Thursday - Day Nine - Dubbo to The Ridge

Did someone say hot? We could not believe how hot it was today - and yes, the bitumen was melting when we stopped for lunch in Walgett, home of the water tower with Jimmy little's likeness.

Yes, we have left Dubbo behind us and are on our way to Lightning Ridge (aka The Ridge) - home to numerous attractions including opal fossicking and mining, The Chamber of the Black Hand , the (four) car door tours and so on, but we're here for the Predator and Alien statues.  But more of that tomorrow. 

One of the problems with travelling in 40 plus degrees heat is that it is hard to make yourself get out of the car - to do anything really, even taking photographs, or going from Ravi to a cafe to have lunch.  And that's important because there's sometimes not that big a choice of places to eat.  The cafe in Walgett was just closing when we got there - it seemed early but we now know that lots of country cafes do close early.  They were kind enough to make us sandwiches and let us sit in the cafe to have our lunch.  The only other one there was a lovely Christmas Tree complete with very large beautifully wrapped presents. We resisted the urge to pick them up and shake them to see what was in them.  

Coonabarabran - silo art

 

Gilgandra - tourist information centre - and map

Never know where we're going to end up.

We are staying in a two-bedroom cabin at the Big 4 Caravan Park and it's very nice and certainly spacious enough for us and our luggage which has its own room.  I've still managed to spread heaps of gear around the living area though including the slab of bottled water we picked up as we left Dubbo - because our mate Jo told us to:  do not drink the watch in Lightning Ridge!  It's been good to have the bottles especially given how hot it is.  We've just been throwing them into the (excellent) freezer and part-freezing them.  It takes a couple of hours and they are perfectly iced - and with some ice in them as well.  Perfect, especially as, try as hard as it might (is it something we're doing?) the air-conditioner doesn't seem to be coping, even though we've closed off the rooms we've not using.

Mural at Gilgandra Museum

 

Water tank - Walgett - Jimmy Little.

The good news is that we did pack Sooz's neck fan and she says it works very well.  We haven't unpacked the portable fan from Ravi yet but it's there if we need it.  Hopefully it won't just come for the ride like it did on the Hughenden trip.

Pretty big bird on the highway on the way to Lightning Ridge.

On the way back from dinner at the "Bowlo" last right we saw a house that had truly been given over to Christmas lighting.  It was the only one we saw but we may go hunting for more tomorrow night.