Lightning Ridge

We’ve made it to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney in a roundabout way.  A few days ago we left Newcastle and had a little time to kill so we decided to make a little detour.  We spent 2 nights in Lightning Ridge.  This is one of the few spots in  Australia where they mine for Black Opals.  So we thought “why not?” and off we went.  

Once we got outside of Newcastle it didn’t take long for us to get into the bush. We went  through hot spots like Quirindi, Gunnedah, Narrabi and Wee Waa! Not quite to the outback but we were definitely in the bush! Our travels took us through a lot more farming areas.  In fact, we went right past the Australia Cotton Research Center.  It seems that cotton is grown a lot more here than I ever would have expected.  In addition to huge farm fields, we saw lots of Eucalyptus trees, Koala signs but, no real koalas.  We also saw quite a few emus and kangaroos.

Folo the colored doors

Lightning ridge is quite a quirky little town.  It’s built around a ridge that is mined for Black Opals.  Most opal have a bluishness to them, black opal have red flecks in them and are pretty rare. We took a tour of a worked out mine that was actually quite interesting.  At the deepest we were only about 30 feet below the surface.  Of course the gift shop at the end really got our (Gails) attention.  The owner did give us a volume discount. 

Most of the mining in the area is small privately owned and financed by rugged individuals.  They are a hearty lot. :)  They start by digging a shaft down about 30’ to where the soil and conditions are right for the formations of the opals then find a seam of potential ore and then they commence to digging tunnels along the seam.  Most of the digging is done with picks, shovels and a small jack hammer.  The digging is mostly through sandstone and clay so no real layers of hard rock.  Then they use a wheelbarrow to haul the ore back to the shaft where it’s dumped into a bucket on a rail that will take it to the surface and dump it into an old cement truck mixing tank where they will wash out the silt and dirt and hopefully left at the bottom is the rock with opal.  Nothin’ to it. Quite a lot of discarded cement mixers around too. Surprisingly there are only a few open pit mines. Lots of “tailings”, piles of whitish rock, are pretty much everywhere, mostly clay remains. You can go fossicking (digging around) on these piles in hopes you will find your own opal.

Hoist

This area is also on the border of Queensland and probably has a lot of wet weather come summer time. Farther north, it’s called the wet and so much rain falls that many roads are impassable. Most of the vehicles are high clearance, SUVs or a sort of a pickup with a small bed and in pretty rough shape. Most of the miners we saw looked like a typical miner, long beard, mish mash of clothes or overalls, dusty desert rat. Camps (or their homes) were the same cobbled together whatever could make a wall. Pretty funny actually.

Miners camp

G'Day from Down Under

Well, After many months of planning we've finally made it back to Australia.  We've been here a week now and currently are in Newcastle.

United Airlines cut our connection time from Sacramento to San Francisco down to almost nothing due to a really late departure from Sacramento.  We did make it though and then had to suffer through 13.5 hrs cramped 3 across on a 747.  Thank goodness for Tylenol PM.  Suffice it to say that this will hopefully be our last international flight on a domestic US carrier.  Enough whining and on to the fun stuff.

Our first few days were spent in Sydney at the Victorian Court Hotel.  A small but comfortable room that was within walking distance of most of the neat Sydney attractions.  Once we got rested up we went out exploring and just left our rental car in the hotel car park.  We were able to walk to the Royal Botanical garden and Mrs MacQuaries Park just across a small bay from the Sydney Opera House.  Had a great view of the Opera House with the Harbor bridge in the background.  We cut across the arboretum and headed for downtown Sydney.  At one point we were checking our city map and a lady stopped and asked if we needed help.  We explained that  we were looking for an Optus mobile phone store and she lead us right to it.  I love these people they are so friendly!!

Got our mobile phone re-ignited and then we were off again.  We found a coffee shop, had a smoothie and used their wifi.  Pat and Norm we're sorry we couldn't Skype.  We then spent a couple of hours just sitting in Hyde Park watching people and reading.

Ocean pool

We have found that things are quite expensive here.  The exchange rate is right now about $1.05 American to get $1.00 Australian and they have a General Sales tax of 10%.  There must be some serious "sin Taxes" because a bottle of beer cost $7.90.  I can get a 6 pack of Blue Moon back home for that!

