Our Touring Past

Just a few of my favourites .. Gotta love the Nortons.. and i have one of these at home in amongst the clunkers... but not as flash as this one... anyway.. thats enough of the oily nuts n bolts.. back to the tour and caravans in the next edition....

Inverell to Moree ...

Up and away from Inverell by about 9;00am... a wee break a nice park at Warialda ... Then back into town for morning tea..
Spotted a few "Laboes" in an old bakery window...
seems the one that John and Pam got at Yackandandah a few years back has some country cousins... ..

A nice cuppa n cake on the sundeck at the back of a corner restaraunt for an hour or so.. then back on the trail and onwards into Moree. Checked out "Gardiners Conversions" .. a workshop that sspecialises in V6 and V8 conversions for early Holdens etc.. very interesting shed...
Then off over to the van park for a bit of a bubble around in the thermal ponds .... very soothing after a bit of a hike from Inverell...

At Moree... .. a town that is struggling in the drought... There is a sign in the van park showers that reads.. "Hot water make 2 or 3 minutes to come through to shower head".. i stood there in the shower cubicle ...naked in the early evening coolness for approx 5 mins.. waiting for the "Hot" to come through...checked that i had the hot tap turned on full bore 2 or 3 times... never got hot.. so held the breath and a quick dance around under the cold water .. ..
Like "HELLO" .. gawd knows how many litres of cold water went down the plug hole... all this in the middle of a drought... ya would have thought they would be all about water conservation and got the problem fixed quick smart.. apparently a sign lettin ya know ya in for a cold shower was their fix " ??

Looking back on it now i should have taken my cake of soap and lathered up in the thermal ponds....Plenty of hot water there.. anything from 38 to 41 degrees

The usual happy hour was in full swing when i headed back to camp... a nice park with the Thermal ponds within the park grounds.. stocked up on a few goodies at the local pub.. filled up at the local servio ready for tomorrows haul over to Lightning Ridge....

Left Moree bright and early on Monday 20th.... headed across towards Walgett via Collarenabri..

I was tagging along behind The Humptys when i noticed something coming out from under their van....
Turned out to be one very flat kangaroo which had been run over many times before we came across him....
So.. i just straddled a wheel of the EH either side of him and hoped my sump wouldnt give him a kiss on the way over.
Made it passed him safely , then looked up to see Petes Sunliner doing the mambo along the road??.
Left tyre had gone flat...

He pulled over and i pulled up just ahead of him , as did Steve and Julie who where following me.
Wasnt long before we had the sunny up in the air and with the help of Steves Cordless drill we had the flat off and another wheel on the van.. poor old pete had the job of rolling around in the prickly Pears, Bathurst Burrs and all sorts of evil little suckers while retrieving the spare from up under the van.. back on the road and onwards to Collarenabri for a rest and top up the fuel...
Collarenabri looks to be doing it pretty tough...not much happening besides us having a sanga in the rest area down by the bridge.. Wide open spaces across to the T intersection just north of Walgett.. turn right , then on up to Lightning Ridge... The turn off into the Ridge is just passed the giant Emu ..wouldnt want ta ague with this big fella.. stands about 2 teleposts high and has a body made out of a VW beetle...
Just a few kilometres on and we arrive at The Ridge.. our home for the next 3 days...

Reddo

Hello.... i'm back.. Been a few weeks since i topped up on the grab and opal tour.. Lightning Ridge is completely different to what i thought it would be like..
the town is made up of a mix of ranshackle old and big new buildings like the IGA superstore.. Lots of places selling Opals... The Opal den.. The Opal cave... etc.
No suits here..just your average aussies going about the day to day routines....but ya just cant help but feel that there is wealth here. The town has one of the biggest bowling clubs i have ever seen... and that makes sense.. a lot of retirees here in town. People that may have made their fortune out in the diggings or .. simply moved here and still pick up the shovel every now and then to suppliment their pension with opals.???

The Opal Caravan Park is a big , well laid out park and we all scored sites close to the ammenities. Only issue we had on arrival was trying to bang our annexe pegs into the ground. .. harder than JD's forehead !!.. so.. to remedy the problem the management loan out cordless impact drills ... not just pissy little units.. big jobs with 5/8" x 18" long masonry bits... so.. off ya pop... bore the hole.. blow the rocks and dust away before removing auger.. and as quick as you can slot the annexe peg into the hole.. if ya dont do this quick enough ya have to start the process all over again... or.. risk having to beat your monkey tailed tent peg back to shape on your drawbar.

Once the annexe is up, power plugged in , table and chairs in place... you can kick back and relax.. The ground is covered with smooth round rocks about 1" round.. good idea .. you dont trample red dust into the van... bit hard to trample 1" round rocks??... but hard on your feet if ya dont wear shoes or thongs.
A few of us booked the "Chamber of the Black Hand " tour for the following day. We where picked up around 9.30am and headed off out into the diggings to check out this unique tourist attraction...
More soon.

