2nd Oct, Emerald,Lazy days and the fossick glaze

Theres really no reason to rush and get up, the suns shining and Lin and me are all warm and cozy snuggled up in bed (and the first one up, makes the tea). Theres lots of noise going on outside, but that's not uncommon, lots of people really take this fossicking thing seriously and are up and out at the crack of dawn, heading for secret little holes the've been digging in the hillside. This place is like a rabbit warren with all the holes. If ever I commit murder, this is were I'd bury the body, I could walk out into any field and in plain sight, dig a hole and as long as no one saw me drop the body in, no one would take a blind bit of notice. (hope this don't give Lin any ideas. (I've already seen her checking out the shovels). Up at last, (I won, Lin made the tea) and after a very nice full English breakfast, it a quick shower and into Ruby vale, cos we're gonna have a go at the mine tour. This was a working Mine, but its been shut so they can take money off us tourists for having a look round.  I think they found that easier than all that digging. I must admit, it was really quite interesting, we got the special about how the mine was dug, where the sapphires can be found and we even got to look up an air shaft, didn't like that bit, its much like looking UP a 'long drop' and I half expected to see an arse suddenly block out the light. Before I did look up, I made sure I knew where Lin was. Got a wicked sense of humour that girl.

Tour over and as luck would have it, the've got a fossicking park. At twenty bucks a pop, I'm beginning to understand why they closed the mine. Oh well, you only live once and yer never know. Lin's got this game well sussed. I do all the sieving, shaking and washing and she checks it to see if we got any of the shiny stuff. Its good to work as a team, still, if anything sparkles, a woman can see it at twenty paces. We didn't do to bad and it looks like we got a couple of bits that will cut up nice.

Right, job done and its off to 'Pats Gems' for a late lunch. I think I got 'had' here. Lin orders wedges with sour cream and chilli dip, and very nice they were to. I ordered the special, minced beef, onions and gravy in a roll, what did I get?, a sodding hamburger. OK, got me!! wont get had on that one again. (tasty though).

Now this is called Pats Gems for a reason, they sell gems.... and guess what the've got out back?, seems like every where you go, theres a fossicking park and yea, its got us, so we pay the money and have a go. Again we do all right and come out with a couple of nice little cutters. (Sod this, I'm even getting the lingo, we gotta get out of here.....). Looks like Old Mick, the cutter is gonna get a visit from us tomorrow, well that is... if we don't have to pass any fossicking parks.    

So here come the piccies...

Naughty Dottie tries put her latest yoga pose.......(this ones for Kouy)

Miners in the woods, they just park, set up and dig....

and more...

No John we atre not buying a bloody mining rig....

Nothing left up there.... (wishful thinking!)

Down the mine...

Dig, dig and dig some more...

John meets Geoff.....hahahaha...

The view down a mine shaft..

The view up an air vent (if you dont know, a long drop is a bush toilet, they stand the loo over a deep hole and off you go , so to speak....) and while you are ok to stand under an air vent... it is not ok to stand under a long drop !!!!!!

Don't think I would wanna work down here...

Some old news...

How the land is made up...

John fossicks...he does it so well!!

You can just see them parked and set up....

All those mounds are where people have fossicked, specked and mined....its hard to walk about out here cuz you are always at risk of falling down a bloody hole !!!!

more digging done...

So thats all for today folks... love to all and see you in about 22 weeks time xxxx

1st Oct, Emerald, To dig or not to dig.....

Today's not been the best of days, not bad, but not the best..........

