After another long drive we arrived at Black Opal Country, Lightning Ridge.

On our first full day we went to the Opal Museum where we learned a lot about the beautiful fossilised Opal made from plants and creatures that lived millions of years ago. We also booked tickets to “Spark”, an outdoor movie about Lightning Ridge which was very interesting. After the Opal Museum  we headed to “Kangaroo Hill” run by a kind old lady who recounted her stories of her life in Lightning Ridge running an animal rescue sanctuary.  Her other interesting stories included one about her grandmother and why she was married in a black dress! It was great, funny and again very interesting. We spent a few hours at Kangaroo Hill, went for dinner which we rated as the worst Chinese ever, then to watch “Spark” with a hot cup of Milo.

The next day we went to an Opal mine for a self guided tour but we didn’t last long in the small, carved, underground tunnels and emerged from them again to fossick for small pieces of Opal and …. Lilah was amazing at finding specks of Opal in rock – she would literally walk along and say “here’s one” then “I found another” while I could only find 2 in the whole time we were there. When it was time for lunch we went to Bruno’s pizza which was a deliscous Italian restaurant.  In fact it was so good and we loved it so much we went back for dinner. A delicious meal to end our stay at Lightning Ridge.

Also, literally a minute from where we were staying,  were natural hot springs. At 41° it was a very quick dip. Several quick dips  in fact with a cool off in between under a cold shower. It would be great to have one in the Canberra winter!