Oregon Flyer: Lightning Ridge

Tuesday March 6, 2012 Exploring Lightning Ridge

Did you know Lightning Ridge is the only place in the world where you can find quality black opals? Mary Beth does.

Artesian pool

We actually did get up in time to make it to the hot springs before sunrise. The water is very warm so you don’t stay in for long. But Mary Beth said it did wonders for her right leg. It must have because later in the day she managed a spiral staircase with 113 steps down 60 feet into one of the mines without any pain. The left knee is now plastic and metal and doing great.

We took the Black Opal Tour. Larry picked us up at the motel and drove us around the areas being mined. Finding opals is pretty much like looking for a needle in a haystack. They know the general area where they are likely to be found but then have to go through yards and yards of dirt and hope they find something. Usually they don’t but when they do find them they can pay very handsomely.

This area pretty well mined

For the first part of the tour we drove around and Larry showed us the various forms of excavation equipment and how it was used. The area being minded is some 40 square kilometers around the town. The area here at Lightning Ridge seems to be pretty well tapped out. There are only 50-100 individuals actively mining although there are tens of thousands of claims. At one time there were 7000 people digging. Lots of people come here for vacation to dig—at least that’s what they told us. Not exactly my idea of fun but I guess this is slightly better than playing the lottery.

Midway through the tour we stopped at their showroom for coffee and scones. Mary Beth already knew about singles, doublets and triplets but we had a very good demonstration of taking the nodules and grinding away the clay to get the stones to a saleable form. Lots of nice jewelry there. The singles ere in the thousands of dollars. Doublets and triplets are much more affordable. You can ask Mary Beth to explain the difference the next time you see her.

I'm so exited...

The tour continues with visits to some of the more eccentric homesteads and a then the tour down into one of the mines. It’s nice and cool in the mines. It is very hard work moving small wheel barrows of diggings up to vertical shaft to be taken to the surface and then processed (generally in a reworked cement mixer to remove the clay and hopefully expose some opal nodules.

The tour ended just before lunchtime. After lunch we continued exploring the town and the shops on foot. Mary Beth managed to get her opal for this trip as well as presents for Sarah and Emily. The temperature outside was getting a little hot but not nearly as hot as usual. We retired to the motel room for a siesta before heading out again.

As we were getting ready to go out we discovered that Mary Beth’s cell phone was missing. A Mary Beth no holds barred “mom” search of the car and motel room was fruitless. Margie at the motel called nearly every place we had been and we had no luck. Somewhere between Gilgandra and Lightning ridge there is a cell phone that will not type the letter” M” even if the person who finds it manages to recharge the thing. Another reason to head to Tamworth before Manilla tomorrow. We need to get a “next G” phone for Mary Beth.

We went out in the car for sunset pictures. The check engine light went out. Hooray! Now the explorer is down to just two problems. The icing switch on the AC and the transmission sometimes not shifting into the higher gear.

No clouds in the west so the sunset pictures will not be that great.