Day 22, Thursday 12/07/2012, Bourke to Lightning Ridge

I awoke at 6am to go to the bathroom and could see lightning to the south and clouds closing in from the north. Col and I decided to wake everyone up early as we thought they would prefer to pack up now rather than when the weather closed in.

It absolutely bucketed down while we were at the bakery in Bourke, with flash flooding in the streets. We didn’t end up leaving Bourke until 9:30am, so lucky we started so early.

At Brewarrina the Darling and Barwon Rivers flow through what is thought to be the oldest manmade structure on earth!! They are estimated to be about 40 000 years old and still work today! They’re not much to look at but you can’t just pass by such an amazing anthropological artefact. There are some great educational signs along the pathway now that explain it all well.

Peter and Anthea have decided to head back to Tamworth today and will part ways at Walgett. This wasn’t much of a surprise with the ongoing rain and mud. What was a surprise though, was that Bruce took this opportunity to bail also. We were a little shocked considering his previous excitement at visiting Lightning Ridge.

We made sandwiches in a park at Walgett, and then parted ways with Freemans and Williams. It will be sad not to have our big group farewell dinner at Tamworth.

Pockrans and Parkes are off to Lightning Ridge now. Michael is crying at the parting of our group which I think reflects how everyone is feeling. It’s hard parting ways when we’ve lived together and relied on each other for the past month. I miss them already!

It was a quick 1hr drive north from Walgett to Lightning Ridge with a huge emu polulation along the way. Lightning Ridge is larger than I expected. We found the new “Opal Caravan Park” that was recommended to us by other travellers at Bourke. It is very clean with good facilities and just far enough out of town to feel a bit safer. Best of all though, was that it was straight across the road from the 42 to 46°C thermal pool.

There was one cabin left which we booked (given the adverse weather). We didn’t really like the thought of swags with flash flooding. Lisa and Stuart had a bed each and the 4 kids shared a couple of beds (bunk) while Col and I slept in our roof top tent in the cabin driveway.

First on the agenda of course was a soak in the artesian spring. It was overcast but not raining. It was a short walk across the road from our cabin. So hot and relaxing but you weren’t able to stay in too long as you’d quickly overheat.

Then it was back to the cabin for showers and a glass of wine on the deck. Cheers to mum who just announced her retirement! Woohoo!

It was a lovely relaxed and scrumptious dinner in town. We went to Bruno’s Pizza and totally stuffed ourselves with food and wine, then headed back to the cabin for a coffee before retiring to bed.