Ten years later we returned to Lightning Ridge to spend some days with Francisco and Lyn. They no longer live there full time but still have the house and mine but now use it as holiday place.
In the ten years since our last visit, Lightning Ridge did not change much. There are more shops and restaurants in town and we felt that the population lost a bit of the character that makes Australians from the Outback so special.
This time I had a better camera and therefore the photos are of better quality. I love the colorful lifestyle of Lightning Ridge and the way they see the world.
They converted an old mine into a art galery with some very good rock carvings. We also visited the thermal swiming pools which he did not see in the last visit.
Unfortunately we did not have time to spend some time fossicking for opals in Francisco's mine but we visited one of his friends mine.
Hope you liked the photographs.
Cousins
The last time we almost crossed the state of New South Wales from north to south. This time we travelled east to west from Brisbane which made it a shorter but not less interesting 740 km trip.
Most of the times we used the two highways that link Brisbane to Melbourne: the Newell and the New England. These highways are the prefered route for the trucks going to Sydney and Melbourne and therefore we need to be alert all the times because there are some BIG rigs on the road.
These set of photos show Lightning Ridge 10 years after our first visit. As you see the town is very much the same with a couple of new aditions in terms of restaurants and shops. There is also a art gallery built in one of the old mines.
As we did not have time to to go fossicking for opals in Francisco's mine we visited one of his friends mine.
A new Art Gallery opened in Lighning Ridge using an old opal mine. The visit is very interesting and the rock carvings first class.
Such a great Cactus Garden in the middle of hoop-hoop never ceased to amase us. The garden was better presented this time and probably due to the season and better camera the cactus looked better.
