Blogs from Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

So you thought you knew where we were going today, but you would be wrong. The day started innocently enough and soon we were packed up and ready to roll. Just as we were about to move Joan remembered Greg had not emptied the toilet cassette as agreed. No big deal, off Greg went and the task was soon completed. But little did we know – the pattern had been set. Greg entered our destination for two days time into the GPS and selected the route. We began to move off. Is that a strange squeaking sound we hear? Not sure what it is, so ignore it. Just onto the highway we decided perhaps we should investigate, so pull over and put on the handbrake, but wait it is already on! Opps. That explained the sluggish ... read more

Dreams, dust and rust. Australia, like many other countries has had many stampedes for wealth, particularly on the gold fields. Lightning Ridge probably has never had the equivalent, but over the past 120 years Black Opal has lured many a miner to burrow 40 to 90 feet underground looking for their fortune. Some have certainly made a fortune, but 90% have had fun but lucked out. The majority of the mining today is done using a boring machine first to test the sub-strata looking for tell tale signs of water having come up from artesian sources or run down through cracks and faults providing the required moisture to create the silica nodules or reefs of silica that will form opal. As we discovered, they can find the black nodules, but only a small percentage of the ... read more