Last day in Lightning Ridge

Today is our last day here. This is a town like no other and really needs to be experienced in person. It feels like you are in the Wild West, with mines in the Centre of town and all around, mounds of earth everywhere, rusted old Volkswagens and utes, old mining machinery and real outback characters.

Ten years ago there were approx. 2,000 miners and today there are only 60 left. As everywhere, this is a town filled with politics and a pecking order and everyone you speak to gives you a different opinion about the issues that continue to plague this outback town. We hear that a new airport will be built that will see tourism increase making Lightning Ridge more accessible to more Aussie and overseas tourists.

We spent most of today exploring more of Lightning Ridge including the last of the car door tours. We made our way through the opal fields and staked out mines and got out to see the historic open cut mine at Lunatic Hill Open Cut.

Then we went to see the inside of Amigo’s Castle, as it was closing the other day when we drove by. We learnt all about the history of the castle from Anita, who is partner in the mine with the owner. She told us it was built by Italian man Vittorio Stefanato (nickname Amigo) who had a mine plot but who never got any opal in all his years of digging. Eventually in the 1980s he got bored of opal mining and decided to use the ironstone (found below the mine surface) first from his own mine and then from around town to build a castle. He constructed the castle painstakingly by hand, basing it on images of castles from his home town in Italy, standing on homemade scaffolding as he built the second storey of his never finished dream. The castle was never completed as he was taken to court by the Greenies who claimed he was using stones from the town illegally. The town folk supported him in his legal fight to eventually heritage list that castle to ensure it can never be destroyed.

We had a quick bite to eat in town and went for a dip at the artesian pool before heading back to Carinya Station fo our last night to join our fellow campers around the fire. A sudden downpour meant we all brought our chairs to the woolshed and we enjoyed an hour of chatting - and I got to cuddle baby Pippa again.

Time to get back to our little home to make our dinner of barbecued chicken fillets and roast sliced potatoes in the Weber (with a simple side salad) and settle down for the night.

Hard to believe we’ve been on the road 2.5 weeks already. We are settling into the pace of the nomadic life and starting to lose track of the days now, as time is losing the meaning it has when you are home in your usual home/work routine.

Here time revolves more around how many days you can get out of your water tanks and your toilet tank before they need refilling/emptying. Oh, and how long until you need bread and milk...and other important supplies (which today included a quick stop to the local bottle shop for some bubbly).

Things we are definitely not missing back home:

1. Melbourne peak hour traffic

2. Routine of life

3. Stress of every day life

Good night, time to chill with a bit of TV...now that the satellite dish is working!Read more