It rained all night and we woke up to most of the caravan park flooded. The poor people in tents were gone by the time we got up as they were where the puddles were. I was worried we would miss out on the Chambers of the Black Hand with many roads flooded so we rang ahead and it was still open. We did drive through a couple of flooded roads to get there but there were also a fair few other people there that made the effort too.



It was a great place to visit. The carvings were done by one man who decided to try something new when he didn't get much opal from his mine. I think he only found about $20 000 worth. We heard stories of how one person would find thousands of dollars of opal which sounds great until you hear that the guy on the next lease over finds millions of dollars worth of opal. There are also many instances of miners using tools like jackhammers or picks only to accidentally shatter an opal, making it almost worthless when it could have given them great returns.




Our tour guide Dave personally found an opal that he sold for $50 000. This was sold to a buyer in Sydney who then sold it on again to a jeweller and then it was valued at over $200 000! Opals can be worth more than diamonds and many people who live here have caught the bug for it whilst visiting the area and now call this place home. The tour is well worth the money with plenty of time to look around and also for an extra $5 they give a mine tour which is interesting and well done. Dave, the tour guide and Trevor, the manager were both great and looked after the boys well. When the kids we given some potch (opal that has no colour) Liam shoved it straight into his mouth. I had to have him spit out the 3 pieces of rock. He was disappointed as he had been whinging to eat for the last 10 minutes!




We had planned on going to the cactus gardens and also that water park today but with the constant rain, flooding and coldness, we didn't do these.

After lunch we went to the John Murray gallery. We loved his artwork and would love to buy some of his big canvas paintings but instead settled for a couple of smaller prints.

We then went to the bore baths again and even though it was raining there were still as many people there as if it wasn't. The last 18 hours of rain had cooled down the baths quite a lot. They were no longer hot so we all went in the big one which was previously too hot for the kids.

We then spent the afternoon inside the camper as it was still raining, still flooded and it was quite cold ( a jumper probably isn't seen out here too often at this time of year but it was today).