Travelling North May-July 2010 Part 2

At Lightning Ridge we found a nice free camp at a rest area about 10klms from town. After setting up camp we drove in to town for a look see and found the publicbaths. I was able to have a swim in the very hot water but Lynn still had ulcers on his leg that weren't quite healed so he had to just watch everyone having a nice warm swim.

 it was too hot to stay on for long

 The surrounding area was full of mine shafts and diggings but there was also a lot of vegetation unlike around  Coober Pedy.  One of the last things we did before leaving town was visit the Lookout.

The Lookout

We passed  2 of these set ups, one going north and one going south . These belong to contractors who have been working in the district  on the cotton..
On the drive north from Lightning Ridge we started to pass what looked like cotton that had blown of a truck where it had been used for packing. However we later realised that it had blown of the cotton trucks that were taking it to be sent by rail to the mills. We didn't realise this for a while as we were passing lots of freshly tilled paddocks with no crops of course and we didn't know we were in cotton country till we got to St George where on a visit to the local information centre there was a display and lots of information on cotton.
 We just couldn't understand why there was cotton on the sides of the road for kilometer after kilometer.We first noticed it on the way to Hebel and then it kept cropping up.
 At St George we had lunch by the Balonne river  before heading out to the Beardmore Dam and finding a nice quiet camping spot on the river bank. Our only interuption was the local farmer came down to turn his pump on to get some water.

Beardmore Dam wall.

 We went for a drive down to the dam itself just prior to heading  further north. We felt that this particular dam wasn't very spectatcular just functional. the surrounding picninc areas were alright wiht lots of tables etc but no toilets were functioning .