29th Sept, Sapphire, A little fossicking does yer good

OK, we've been on some sites where the morning chorus from the birds has been a bit noisy. This must equate with waking up in football field with a cup final in full swing. I think every type of bird in Australia, lives on this mountain top, Cockatoo's, kookaburra's, parrakeet's, you name it, its here and making sure every living thing in a twenty mile radius is awake. Even a few dead things get up.

Well, a full breakfast is soon cooked and polished off...... (ain't losing no weight out here). We're off fossicking today. Now for those who don't know, fossicking is much like panning for gold, only instead of gold, yer looking for gems and in this case Sapphire's. Well, you can hope cant ya. So off we go down to 'Armfest' to earn our fortune, Anyway, after showing us how its down, we part with twenty bucks for a bucket of dirt, (I never thought I'd ever, ever say that ), do the sieving thing, then do the washing thing. Finally our nice clean stones are on the sorting table. That's one, we're rich, "Na, pet rock",  oh bugger. Theres one, now we're rich, s*@t, its quartz, still not rich, this ain't working out. Hang on, whats that? that's one and that's one, cor, and that's one, hang on mate, cop another twenty and lets have another one of them buckets. Forty bucks lighter and two buckets later, we have a hand full of shiny little stones. We get them looked over and well what do you know? one or two might be worth getting cut, Not a fortune, but what the hell, a bit of fun and we get to keep a sparkly thing. Lin wants to go into town and get a drop of juice, no problem, off we go, hey, while we're here how bout seeing how much to get the sparkly things cut???. (I should have known). In we go and check it out. Well what da ya know, got one about 0.5 of a carat after polishing, so we leave it there to be cut and ready for tomorrow. Great. and we leave with a smile ...
Back at the camp site and its starting to get a little over cast, still its been a good day and the prospect of picking up our little chunk of OZ tomorrow, still hangs in the air. We do a light tea (yea, right) then have a go at skyping the kids, Billee seems to be the only one we can get hold of (poor sod) and we catch up on all the stuff thats been happening while we've been out of signal range, well, at least the stuff she wants us to know. No sooner we say bye to Billee, Rows comes on, so Lin and Row go at it for a while, well, Lins jaw and my ears get sore, so its time to go, bugger me, ten minuits later, the heavens open up and chucks it down for the rest of the night. Im sure that old bat can work voodoo accross the internet.
Right, thats yer lot, gotta type up todays (sundays) bloggy thing.

One of the statues on the site....

More site piccies...

 These little chaps come onto the site to feed at about 4.30pm everyday...

Our home........

The forest behind the tent...

John finds some new friends... these are Lorakeets...

Just liked this poster, as it reminded me of Billee...

Off the site and on to Fossick!!!!

Some of the local mining homes....

and some of the local residents (lol), these have right of way as do all the local horses...

Here we are driving through Sapphire...

and this is where we are going to Fossick....(mine for Sapphires to you lot !!!!)

This fella and his parents run this local mine and fossick centre...and this is a baby joey the mum rescued and boy was he lively...

John makes a start on finding our fortune...go on John you fossick!!!!

and he's off......

The son checks our treasure...

SO off we go to the Stone cutters (Old Mick)   as we have found a party sapphire.... we will let you know the outcome tomorrow once its been cut and polished...and then valued...

28th Sept, Barcaldine to Aniake, no, Emerald, sod it Sapphire

So we leave the comfort of our "self contained unit" (had to drag Lin out) and back on the road. The weathers still nice and cool and even the bouncy, twisty road cant put a damper on things. The roads seems to have narrowed even more, which make it feel like we're doing 110kmh down a long side road. Sixty two wheeled and fifty three meter long road trains (yea I know, Sad git for counting the wheels) are still coming at us like they own the road, (Hey, who's gonna argue).

We're heading for Aniake, today right on the edge of the gem fields, thought we'd plant ourselves here and use it as a base for a couple of days. Aniake should only be a short run, bout three hundred K's or so, anyway, we stop off at Jericho to top us and the bike up, nip into a shop with a pump on the curb. "no fuel here luv, better grub in Alpha", cant argue with that, so back on the bike and off to Alpha. Fifty odd k further on, we pull into Alpha and I gotta say, the homemade pasty was so good, I had two. Lin wanted a cheese roll but they don't do filled rolls. When Lin wants cheese roll, theres no stopping her, so she buys the roll and trots off to the local general store for a bit of cheese. Believe me, she ain't happy at the cost, $7 for a bit of cheese, Still she got her roll, in fact, she went in for two more, Bloody good grub in Alpha. Full bike, full tums and we're on our way.