The next day we did venture out in the car and went to the famous Bondi Beach.  It was a beautiful beach and it's famous for the surfing and the Lifesaving club.  Didn't get to see any surfers get saved but they did have a John Deere towing a machine that cleans the trash out of the sand.

The last day in Sydney was pretty much a carbon copy of the first day but spent more time at the Arboretum.  There was a "spring flower" display.  Beautiful and lots of flowers were in bloom.


On Friday we were able to get out of Sydney and head to our friend Deb's house in Newcastle.  We took the scenic route and I'm sure glad we did cuz we went right through Bucketty.  We can now cross that off our bucket list. :)

We've had a wonderful weekend with Deb and her daughter Sophie.  In addition to showing us around her town she introduced us to friends of hers, Steven and Carrie, who showed us a wonderful afternoon in the Hunter Valley which is the areas premier wine country.  We had an wonderful lunch at an Italian (I mean REAL Italian) restaurant and winery, then to a little shop that specializes just in desserts.  WOW!!  Steven and Carrie are members at one of the winerys so we got to have a special wine tasting in the "Members Only" room.  Pretty cool for "trailer trash" like us, Huh?

We don't have any plans for a couple of days after we leave Newcastle so we've decided to head up to Lightning Ridge, a Black Opal mining area.  It's about an 8.5 hr drive northwest of here.  We'll be getting close to the outback.  More on that adventure later.

Summer vacation

It's after Labor day so summer is over, even though the weather is still nice. We took a couple of months off from park volunteering to sit back and enjoy some sights and areas and rest up before our big trip.

After leaving Utah at the end of June, we travelled up to Idaho, saw family and took care of personal things, like doctor checks. We visited two of Gail's sisters up in Challis for a few days. One sister has a little roadside food truck/kitchen, Nummyz, just north of Challis. They serve Korean BBQ and other really good things. If you're going to Challis, give it a try, you won't be disappointed.  Gail's nephew and girlfriend came out as did his father. We ended up with a small family reunion.  We checked on the cabin, did a little weed work and tried to delay getting into Boise because of the heat. It was hot everywhere and the less time we spent in it with the trailer the better.

Campground by Newport bridge

So, at the beginning of August we headed to the Oregon coast where we knew it would be much cooler. We spent a few days in Newport to start, got some fresh seafood and toured around a bit. It was our intention to camp in the state parks all along the coast but everyone was completely full, all the time. So we ended up in private parks and most weren't too bad. Then we just skipped down the coast, each stop only about 50-60 miles away. Tough driving days. We enjoyed Bandon for a week, played a little golf, ate plenty of clam chowder and mostly waited for the fog to burn off. The temperatures were very cool, we got the jeans and sweatshirts back out, turned off the A/C and turned on the heat. Really nice in the morning to take the chill off. First we were complaining how hot it had been, then pretty soon we were complaining how chilly it was. Can't win. We checked on the beaches, visited some lighthouse, met up with some friends who host at lighthouses. Continuing south we stopped at Gold Beach on the Rogue river. We had a very nice campsite along the river and gorged ourselves on blackberries surrounding us. We made blackberry cobbler, sauce for the salmon, coffeecake and just ate them out of the bowl!. Bill likes them with half & half.

At Gold Beach, we took a jet boat ride up the Rogues. It was very windy when we left but up river was fantastic. The boat in the picture gave us pause at first as this was what you first saw walking up to the office! It was a fun trip, a little wet at times, but fun.

 We then moved down to Crescent City, CA and on to Klamath. We were camped right in the middle of the redwood trees and fog, but it was worth it. After taking a couple of hikes through the woods, it's hard to get over how magnificent these trees are. So big and straight and the environment they create is incredible. Gail spent 4 years in this area going to college and it was nice to see it again. A lot of it has changed, for the better, as it is protected now and not left to the mercy of the lumber company chain saws.

So we end with stopping in Grants Pass then on to Redding. We will leave the truck and trailer at some friends, fly from Sacramento-SFO- Sydney, leaving 9/15 and return 12/4. We will be busy over there but will definitely blog about what we see and do. Stay tuned!