June 1st, I woke up this morning to find
drizzling rain and puddles of water all around the Park. Val informed me that
we had torrential overnight rain and I slept through it all, while she was up
making sure the awning was alright. The showers continued all day so the
entertainment was cancelled for tonight.
June 2nd, We went down to the fossicking heap at
the Information Centre and Val was very excited when she found a couple of
rocks with a minute seam of white opal through it. I gathered up some chips of
worthless rock and Val was happy to be able to say she had been “noodling” in
Lightning Ridge and found a seam of Opal.
June 3rd, We went on a drive to see the “3 Pubs
in the scrub” at the Grawin and Glengarry Opal Fields. It was around an hours
drive from Lightning Ridge, passing through the Town of Cumborah and out to the
Opal Fields, where the tarred road changed to gravel. We couldn’t believe the
number of animals and birds we saw on this short drive, all alive, Kangaroos,
Goats, Sheep with newborn Lambs, Emus, Hawks and Galahs and the “Road kill”,
deceased, Kangaroos, Pig, Emu, sheep and a rabbit. Our first stop was at “The
Club in the Scrub”, which had a Golf Course with dirt greens. We were surprised
to see a dozen cars parked outside and noticed that most of them were
unregistered. Obviously “rego” is not needed to drive around the opal Fields!
After signing in we found out the miners and wives were here to play “Bingo”. We
had a long chat with the Barmaid while we sat at the bar and ate our delicious
lunch. I had an open hamburger and Val had bacon and eggs, with a glass of
Chardy. Our next stop was “The Sheepyard Inn” with its big open wood fire
burning well. Their restaurant was an old Train Dining Carriage and the locals
friendly. As we drove out we were amused at this sign (see photo) and how
appropriate it was, knowing the condition of vehicles driven around the Opal
Fields. Our last stop was at the famous “Glengarry Hilton Pub” boasting
accommodation and meals. Val chatted up a few drinking locals and took their
photo. We did enjoyed our Tour today and have found that these Miners are a
happy lot that enjoy their style of living and their pubs in the scrub have all
the same activities that you would find in any Hotel, in a suburb or Town.
June 4th, We went to the Bowling Club for the 4pm
raffles only to find we had been wrongly advised and they weren’t on till
tomorrow, so we settled for a chardy and a flutter and left after a couple of
hours even, so a free days entertainment.
June 5th, Tomorrow we leave for Coonamble, so we
went into Town and visited a few of the Opal Shops, then back to the Park to pack
up. While I was going in and out of the Van, putting things away, ready to
travel, I opened the door from the inside and the door handle came off in my
hand! Bugger! Then I wasted a half hour or more fiddling with the door lock to
prevent us being locked in with no way out. I removed the inside assembly and
took out the broken parts of the handle and re-assembled it so the outside
handle was working properly and I could open the door on the inside by using a
screwdriver. What I wasn’t going to tell you was that while fiddling with the
door mechanism, at one stage I closed the door and found that I couldn’t open
it from the outside. I didn’t panic, as Val was still inside but without a
handle, she could not open the door. I got Val to open the widow over the
lounge and I removed the screen and with the aid of our step ladder, climbed in
with some tools and managed to get the door to open. After removing and
refitting the door latch assembly correctly, I got to the workable stage where
the outside handle worked normally, I could get it open from the inside with my
screwdriver but I wasn’t able to lock the door and we can live with that. The
nearest spare parts place to Lightning Ridge is at Dubbo, only 360 klms away.
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