Its not long before we're pulling into Aniake, not the largest town we've been in, in fact theres the pub and the caravan site and that's it. No messing, straight into the pub for a thirst quencher, Lin gets talking to the barmaid and the next thing yer know, we're off into Emerald (another 44k) and gonna use that as a base. So 30mins later, we're in Emerald information centre. "where's the best camp site round here ?", " Oh that would be Sapphire, bout 50k back the way we came". Right, F*@k it, stock up on supplies at the local super market and its back the way we came. (game and half this).
We finally make it to the site. Its all been worth. The site really is the nuts. The camp kitchen is like something from home. full set of matching crockery, cutlery, pots pans, really clean and tidy. The site is just stunning, set on the top of a mountain and in woodland, Roo's, parakeets all around. Yep, got to say getting here was worth it.
Right, off to bed, gonna do a bit of fossicking tomorrow.

Love you all and Lin really Miss's her weekly chats to Dot & Pete and coffee with Row.  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILLEE-JEAN xxx Have a lovely, lovely day, we love you loads xxxx

Here we are on the road again and its still early morning....

On and on and round and round and then theres the up and the down....and the in and out of the hole in the roads....

This is Aniake.... well as we said its the pub and the caravan site and thats Anaike....
Mind you they serve a bloody refreshing lemonade top and cider here...

This is the new art theme displayed in Emerald... mainly a mining town but has lots of new arty stuff and buildings going on...

More Emerald...

Here we go into the site its called 'Sapphire'...(the same as the towns
name).... So all in one day we have been to Anaike, Emerald and Sapphire...how cool is that ????

Can you see the wallaby, he's come for his tea...

Home for the next few days...

A room with a view and a table !!!!! lol  How fab is this. We are staying on a mountain top, with natural forrest all around....

We've booked in for three nights but may well stay longer....its just so ideal....

27th Sept Winton to Longreach to Barcaldine

Up and out early, Who wants to have a lay in here?

Back on the road and its back to the boing, boing, slap, slap. No whack co's Lin says she understands whats happening, Huh! I recon she's just hurt her hand.

We've got a short run today, just a couple of hours, so we stop off at Longreach for a couple of hours. What a nice town, clean, friendly and plenty to see and do. It's still only 10.30 so decide on a bit of breakfast. Never had stew for breakfast before, but then again, never driven round Australia before either.

Fed, watered and the bike juiced, its off once again. Another hour and we arrive just as the heat of the day starts to take its toll. Straight into the local pub and down a couple of the local brew,(just to cool down you understand).  Right, off to find somewere to stay, someone recomends The country hotel, so in we go. Oh boy! this makes up for lastnight. Got the full works, TV, fridge, clean bed, kettle, tea coffee, milk and clean, fully working shower. There really is a God.

We settle in, shower and shave (well at least I do the shaving). I spend the next couple of hours getting bloged, Lin decides the TV needs a good seeing to (catching up on the benny hill show).
Tummy rumbles finally tell us its time for a refill, (yes, again) so off we go and wander back along the main street. After eating our fill at the local dinnery, we check out what there is of the town. Like so many of the outback towns out here, Not much, but there was the tree of knowledge and it looked really cool all lit up, mind you, it did remind me a little of the worlds largest windchime.

So..... another day done and I'm off to rest me sore bits (use your imagination) love you all  xxx

On the road again, busy as usual.... NOT

Here we are at Longreach, we stopped off here for a couple of hours rest, well worth it...

John and the Tackle!

Brekkie yum yum...

This was all part of the brekkie place...

Can you flippin believe he is eating beef stew for breakfast.. its about 10.30am...???

Shhush...... dont wake him, hard nite !!!!

Fireman Sam.... NOT..

More fire engines in Longreach..

 The town centre.. lovely...

And it was the home of Quantas airlines...

More old tractors, Australia is full of old tractors!!!!

Ahhh here we are in Barcladine, this hotel was lovely and only $60 for the nite...

This lady was in the local quilt shop... had to take her piccie... Kouy get making lol....

Now I think our hats can tell you a bit about the week we have just had !!!!! lol...

Think we will have this one john....??? John?????

The tree of knowledge... this was brilliant and very clever, the piccies dont really do it justice...

Well another day over, so much seen and so much still to see... so its off to bed and good night, sleep tight you lot... oh and dont forget we are now 9 HOURS ahead of you, yes ahead.....