Lightening Ridge to Roma

Total travelled today 420km

Total travelled so far 1,097km

Yesterday we explored Lightning Ridge it was a great day.

Visited the original miners house from the 1930's, which is now the Historical Society base. It is amazing to see how people lived in Lightning Ridge back then and how life was so simple! 

On the same site is also the Bush Nursing building which house a bit of a museum to the Bush Nursing from the area - very interesting.

We then went to Down to Earth Opals so many beautiful opals there that have been turned into jewellery. Whilst there we learned about Opal Doublets and Opal Triplets and may have purchased some items! Australian Opals and Opal Jewellery - Down to Earth Opals

Next stop was next door to The Australian Opal Centre where you can see some samples of fossilised opals and they have a great selection of books, many with a dinosaur theme!  AOC Shop — Australian Opal Centre

Then we headed to the Artesian Baths - this has free entry to the public and is open every day 24 hours except when it is cleaned between 10am-2pm on some days. This was a wonderful experience and we have plans to return because it was so nice!

We then headed to do the Green Car Door Tour, where we travelled to the lookout and the beer can house, seeing the Opal Tree and the Wild Orange tree, it is a dirt road but currently a car could easily drive on it. Our suggestion is that you just check with the information centre on the state of the roads prior to going on them, as in the rain the Green Car Door Tour cannot be done! We followed this by the Yellow Car Door Tour seeing Lunatics Hill and ending up back onto the Highways, travelling back to turn into Lightning Ridge. 

Dinner was at the Lightning Ridge Bowling Club - now here are things you need to know. You MUST be a member to enter...pay 24 hours online before wanting to go as that will mean you can get a plastic card - if you pay $3 membership you can then pay an extra $2 in the club to get a plastic card and this is what you want so that you can get the members price on food and drinks!  The food was very nice we had Chicken Snitzel and Roast Beef with vegetables!

We went back to the accommodation and played a Harry Potter Board game and repacked ready for today's travel!

We had the car packed and fuelled by 9.45am and off we headed towards the border back onto the Castlereagh Highway.

We entered Queensland and went through the town of Hebel and onto Dirranbandi. Here we stopped at the Bakery, it is one of the 11 best bakeries in Queensland according to Qld Tourism Outback Queensland 11 Bakeries Worth Stopping for in Outback Queensland - Outback Queensland 

The pies were fantastic, full of meat and the pastry was not heavy! We also purchased Rocky Road; a type of Vanilla Slice (shaped like an apple turnover but triangular) and some choc chip cookies. We were not disappointed in the slightest - if travelling put this on your must stop list! 

After eating or overeating our fill we headed to Surat which was about 2-21/2 hour drive (forgot to note the time leaving Dirranbandi).

This part of the trip saw us change from the Castlereagh Highway onto the Carnarvon Highway and we are now on the Inland Way. 

On arrival we went to the Cobb & Co Changing Station. This is a wonderful exhibition, curated very well showing the way life was. They also have the last Coach to run in the error which next August will be out of the Museum area and active once more! 

Surat | Cobb and Co Festival 2024

It was also a great stop to get information on places coming up on our trip!

Leaving here we headed for Roma our stop for tonight. Turning on to the Warrego Highway before reaching it. Tonight we are staying at the Mandalay Motel MANDALAY MOTEL | ⋆⋆⋆ | ROMA, AUSTRALIA | SEASON DEALS FROM $94 (queenslandhotelmotel.com) A very comfortable room and lovely staff!