Driving from Yarrowyck to Lightning Ridge was truly one of the most boring drives ever. We left in the early morning light, surrounded by huge grey kangaroos and drove back down the dirt road that we came up yesterday. We then turned up the very cool named Thunderbolts Way to Inverell, then across the Gwydir Highway to Moree. From there, we drove to Collarenebri. There is absolutely nothing out there - dirt, ugly scrub, occasional cattle, a few goats and emus.
We got to Collarenebri and were hoping to buy lunch but there was NOTHING at the "town". A petrol station and a lot of closed signs. Hungry, we carried on to Walgett, a larger township in the north of NSW. It was quite an eye-opening place, with many of the businesses with big metal grilles over the windows and doors to prevent vandalism. We picked up some sandwiches then made our way to Lightning Ridge.
Lightning Ridge is just south of the Queensland border, and is famous for having the largest known deposits of black opals in the world. It is a strange old place, full of rusty shacks out in the dirt and scrub where people live in order to fossick for opals. There was also some weirder houses, with one made out of bottles and another in the shape of a castle. These people are very protective of their land, and most are not very friendly - we had more than a few dirty looks from people when we drove around to take a look. I remember going there as a kid, going into the mines and looking around at the ground for a sparkly piece of rock. It was just not the same as an adult!
We stayed the night in a cabin, having a hot shower and feeling a bit more civilised sleeping on beds rather than on the ground!
