Hunting for Opals in Outback Australia

I want to share with you a tour of the Aussie outback looking to buy some of those beautiful little gems, OPALS!

We went to Yowah, Koroit and finished in Lightning Ridge. I thought I would share with you what I saw when I went out there.

First stop, Yowah. After driving 12 hours we finally arrived at this cute little town. There is not much to it, but the locals are very friendly. Everywhere you look is opal opal opal. This region is famous for Boulder Opal. Actually it is famous for a very particular type of Boulder Opal called a Yowah Nut.

Hazards on the way to Yowah

Middle of town

Waiting for us

Finally arrive at Yowah

 

 

 

Yowah has a bore to the Artesian basin:

The water from this bore is connected to taps at these outdoor baths. There is no roof, so you just fill it up, relax and look the stars. The stars out there look amazing and so bright. No light pollution at all

The next day, we went looking for Opal. First off, fossiking:

But seriously, lets get the big boys toys and have some fun.

See all the Yowah nuts???

You beauty!! Found some Opal

All these nuts contained no colour. So much work to find that 1 stone with colour:

Time for lunch. The only shop in town and it is not open very long. Dinner is going to be a struggle haha

Check out the size of the Yowah nut I am sitting on. I wonder if that little puppy has any colour in it

Finally we say goodbye to Yowah and nature gives us an awesome goodbye. Red soil, red skye. Beautiful:

Next stop: Koroit. Now Koroit is even smaller than Yowah. I went to visit a german mining friend out there. She showed us around and then showed us some gorgeous stones she has in her collection.
Tell me this picture isn’t spectacular. Australia is such a beautiful country. imagine the first settlers coming over the rise and seeing open flat plains like this

Koroit red dirt

Next stop: Lightning Ridge. It was great to go out there and see my brother. He still mines at Lightning idge and has found some beautiful opals.
Mine entrance. This is a tourist mine, but look how different the soil and the land is from Koroit and Yowah

See the opal???

A proper mine site (not a tourist site)

This is an open cut mine in Lightning Ridge. You can’t open cut anymore, but if you look closley at where the sandstone meets the opal clay, you can see an old timers mine that is now covered in dirt

Now for some fun stuff. The Ridge is full of interesting people. On of the guys out there decided when he got tired of mining, that he would carve shapes into the sandstone. So picture this, 45 feet under ground and look what we found:

Other funnies in the Ridge:

So that was my trip. A week of fun hunting Opals with my Dad and a whole lot of interesting people. I hope you enjoy the pictures.