Lightning Ridge 19-10-12

We got to  Lightning Ridge late morning and went straight to the Opal  Caravan park - Michael joined us up to the "Top Tourist Park" group and we now get a discount when we go to their parks, we have already saved the joining fee so it promises to be worth while.  The park is new, but the ground is made up of tiny quartz pebbles, no shade and we could not see how we could possibly get our tent pegs into the ground [a drill was available from the office].  There was no shade and it is very hot.  We decided to  take cabins for this stay.  They are quite nice (being very new).

When Tony and Jennifer were here some years ago, they said that the place had a definitely unfriendly feel with signs warning people to 'go away' 'not wanted here' trespassing etc.  It is nothing like that now, tourists are welcome.  Perhaps they have realised (like Sapphire) that tourist income is more reliable than opal mining, especially since eventually the opals must run out.
Lighning Ridge is a really interesting place.  I knew about the opals of course (who doesn't), but it also has a lot of fossils.  Michael and I went to the Australian Opal Centre to  have a look at some of the fossils discovered here.

Deposits at Lightning Ridge yield some of the rarest, most beautiful and precious fossils in the world. The sandstone at Lightning Ridge once formed the floor of an ancient shallow inland sea where plants, aquatic life and occasionally the bones and teeth of animals were preserved. As they tunnel through these sediments searching for precious opal, miners sometimes find these fossils,  The most famous and significant fossils from Lightning Ridge are those of some early mammals. Mammal fossils are not often found in Cretaceous fossil deposits, since the generally rare, tiny and delicate mammals of this period were far outnumbered by the more successful and diverse dinosaurs. In Australia Cretaceous mammal fossils are almost unknown, which is why the Lightning Ridge fossils are so important.

There are serious plans to build a very large museum to house many 10's of thousands of fossils not yet able to be displayed.

We went to  John Murray's art gallery, love his stuff, very quirky with a very australian sense of humour  http://www.johnmurrayart.com.au/.  Would have loved to have purchased some originals, but they were a bit out of our price range.

This interesting old cabin is right on the main street.









Hehe, of course we went to  some opal shops, the ones I liked cost thousands of dollars (just like the sapphires in Rubyvale (what a surprise)!  One of the shop keepers gave Tony very detailed information about opals and the quality of same, but he wasn't induced to buy any Haha.

Our trip ended at Lighning Ridge and we then travelled home over the next 2 days, so this is the last blog entry. 

We wish to  thank Tony and Jennifer for a wonderful trip!  

As always Tony your organisation was excellent and we enjoyed the company of the two of you very much.

Michael and me

Tony and Jennifer