Lin's been talking to a few of the people round here and it seems the best way to find Sapphires is to grab a shovel, get out there and dig em up yer self and the best place to go and dig is ether Little Bessy or Reward.  Sounds easy don't it ?  but no bugger can seem to be able to give clear directions on how to get there. Anyway, Lin wants to go digging, well, not dig herself, Lin wants John to go digging, so on the bike and its hi ho, hi ho, up hill and down dale we go. We pop into the general store for directions and get a little more than a garbled, round here and down there. We drive miles down a dirt track and end up in someones front garden, great, spin her round and have another go, this time we drive for miles down another dirt track and end up in someone else's garden. Lin gets off the bike so I can do a nine point turn, I suddenly hear, 'quick John, Hurry up, quick'. I look round and theres a herd of cows coming to check out what the bikers are up to. Now the horns on these things are pretty big and Lin's dancing on the spot, so the nine point turn quickly becomes seven. "OK luv, on yer get, Oh, you are on!'. Now the cows see us on the bike and must figure times running out and start trotting. If you've ever seen a cow coming at you quite fast, you'd know what feels like and these buggers weren't hanging round, dirt track or not, neither were we, dust and dirt everywhere and we're gone.  Oh what fun!, still, no ones called the Police yet and the cows have given up, so I think we're good. We drive up and down dirt tracks for another hour or so, when we pass a bit of common land, sod it that'll do and its off the bike, spade in one hand and shopping bag in another. OK, we've got our dirt, now all we gotta do is wash and sieve it, then we'll be rich, but just in case, Lin wants to buy a bag mine sweepings, just to be sure, so in no time, I've got a forty pound bag of dirt in one pannier and a five pound bag of mine sweepings in the other and its time for lunch, so off we trot to the pub at Anaeki, about ten k away. When we get there, it appears the kitchens broke and their not doing meals at the moment, but highly recommend the pub in Ruby Vale, typical, so its back the way we came, another sixteen k. I cant say the bikes handling to well at the moment, seems it likes the left hand corners just fine, right hand, not so much. I've got an idea it might just have something to do with forty pound of dirt. We finally get to Ruby vale, find the pub and order our lunch, they give us a numbered paddle, we find a table and wait... and we wait... and we wait. After an hour, we ain't happy, if I wasn't sodding hungry when we walked in, I bloody well am now, so we return to the bar, voice our displeasure and get our money back. So its back to the tent were Lin russle's up beefburgers and potato stuff, which all hits the spot nicely.

Now full, attention turns to the riches that could be lurking on the bike. Lin set up her table for her bag mine sweepings (all she needs now is an eye glass) and the guy next to us, recons the bag of dirt should get the full treatment and drags me over to where he's got a full set up, so I spend the next forty five minutes sieving, washing and sorting and what do I come up with  ?????????....
bugger all.......... Still, theres still Lin with her sweepings, so hope lives. "find anything love"??? "Na, its just sweepings" well now that's a surprise.Oh well, maybe we'll strike it lucky tomorrow

Here come the piccies....

More Digging....he must of had a flippin big spade...

Down and into Sapphire again..

The hole John took his bag of dirt from..... (say no more!!!!)

Now where else shall we dig ?? is this little Bessie??? not sure...

Before the piccie, heres a little knowledge. Sapphire is called Sapphire cuz there is (well used to be a lot more) sapphires here. The next village is called Rubyvale, (nope, no Rubys !!!! lol) ,  someone, (well ome of the early settlers) found some red stones and convinced it was 'Rubys', they started to mine and the town was named Rubyvale..... they (the rubys) turned out to be Garnets... and theres none left now, but they kept the name... and Emerald.....well that started out being called 'Policemans Creek', but the early Irish settlers saw it as green and lush like home, so they renamed it 'Emerald' (no emeralds, so don't fooled..hahahaha).  Now if you are wondering where I learnt all this...... I got it from an old Irish guy who passed us (giggling a way he was....) as we were digging on common ground for our fortune  " 'found anything?", he called from his 4x4 as he laughed, he could barley contain his amusement.......lol.... He then told us in his lovely strong Irish accent.." Darlin, you have more chance of finding a hens tooth than Sapphires, you are about 20 years too late".. We stayed chatting with him at the roadside for about an hour and he sure educated us.....so we are now looking for Hens teeth....bless him,  hahahahahaha

and here we dug!!! (well as he said John dug and I supervised!!!!!)

