The road into White Cliffs was good and only about 100KM North of Wilcannia. The town? has sort of two distinct hills ( Smiths and Turleys) rising out of the outback. Again everything is greener than usual. We set up in the caravan park which is quite barren but has facilities. We had lunch before heading into town to tour some of the sites. We stopped at the National Parks office before touring Otto's Photography Dugout. Beautiful photos from around the area and around Australia. Not the most friendly person but has some beautiful work on display.
Next stops were two of the local Opal Shops/Dugouts. First stop was Southern Cross Opals and second was the Cathedral. Both were run by interesting and unique individuals who are following their dreams. Most of the homes/dugouts are very basic with a collection of junk out front. However we did find a couple of places that were more upmarket at least by White Cliffs style. We returned to the caravan park for afternoon drinks and tea. Very hot day!
After a very hot night we took the Ransleys on a drive out to Parloo Darling National Park. This is a very new National Park and the road out to it was very rough and rocky with rather poor signage. We crossed a few river beds before finally arriving at Peery Lake which is an overflow from the Darling River system. Needless to say it was quite full of water and was hosting a wide number of water fowl. Quite impressive in the middle of the outback. We got some good pictures and saw quite a bit of wildlife on the return trip.
We toured the Opal Fields adjoining the caravan park after lunch before touring a couple more Opal Shops. There are hundreds/thousands of mounds from old Opal digs. You are free to fossick amongst them for Opals if you so choose. It appears to have been a very hard life with little reward for many of the miners. Apparently up to 400 people come in the winter months ( spending 3-4 months) to fossick through the mounds or mine their own claims.
The first Opal shop we toured was Joe's Stubby Shack which is constructed of beer bottles. The second was Red Opal Cafe which was a very nicely laid out shop and cafe. Apparently they have done well with the Opals although I suspect they will do better with the cafe.
Our last visit in the afternoon was to an old miner called Jock's Place. This was an unbelievable experience. He is the antithesis of the Opal Miners we had met. He said they were all liars and that no one had really made a fortune mining Opals. Any money they made was spent, plus more, chasing their dreams. He was a real character, coarse but funny! We really enjoyed his rambling description of White Cliffs and its history. We then had a tour of his mine/dugout/storage tunnels. One of the best collections of historic memorabilia although it could definitely be displayed better. One wonders if he has any idea of the treasures he has down there. We also found a couple of lizards and a brown snake. I followed a couple of dark passageways with the flash on my camera. Loads of more junk/treasures in boxes back there. The girls were in their glory checking out the old stuff. We said our goodbyes to Jock as he was entertaining another group of tourists and headed back to the caravan park. Check out his sign below!
Luckily we put up the awnings etc for our trip tomorrow as the wind blew like crazy all night. I really enjoyed our short visit to White Cliffs. I could have spent longer as the people that live there are a unique breed all following their dreams. I don't think any of us could really say we were overcome with the Opal dream but what a great place for a visit.
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