Gular to Lightning Ridge

Our first stop on the day was most important - we had morning tea with Chookyblue and Mr Chooky in their town.  Of course we forgot to take a photo.  Doh!

The further north we travelled, the greener everything was and there was more water lying in the table drains beside the road.  We saw many emus but no kangaroos and very little road kill.

We did see one large mob of cattle grazing along the road.  They must have been trucked up from down south, where it is dry, as they weren’t in top condition and most that live up this way are looking very good.

Lots of crops had been sown and we say quite a few tractors working in the distance.  They are huge! The one in this photo was just a baby, but the others were too far away to photograph.  As you can see, we are in big sky country.

One thing we did notice was the road conditions.  While there were no potholes, the road surface was really undulating, making things very bouncy as we drove along, keeping our speed down.  It is caused by being “black soil country” and having lots of floodways.

We had our lunch in a park at Walgett, which is also a free camp.

It has a lovely pond with fountain and water birds.

There were some very friendly apostle birds there.  Mick had them eating out of his hand.  It was a mother and two chicks, so she was happy to take any extra tit bits.

After lunch, we went and found the painted water tower, featuring the singer Jimmy Little, who came from Walgett.  He first came to fame with his song “Royal Telephone” in the early 1960s and then had a revival in the late 1990s.  We saw him in Sydney at that time and it was an enjoyable performance.

Our next stop was Lightning Ridge.  You know you are getting close to the turn off when you see “Stanley” the emu made out of a VW Beetle and other scrap metal.

You definitely know you are in opal mining country with the old cement truck tumbler.

We got ourselves settle in at the caravan park and had a quiet afternoon, before heading off to see the sunset.

The sunset viewing point is at “First Shaft Lookout”.  Like everywhere in Lightning Ridge, you follow the car door signs.  They are used to signpost the tour routes - Green Door, Yellow Door, Red Door, etc.  They are also used as address markers.  It is quite a quirky place.

Anyway, we were going to the lookout.  

There are a couple of things to see there.  Firstly, the beer can house, built in the late 1970s.  Sadly, it is starting to look a bit dilapidated.  It is a wonderful example of ingenuity.  Build yourself a shelter on the cheap, that does the job, but it won’t matter to leave it when you eventually move on.

The windows are very clever.

Being Lightning Ridge, there are a few old mine shafts.

You don’t want to wander around too much in the dark.

There is also a stone labyrinth, which is a bit of fun.  It looks stunning in the late afternoon light.

Someone has also made a heart.

So, I suppose I’d better show the view we were here to look at.  A flat landscape as far as the eye could see  

I had a bit of a play with my new to me camera tripod.  It is a bit of a bitser.  I bought a little phone tripod from the phone repair shop and then bought a big tripod at a swap meet for $5.  The phone holder bit screws straight onto the big tripod. So I have two options to play with.  I did a time lapse of the sunset, which was a bit of fun.

A bit more fun with the tripod.

After the actual sunset, most people left, but we hung around to get that lingering last light.

As the sky got quite dark, and with the nearly full moon, the landscape started to take on an eerie moonscape appearance.

Time to head back to the van.

As we drove back to town the mullock heaps also took on an eerie appearance.

It was a nice start to our visit to the area.  As you can see we did have a bit of a play.