7-day Lightening Ridge Trip Traveling with Coolum Tours & Travel
It was a wet Tuesday morning as we all loaded up the coach and headed on our way up the highway through Toowoomba to Jimbour House. Thankfully, it had stopped raining by now and we had lovely weather for the rest of the trip. Here we did a tour of this beautiful house with its many bedrooms and sitting rooms. We enjoyed a lovely lunch on the verandah afterwards. The afternoon we spent driving and enjoyed a magnificent sunset as we arrived in Roma.
The old saying, a picture says a thousand words.
Next morning, we did a tour of Roma, saw the cattle yards and the Big Rig oil drilling museum and tour. After lunch in town, we headed towards Surat where we checked out the Cobb and Co Changing Station then off to St George for the night.
In St George we enjoyed an informative tour of a cotton farm and learnt about the machinery and cotton farming before heading off to The Anchorge Homestead for morning tea and a tour of the house. It was built back in 1903 by Arthur Bennet and is now heritage-listed. We then made our way to the Riversands Wines for wine tasting followed by lunch.
The afternoon saw us travelling through Dirranbandi and Hebel before arriving at Lightening Ridge for our 3-night stay. Dinner each night was across the road at the Lightening Ridge District Bowling Club.
Our first day in Lightening Ridge was a walk down a mine to see how the opals are mined and to know what if feels like underground. We then visited the Down to Earth Opals shop where a few of us managed to acquire some nice jewelry and learnt how they cut the opals from the rock. The afternoon was spent having lunch and discovering the town ship and meeting the locals.
A new day saw us going out to the Opal fields west of the town, the first field was called The Grawin Opal fields where we stopped for morning tea at The Sheepyard Inn. We then travelled to Glengarry Opal Fields and had lunch at Glengarry Hotel in the middle of nowhere. Some of us tried a little fossicking in the rubble. Afternoon drinks were enjoyed at the Club in the Scrub before heading back to visit the chambers of the Black Hand. Not an Opal mine but instead an underground museum of carvings done within the walls of the underground mine. Venture 12m underground down 80 odd steps for a truly immersive art experience viewing 900 sculptures hand carved into the sandstone walls. You will be amazed by the detail and variety of artist Ron Canlin’s sculptures as you make your way through all 26 Chambers. On the trip home we stopped to admire Stanley the Emu sculpture made from car parts and satellite dishes.
After breakfast and a quick tour of the Sunday markets we made our way to Glenn Innis, stopping at Moree for lunch and a lovely dinner waiting for us beside the lovely warm fire.
After a very cold start we headed home via Tenterfield, stopping for lunch at Warwick and arriving back in Redcliffe late afternoon.
Great time had by all and big thank you to Paul from Coolum Tours & Travel for organizing it all and travelling in his new coach.
