We LOVE Lightning Ridge. Lightning Ridge might have been one of our favorites places. We are only sorry a) we didn't get to stay longer, and b) we were not able to write about it sooner. We read about Lightning Ridge, famous for black opals, and unlike Coober Pedy, above ground. During our stay at Boongalla the cattle station, Ian the owner allowed us his car for the weekend to go see Lightning Ridge. A four/sixish hour drive away. We are pumped, it is really nice of him to do, we get the weekend off, and we leave at 5:30 am Saturday morning. The sunrise is beautiful and we are aware of animals possibly still running around. I will remind everyone that we are in the middle of nowhere at this time, like driving in West Texas, dry, dirt roads at times and brushy. We do not hit any animals, but two birds do fly onto us, a kangaroos almost gets us, and two emus do a dance in front of our car as well. We are not even driving fast. This is all in the morning. We drive even slower. Our drive is beautiful, we stop in Hebel for a scone with cream and jam (me) Yum, and a meatpie for Alison. Arrival in Lightning Ridge brings us to the information center. We know we want to go digging, called fossicking in these parts, and stop to find out more information. Annie, is VERY helpful, she tells us of the tours available, fossicking options, and invites us to barefoot bowls at the club in the evening. At the edge of town there is a hot bore spring, it is like the neighborhood pool. Everyone in town goes there after work or the pub, we are intrigued, but not sure we'll make it there. We decide on Bluey motel, across the street from the bowls club, so we can walk home later. We book a tour with Black Opal Tours, and grab some lunch. The 1:00 tour is wonderful, our driver is great, and we learn the history of Lightening Ridge as well as what makes black opals unique. We see the first miners shacks in town as well as homes built more recently. Lightning ridge has no building codes outside of town, so we see shacks, trailers, houses, and even a castle built entirely by hand from rocks in the area. It is stunning. We stop by the Black Queen, a home with glass bottles in patterns in the walls, like stained glass. Another stunning building. The owners Gale & Roger are very nice and ask us to return the next day for a demonstration of their antique lamp collection, since we are on a tour we have to leave. We are having a wonderful time on our tour, and everyone is so nice. We stop at Down to Earth Opals, a shop with beautiful jewelry, and ogle at everything. We rest at the motel, then make our way to barefoot bowls. We meet great people, eat steak sandwiches, and win a gift basket, and a bottle of Johnnie Walker. We stay late, and drink a fair bit, and decide to not go to the hot springs, since our motel is across the street. We wake up early to try fossicking outside of town. We fossick unsuccessfully for a few hours, but of course have a good time, and head back to the Black Queen for the antique lamp lighting presentation. A beautiful collection, we learn the history of the lamps, how they became the collection, and have a really wonderful afternoon. This really marks the end of our time in Lightning Ridge, we don't want to leave. We rush to a few art galleries in town, paintings and photography, and rush to say goodbye to many. We have to get on the road, we don't want to chance driving at night. We are sad to leave this town, where every person we met, we wanted to spend more time with. If you live in Australia, or make it this way, go to Lightning Ridge, please, and tell them the New York girls sent you.
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