Skip to main content

Lightning Ridge


We've reached our destination.  The opal town of Lightning Ridge.  If other opal towns we have visited are anything to go by this will be an odd place.  We are going to spend 4 days here before going back home.  Let's go see.

Comments

  1. What is that? It looks like a concrete truck? But why? I have been to Coober Pedy, and THAT was unusual!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. According to the Lightning Ridge info site "Opal dirt' – sandstone and clay mined from the opal level – is taken up to ground level using a hoist or blower, and dumped into the back of a truck.
      The opal dirt is then washed down by tumbling it for several hours inside a modified cement mixer called an agitator. Finally, the remaining 'tailings' are sorted, with keen eyes searching for any hint or trace of opal colour."

      Yeh. I have been to Coober Pedy and Andamooka both very unusual.

      Delete
  2. Hope you find a big opal. I'm going to Coober Pedy next year, my first opal town.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We were seeking warmth and new places, not opals. You will enjoy Coober Pedy.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Coolibah?

Is that a Coolibah tree beside the abandoned house? Every Australian knows about Coolibah trees because the bush ballad Waltzing Matilda is nigh on our unoffical national anthem but most of us live nowhere near the inland where they grow. Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong, Under the shade of a Coolibah tree, And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled, You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me. Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda, You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me, And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me.

The end

I retire from the workforce this week and to celebrate have decided to retire my current blogs and start afresh with a single consolidated blog -  My Bright Field  - to record the delights of my new life adventure. If you are interested follow me over there.  I will still be Sweet Wayfaring and collecting Royal Hotels.  The delights I discover along the way will appear together with my gardens and towns where I live.

Brown streams and soft dim skies

I gave my husband a thick book on the history of Australian Art for Christmas. It documents just how long it took the artists to paint what they actually saw -- at the hands of early artists our wild Australian landscapes looked like rolling green English countryside. Today's photo has "that look" so I have referenced words from the poem describing England. It was Christmas Eve. We were camped by the Tumut River in the Snowy Mountains of NSW. A shady spot planted with exotic trees from the "old world" and with the soft burble of a swiftly flowing stream. Bliss after a hot afternoon drive. But the old world dies slowly, a hot roast for Christmas dinner followed by plum pudding is one of those traditions that just won't die. Knowing we were going to be on the move on Christmas Day we settled for having our traditional hot meal on Christmas Eve this year.