Lightning Ridge

On Friday (1-9-09) we drove up to Lightning Ridge to see and visit the Black Opal Mines. It is the only place in the world they are found. It is a little hole on the road or I should say lots and lots of little holes all over the place. People come and place a claim and start digging and live there life under ground, digging and looking. They build shacks to live in (like right across the border into Mexico) and spend their life there. It is a rare person who finds anything to make them well off let alone rich. It sure is not my style of living. We did a mine tour and watched a video after words down in the mine (it was cool down there) very nice on a hot day.

Black Opals come in three ranges Wholes, Doublets and Triplets. The wholes are all natural, doublets they put a black slice on the back and a triplets they slice very thin and put two backings on them. Who would have known? I never knew I wanted to know all about Opals but now I know. And now you know!