Red Elephants Noodling in Lightning Ridge

I know you are thinking that with that title that we got down and dirty in Lightning Ridge.  Well you are absolutely right.  The four Red Elephants  sat in a big pile of dusty clay rocks with spray bottles in hand looking for the elusive opal amongst the rocks.  The technical term for this is Noodling.  You are thinking of Can-noodling a whole different ball game, so to speak.

Welcome to Lightning Ridge

Stanley his body is made from cars

We spent our first afternoon at the Chamber of the Black Hand.  This is an underground mine that has been turned into a work of art.  We where there to see the sculptures I did not realise there was a mine tour included.  Well Pete who is claustrophobic freak out.  But he manned up and came down down down into the depths of the mine.  Sixty five feet deep underground  through tunnels that where only as wide as one body.  It was all very interesting to hear how they mine the opal and what they look for.  The opal is found mostly along the "roof line"  of the mine.  I did not realise but not all opal has the vibrant colours that we know.  But the best part was this labyrinth of underground tunnels where the walls had been dug out and sculptured into all sorts of things like Buddha, Superman, the cast of Nemo, elephants, various famous Australians and politicians.  It was amazing to see and seemed to go on and on we thought we would never see daylight again.  If you are ever in Lightning Ridge I would highly recommend a visit to the Chamber of the Black Opal.

We returned to the park just in time for the afternoons entertainment.  Willy (not Nelson)  and Jo a pair of locals singing their country best.  We all had one eye on the entertainment and one eye the dark Storm clouds brewing.  We made a run for it back to Willow stowed our camp chairs, zippered up our windows  so  I thought .  Pete raced across to help save a tent that was blowing around int he strong wind and  help pack up some their stuff that had been left outside.  It was a doozey of a storm and hung around half the night.  We had lightning, thunder, huge rain and the wind.  I soon discovered I had missed a window and our pillows where wet.    I found another lady later on the ladies toilets trying to dry her bedding under the hand dryer.

Amigo's Castle

The next day we visited the Bottle house.  Fifty years ago this chap and a few mates decided to build a house out of bottles.  It even had a loft to sleep in and a fire place to do their cooking.  Fair enough I guess, there was probably no wood to build house, to expensive to transport bricks and there was all these empty bottles at the Pub 70 km away.  So why not build a house out of Bottles.  Actually truth be told it was more of a shack.

Amigo who we did not get to meet but must be quite a character has built his own personal Castle in Lightning Ridge.  It's impressive and full of cats.

We ended our stay with a soak in the Artesen Bathes.  It was lovely and warm at a reportedly 40'.  Another visitor said she would like to cook her chicken soup in there.

I ask myself what would possess people to do sculpts in mining shafts and tunnels 60 foot underground, build houses out of bottles and build castles in what is really the middle of no-where bu is actually Lightning Ridge.