Friday, 23 August 2019

Friday 23 August 2019 – Lightning Ridge

Set off just after 8 this morning and boy the traffic. Just chaotic. We drove from Nyngan to Walgett in just under 3 hours and passed 10 vehicles who were travelling back south.  After filling up with fuel we continued on to Lighntning Ridge and set up in the caravan park. After a late lunch we went down to the Information Centre and picked up the maps for the car door tours. We completed the red, blue and yellow tours. They are just three different tracks that you follow and come across old car doors painted the appropriate colour with a number on them that corresponds to your map. You essentially drive through the mining sites with old tin shacks or old caravans to live in. The area is so derelict. No electricity and they have to come into town to collect water.   No way I could live there!  Some of the points of interest were :-

  1. Various old rusted mining machinery scattered over the dirt;
  2. Corrugated Iron Church purpose built for the film “Goddess of 1967” (never heard of it myself);
  3. Ridge Castle made from stone and flagons;
  4. Amigo’s Castle, a private home single handedly built from Ironstone. Started in 1981 the scaffolding consisted of 44 gallon drums, with planks arranged one above the other;
  5. Bottle House, a house made from bricks and bottles;
  6. Bevan’s Cactus Nursery has 2300 species. Largest collection of cacti in the Southern Hemisphere.

They were the main attractions and driving over the dirt road to view them took us a couple of hours.

Back to the van for a quiet evening after being in the car for the last two days.


Amigo's Castle

Iron Church




Mining Claims




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