters, politicians and princes & queens, movie stars & Elvis. We walked around for quite a while admiring the skill of the work. It was a most amazing experience. Down in the mine, is Lightning Ridges only underground opal shop as well.
Back at the caravan park, Happy Hour was around the campfire, as entertainment was being provided by way of a local couple who went by the names of Willie (not Nelson) & Joey. Willie, wearing his big black cowboy hat, confessed to being 73, and played great guitar, told some good yarns and lots of jokes & one liners. His wife Joey accompanied him, & sang some songs as well. It was a great couple of hours. Half way through they took a break & Willie came over for chat. He is a real live Aussie bush boy, with skin like leather and a larrikin sense of humour. There were lots of notes sung off key, but not one person cared, as Willie & Joey were having a go, and we were being entertained big time, around the campfire under a huge outback sky just full of stars.
On our last day, we took in the early morning markets at the Visitor Centre. It was a better market than we had expected, and we picked up some delicious home cooked goodies. We then headed up the road around 80kms to the Queensland border and the tiny village of Hebel. Today, the town has only a couple of things of note. The first is the Hebel Hotel, which started life as a Cobb & Co Stage Coach House. It is incredible to think that at its peak, Cobb & Co was using 6,000 horses a day moving people around the Australian outback. It is a quaint old building, still serving cold beer and good food. Across the road is the Hebel General Store, where the current owners have made a reputation that ensures everyone passing by, stops for a coffee & cake or a meal. We did coffee & cake, and the Blackberry Meringue Tarts, were fantastic. The owner does all her own cooking, and she is very good at it!! We sat at a long table with a number of fellow caravan travellers comparing trips and schedules, all the while gathering information for future trips. It was then back to Lightning Ridge for an afternoon of cleaning. The caravan has a carwash bay, and cleaning of cars & caravans is allowed, and boy do ours need it after the rain, the dust and a billion bugs!
We have enjoyed our time in Lightning Ridge. It was very different to what we had expected!
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