When we left St. George it was about 130 k's to the little whistle stop of Hebel. We had decided that we would stop there overnight and check out the little pub. We were obviously heading a bit more into the outback again, as there was a lot more roadkill on the roads again.
We pulled into Hebel and went to the general store. The only other establishment in the area is the hotel. Had a coffee in the general store, which also runs the ?? caravan park ??. The park consists of a flat piece of ground behind the general store with a couple of power boxes and a few taps for water. Went for a walk around the area, and checked out the river and a local tourist area near the general store. It was a bit early for the pub but we went and checked it out.
It was your truly aussie outback pub, right down to your 2 English backpackers that were running it at that time. They had actually been working there for about 6 weeks and did the opening and operation of the pub whilst the owner lounged around in the residence. The hotel even had hitching rails at the front and a big fire bin, for later use. I got a few photos of the artworks on the wall, done by an outback artist, John Murray. Really cool artwork.
Went back to the van for the afternoon and then back to the pub about 5.30. It was starting to cool down, but not to worry about that. The fire was roaring outside the pub. There was about a dozen locals there and they were a really friendly lot. The population of the town is 23, so I don't know where the other dozen people were. It was the last night in town for one of the English girls, so therefore, of course, there was quite a few free drinks spread around. It was a really good night.
The following day it was into Lightning Ridge. It had always been on my bucket list, but I had no idea what to expect. My first opinion was that this is a very 'rustic' town. The main street is fairly wide and there are a few shops, but you can see that the town revolves around the Opal Industry. Quite a few Opal stores, with a lot of advertising hoardings for different tours.
Got booked into our park and went for a walk down the street. Once again took some photos of a couple of great murals in the town and also of some of the attractions. John Murray has a really good art gallery in the town, as well as a Kombi Van, up on a pylon, painted by Murray, in front of the hotel. There is a great mural on the side of his gallery. I think the way he draws emu's is just fantastic, with their big googly eyes.
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| Good accommodation was hard to find on festival weekend |
The following day we went to one of the attractions, The Chambers of the Black Hand. I had read all about this place, as well as seeing it on the TV, and it was one of the things I really wanted to see. It originally started out as an opal mine, but during its down time, the owner started to do carvings in the sandstone in the mine. He has done about 450 different carvings over the last several years, and the mine is now making its money out of the tourist. They do very little mining for opal anymore at this mine.
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| Deb preparing to do a bit of mining |
The carvings are really great, they are of political figures, with one of Julia Gillard putting the knife into Kevin Rudd, to the Dalai Lama, famous actors, animals, indigenous people and an egyptian section and for the ladies, the statue of David. They are really well done and well worth the visit.
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| Julia knifing Kevin. Pretty well done. |
After this tour we went for a drive through the local mining area. They have 4 separate car door tours set up around the town. The yellow car door tour, for example, takes you through the mining area, with the information sheet explaining things as you go. As you reach yellow car door 3, for eg, it will explain what is around you. It is a great tourist innovation.
On the first car door tour we checked out some of the houses the miners live in, as well as just the general area, consisting of mainly holes in the ground, with big piles of dirt around them. There is also a big open cut area that is no longer mined. Most of these outer mining areas have no power connected, so generators are the go. In the summer when it reaches 50C, I think I would die. They have a lot of novel ways of building houses up here, with several made almost entirely of bottles and cans. I would imagine you would have a lot of volunteers to help you with preparing the building materials.
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| There are a couple of occupied houses in the town that have completed sections of bottles and cans. |
We then took a trip out to see Stanley. This is a BIG statue of Big Bird. It is really cool. Most of the sculpture is made up of VW Beetle parts, with the full body used in the body and several of the VW bonnets used for the head, as well as satellite dishes. Very novel. Checked out the historical site nearby, and found that Lighting Ridge was actually named after a Lightning tragedy. Back in 1870, a drover with 600 sheep was camped on a ridge nearby, when a bolt of lightning struck, obviously a direct hit, and killed him and his 600 sheep. After the rescuers has a great BBQ lunch, they obviously decided it was a great name for the town.
The following morning Deb went and had a relaxing massage while I went to the fossicking mound near the Information Centre. I spent the hour sitting on the ground, searching for the elusive opal. I actually found some little pieces, and I mean little pieces, but it was really very relaxing.
The next day we went for a tour out to check out Grawin. This is about 60 k's from Lightning Ridge and is another mining area. It is what Lightning Ridge was like 50 years ago. We checked out a pub out there, the Club in the Scrub, and what a top place. It was made just like the cabins in the wild west, with wooden walls made of tree branches. It was quite big inside, and they even made cappuccino's.
After our visit we went to check out the fossicking area nearby. They sold us a map at the Club for $5, with instructions to ignore part of the map as it was wrong. Just great, pay $5 for the map and no doubt pay $100 for directions of the way out when you are lost in this 'deliverance' country. It was an incredible place, just rough sheds and part caravans as residences, with junk and a moonscape of mining holes everywhere. You would not want to try to walk around at night as there is not Occ Health and Safety Rules out there.
We eventually found the fossicking mountains, and what a sight. They were about 25 metres high and probably about 100 metres long x 50 metres wide. It was all of the tailings from the mines over many years. How hard could it be to find my fortune in that.
Anyway, Deb and myself then spent about 2 hours sifting through a miniscule part of the mountain. Deb found some 'potch', unformed opal, and I also found quite a bit of it. If it was left alone underground for another million years it would be a beautiful piece of opal. I think the pile of dirt I had chosen to pick over was really quite good. Lots of potch with some of it running in seams of rock. I was pretty happy with it, although it is worth nothing, and then I actually found a piece of tiny opal. Yes, I know, I did say tiny. Just then Deb came over to my pile and we decided to leave. But, ahah, at that time I found a bigger piece of opal. I was really quite stoked when I found it. It is not the black opal that is worth heaps, but, still, it felt great.
We had it checked out in town and the gem cutter said she could make it into a ring, ear rings or a pendant. In its current form it was only worth about $100 but if she cleaned it up a bit it was worth maybe $300. I think in its raw form it is worth more, purely for it ascetic beauty.
Checked out the stalls at the opal festival today, but really a pretty relaxing day. Tomorrow we will be heading back out to the outback, to another fossicking area. We are all prepared, with our pick, water bottle and trailer to carry back the huge opal that Deb is going to find.
That's all for now.
By4 now.
Barry and Deb.
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