Typical street scene, Lightning Ridge

But not a typical car in these parts. Most are SUVs or 4 Wheel Drives to pull caravans which seem to equal the number of cars in the place.  

Lightning ridge has an unknown population. Many people have a claim 50 x 50m and camp in very basic accommodation while they are mining, mainly during the winter months. The rest of the population is permanent including shop keepers or those running the usual amenities like health centre and council. I have included some old buildings and more upmarket Opal shops in extras. I went into this shop and without looking at the prices found one I liked. It was the second most expensive in the shop at $29,000. The $35,000 one was smaller but with some fiery red colour and I loved it too. 

We went to an art gallery and Bob really liked the ( yet again eccentric) art work by John Murray. I preferred some photography done by his wife. We couldn’t take photos inside unfortunately and the ones we liked best were about $20,000 and too big to transport home even in the caravan. Oh well next time. 

We had some vouchers from the state government to encourage people to spend money on food or entertainment as a Covid initiative. We had lunch today and it only cost $3 with the voucher.  Yesterday we got $50 off our bus trip. They need to be used by the end of June in our home state. As we are crossing into Queensland tomorrow only have today to use them all up. Some government schemes are good value and do encourage people to do things they usually wouldn’t bother doing. 

We had rain overnight and now it’s a bit muddy in parts. I’m glad we had our trip out to the Opal fields yesterday.