It
didn't seem so cold this morning, so we had no problem getting out of bed.
After a good look around the town yesterday, we decided that one night was
enough for St George so after breakfast we packed up and left at 8:45am.
About
100km down the road, at Dirranbandi, we treated (well we thought it would be a
treat) ourselves to mornos at the Green Frog Cafe and Bakery. There was lots of
sweet stuff, but we decided to have a sausage roll and a coffee. The coffee was
from a push-button machine with artificial milk and tasted like dirty
dishwasher with a hint of coffee. The sausage rolls were ok, but nothing to
write home about. Maybe we should have had a vanilla slice with coffee in the
van. However it did allow us a break from the road and a leg stretch.
Saw
a few emus, not as many dead roos as yesterday, and a great variety of
landscapes. Hebel was the only other town along the rather good A55 highway.
Hebel had a quirky pub and an interesting cafe/store.
We pulled into the Opal Caravan Park just in
time to set up and then have lunch. What a great park, huge drive-through
sites, smooth red and white gravel everywhere and modern, clean facilities.
Caravan parks have certainly lifted their game over the past 20 years to cater
for the cashed-up grey nomads.
After lunch and a short rest we tracked down one of Wendy's old colleagues from 1 & 2 Fd Hospitals, Eddie Bradshaw, who just happened to be staying in the same van park: there are no secrets with Facebook. Then Greg went on his bike, while Wendy did some Army stuff online. Greg did a quick recce of the town and picked up a couple of things at IGA. There are lots of closed down shops, particularly those which used to sell opals, but Lightning Ridge is an interesting place nevertheless.
At 5:30pm we wandered down to The Pavilion in
the van park with our chairs and beer where we were entertained by Mel an
Aussie bush poet. We had seen her and the other half of a duo, Susie, at
Appletree Creek a few years ago. The spiels were the same, but
different. After a nice home cooked steak/lamb chop and veggies it was an
early night.