Reddo

Up early the next morning and a short walk in the breaking dawn light down the road to the Community thermal pond for a dip...
Lovely in.. but a bit chilly when you climb out to get dry.. definitley relaxing and it wakes you right up ready for the days activities.. Breakfast over and the tour bus arrives.. off we go on about a half hour run out to the diggings..
Cant believe the amount of mullock mounds ?/.. dirt piles everywhere... looks like the gopher capital of the world... lotsa old trucks and concrete aggies that have been converted into all sorts of mining equipment... old buses , caravans and tin shacks for all levels of accomodation.. signs everywhere warning you to watch out for exposed shafts .. signs advertising water .. or firewood for sale..
The different tours are defined by coloured car doors... turn here for red door tour.. turn here for yellow door tour etc..

We arrive at the top of the "Black Hand " drift/shaft.. A short induction on mines safety .. hard hats on and we are off down the 86 steps to the carvings level of the mine..This is the check in point.. $35 gets ya in and around the carvings .. and a further $10 will get you a guided tour down deeper to check out the workings for the opals.

Everyone is blown away by the work of just one man... carvings in the sandstone everywhere.. old mate ( cant think of his name at the moment) starts out with a pick to rough in the shape and then finishes off with a butter knife.. incredible stuff...
Photos dont do it justice .. you need to go see it all for yourself.. More coming..

still down the mine.. Hundreds and hundreds of hand carved characters.. Rock Bands, Comic Book Characters, Mythical beasts, African animals...
He has painted a lot of his work too... I love cattledogs

Thats it for down the mine..
Tomorrow its old van and car hunting

Reddo

Next day was dedicated to finding a Sunliner that was bought new in the arly sixties by my .. then next door neighbour.. it was his pride and joy .. and i can remember him nutting off at me for hitting a "six stitcher" over the fence and hitting the van on several occassions.
years went by and the van changed hands several times. It even ended up in the same street as Trish and i moved into when we got married back in the mid 80s...It was following me??.
The original owners daughter has kept in contact with me over the eyars.. and when she heard i was staying at lightning Ridge with the old van crew she rang and asked if i could keep an eye open for her dads old van??.... Apparently it had been sold to a bloke who lived in the Ridge..
I didnt promise her anything at the time as i thought the story was just too much of a coincidence...

I mentioned it to Stephen and Julie as well as Humpty Pete and a few others... By the end of the day we had a positive lead on an old sunliner just a few ks out of town. So.. Alan and i took a run out there to check it out...I am glad the old fiend from my early days wasnt with us.. she would have cried when she seen dads old van.. it use to be green... dads pride and joy... We relayed the history to the current owner and he confirmed that an old station hand had bought it fro Newcastle years ago and set ii up at the back of the property to live in. after he moved out it gradually became vandalised.. .. so he dragged it down and put it on the side of the road as you eneter his property. We made enquires as to the possibility of selling it to us... even made an offer ... but he showed little interest in selling.

I sent photos to my friend... via my phone..... she replied with crying emotees.
End of story...

Next day...
We all piled into Dave and Jens.. as well as Humptys 4x4 wagons and headed out to the Opal fields..Its a wild frontier out there.. Thousands of holes .. just scattered all through the scrub with all sorts of contraptions for getting the precious gems up out of the shafts.. old cars, trucks, buses , vans everywhere.
Thier life expectancy shortened dramatically by the condition of the roads out there..But it was a good drive just the same.. playing spotto old trruck.. spotto old car.. First stop was the Vietnam Vets memorial where we got to check out a good collection of stuff in the museum. Apparently a good few of the returned serviceman had made this area home after the war?/
The caretaker showed us a stone he had picked up from a pile of roadbase that morning ... the roadbase was coming from an "Open cut " mine and being used to improve the road past the memorial.. He had picked up the stone from one of the truckloads dumped that morning..?.. Approx value $1400....Well... that caused a stampede as we all headed out and started scratching around the mounds in the middle of the road. from there it was on to "The Sheepy Inn" for a beer Then over to "Glengarry" for lunch.. and then on to "The Club in the Scrub" at Grawin...

The Club in the scrub.. is a bit more formal than the other waterholes.. you actually have to sign in as its a registered club
lotsa memrobilla around the walls.. would like top spend a friday or saturday night there when the entertainment was on ... Can visualise what it would be like with a whole stack of thirsty locals in there !! bumped into a couple of locals on the way home.. back in town we went and checked out "The castle".. all sorts of warning signs around the fence.. but d3efinitely a labour of love this one.. Tonight is our last night in the ridge .. then we set sail for Burren Junction Hot Water Bore tomorrow.
Enjoyed the evenings entertainment put on by 2 ladies in the camp pavillion .. its lots bigger than the camp kitchen.
Reddo