Cruising around Lightning Ridge

Both boys were snoozing in the back so we stopped off and I ran into the Opal Cave shop for our usual magnets and stubby holder, then into the Australian Opal Centre. I got stuck chatting with the old blokes in the shop, super lovely and lots of information about fossils and opals from the area. They mentioned that their evening light show/movie, Spark, is on Tuesdays and Thursdays if we were keen. I did see an ad about it in the info booklet, however when I googled it it said that dogs were now only allowed to come if they stayed in the car due to some fluffballs causing grief. I said we had our old boy, 16 next month, and that he would stress, so if we could see and hear from the car we could make it work, otherwise we wouldn't want to upset Pup. The bloke was great, said he'd be there and as long as Pup wasn't going to bite or cause any dramas, it wouldn't be an issue at all. I had a laugh and told him stories about Titan and Missy, and how different Pup is from them. Not that they nipped at all, but they were stereotypical working dogs (minus the work) and Pup is definitely not. He ended up just giving us tickets if we were keen, which was so lovely. Max had woken with a vengeance as it was time for a feed. On our way back to the camper for a rest, we looped through the Red Door Tour roads and stopped at the Ridge castle. Another quirky stop with clever signs and an unreal design. We didn't realise that it's also an airbnb. There were a few other options on this tour, Amigo's castle is meant to be really good, we just didn't have the time or energy. On the drive out, an old bloke was wandering down the middle of the dirt road, we had to drive on the opposite side of the road to go around him. I realised it was Amigo, recognising him from my googling earlier. A quick stop off at the bore baths before heading back to the camper. We all managed to have a little nap.Read more