The wind came up this morning and with a little concern that the awning may not be anchored as well as we would like given the hard ground, we packed it away but left everything else outside. Unfortunately as it turned out - the wind died down again but at least we could go out confident that we wouldn't return to a disaster.
After letting Miss Kitty have a big sleep-in this morning - yes you read it right - well she is part of the family and she has been missing her beauty sleep with all our travel days lately...... Anyway we headed out to take a look around some of the local landmarks and points of interest. Lightning Ridge has what they refer to as "car door tours". The information centre gives you a map and you just follow the painted car doors for local points of interest. There are 4 car door tours you can do - we did three and saw some interesting sights along the way.
There are certainly some unique "homes" around the mining sites and in town.
This one made out of stone and bottles.
The Ridge Castle.
And then there is Amigo's Castle which quite frankly is pretty amazing and drew a few similarities with Paronella Park in terms of the "dreams come true" stories. Vittorio Stefanato, known locally as “Amigo”, commenced the project in 1985 when he started getting tired of opal mining (read here not finding any opals). Initially he sourced his stone from his mining lease but soon travelled to areas around Lightning Ridge as his castle grew in size. Apparently the only thing he actually paid for to build the castle was the bags of cement he used to secure the stones which he hand mixed in wheelbarrows on the property. It's quite a complex and I'm glad we decided to pay the $10 entry for the two of us to have a look through. I'm a little sad we didn't get to meet Amigo as he clearly has a sense of humour we could both relate to.
A little further down the road was the church built entirely from corrugated iron.
The "dunny" is barely standing - aided by guy wires.
The road in to Lightning Ridge from the Castlereagh Highway makes it feel like you are entering a cattle station rather than a town.
An old mining cottage "Coopers Cottage" built in 1916 still stands in the township.
Loved these two murals on buildings in the town centre although you have to wonder with the words "Please don't park in front of mural" on the wall and who should be parked right next to it but the butcher on whose wall the mural is painted...........
And another mural by John Murray who also has a gallery in town with his work which is just amazing. I purchased a couple of prints to take home and just love his whimsical style of work. http://johnmurrayart.com.au/
Another day down - not bad for Friday 13th and a full moon.
43km
Total - 12,278km
Top today 28°c - expecting overnight 9°c
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