Day 9 - Walgett to Hebel 136 Kms

Another good day with the a tail wind and good air temperature during the ride. Cycle 80 Kms to Lightning Ridge where we became tourists. Cycled for 2 hours 41 Mins at an average of 30 Km per hour.

We visited an underground opal mine which was 20 metres (or 83 steps) underground. The mine has been developed by an ex British Merchant Navy Seaman who has owned the site for many years. His mining activities netted it is said only $20.000 over 15 years. He has since devoted many years to constructing sculptures in is mine below the ground. Thus creating a Tourist attraction which has probably netted him substantially more than his opal mining ever did.

One of hundreds of underground sculptures

The Buddah has been blessed by the Dali Lama

We arrived in Hebel in the late afternoon as there is little there apart from a General Store a Pub and 20 small houses. We stayed at at two bedroom cottage with air conditioning that was barely upto it.The heat was incredible. Fortunately during the night strong cooling winds started to cool the place.  Those winds, good for cooling things down, were not going to be good for the next days cycling

The General Store

The Pub

The Cottage "Jazz"