Hi Again,
This fellow below is called "Stanley" and he is on the highway about 10kms out of the Lightning Ridge.
An artist by the name of John Murray made him out of old VW Beetles.
Its huge and awesome and I instantly fell in love with it.
Bloody clever.
John Murray is a local artist and has well and truly put his stamp on Lightning Ridge, his work is very humorous and colourful and is scattered throughout the town. His gallery is well worth the look if you ever get here.
Below is a little map of our journey since we left Melbourne. We name these places we are and unless I had a map in front of me I wouldn't have a clue where the hell it is, I hope you find this helpful.
Now, Lightning Ridge is all about Opal mining, its the only place in the world to have black opals, pretty cool hey. The first place we visited was called the Black Hand ,we had a guided tour of the mine itself, which was very interesting.
Then back up a level
and a couple of miners found the sandstone fun to carve in....and lets just say...they are still going 15yrs later.
Back up on top of the ground, its time to have a twilight soak in water from 1km under the ground....
These are the Artesian springs and are free and open 24hrs a day....sooooo nice.....soooooo hot.
Next day a tour of the The Ridge and its really all about what's below ....not what's above.
this is a little church built for a movie and is still standing.
Then its on again with the hard hats and back down underground in another mine.
Here is a seam of opal.
We are a bloody long way down.....
so is this long drop.....
This guy called Angelo decided to build a castle out here..
when asked why??? he replied "I don't know"
Back to the hot springs.
Look at this beauty in the baths.
This is a cutie, an old miners hut right in the middle of town.
Another one of John Murrays creations, he actually used to drive and live in this van.
Three Classics.
till next time
lots of love to you all
xxxxx
Ellen and Michelle
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