Ummmm think they got there first!!!!!

Maybe here??? and be sure this ground is bloody well rock hard!!!!!

More mines all set up...

Pretty flowers too....

So thats all the piccies for today folks.......oh and by the way... Pinch, punch first of the month....
Love to all, we miss you and wish you were all here....!!!!!! (yeah right lol........)

30th Sept, Sapphire, Heaven and hell

Sod that for a night, it urinated down. Both Lin and me had trouble sleeping. The grease proof paper tent seemed to hold up pretty well. Had the odd leak on the window zips but the gaffer tape repairs and the rest of the tent didn't let us down, so we both crawled out of bed dry.

Its so nice and peaceful here we decide to book in for another three days even though its still overcast. So everything else gets put on the back burner cos theres only a small general store here and the larders starting to look a little bare. Right, its on to the bike and into Emerald to check out the local shops and lighten their shelf's a bit. Its only forty four K's away, so just down the road. Unlike most of the towns out here, Emerald has a shopping centre, now don't get the wrong idea, its not like Lakeside, all this comprises of, is a Cole's supermarket (about a third of the size of a Tesco) and about a dozen other shops all under one roof. I know it don't sound like much, but people come from hundreds of kilometres to get the shopping they cant get at the local store at home, like clothes, electronics's, shoes, well everything really. With the sun trying to break through (the spells wearing off), panniers and topbox loaded with goodies, we bounce along the road back to the campsite at Sapphire.

On the way,we pop in to see if our little gem is ready, low and behold, there it is, all bright and shiny in its little box. The blokes done a great job and the Sapphire comes in at an impressive .67 carats. That's it, my interest in this fossicking lark just picked up and we make plans to have another go tomorrow.

Things seem to have changed a little in the few short hours we've been gone. It seems the site has got a little busier and a lot more noisier. Its a school holiday out here and appears that all the Mums and Dads have thrown their little ankle snappers into the caravan and driven them off to share them with the people who thought the world was a peaceful place. I'm beginning to think one or two of these mini tornado's, may not make it home.

It's funny how this fossicking thing takes you, if you let it. It seems to be the main topic of conversation, where did you try? did you get anything? we've been coming for so long, Bloody hell, the list go's on and on. Some people are really secretive about it and been digging holes all over the place for years. I just hope their looking for gems and not burying body's. All this causes a pain in the neck, no, it really does, because the gems can be found all over the place, yer tend to walk round looking down, no it ain't daft, people really do find them just by knowing what their looking for and yea, I've got a sore neck.

That's it for now, gonna try and make up for the sleep we missed out on last night.

Love you all .................... (Row, no more spells, OK??? or I'll kick yer broomstick)  

Here come the piccies

This is the road into Armfest, its the sapphire mining company where we 'fossicked' our sapphire...

One of the miners camps... yep, you park, set up your camp and move in and that hole is yours...

More camps...

 Someone lives here and is no doubt mining away...

Driving through Sapphire...

These guys along with their cattle mates have rights of way and Land....

Some mining equipment, second hand and all for sale...

More Sapphire....

Our little camp... lol... but no mining...

This is the 'wetlands' at the back of our tent...

Me and sword in the stone...now for the ladies this causes what is called 'LBL', for the men, mind your own business.....and no I did not manage to move it (the sword I mean)...

Now he just grins and bares it !!! did it move... no Exhalibur stayed very strong and stuck... John said he thinks he 'dropped something' during his attempt, but hey ho... Ladies get LBL, and men drop things !!!!!, you work it out....

The fields of wheat as we drive from Emerald to Sapphire...

Some mining....

Can you see the car on its nose... well it has a closed sign on it lol.......

Down through Sapphire...and on the way to Rubyvale to pick up me treasure...

And here is the little Beauty...0.67 of a Carat and worth about $125....very satisfying to find.....its a party sapphire as it has a yellow section, you can just see it in the piccies on the right hand side, this makes it more unusual and a little more valuable...

There we go folks, piccies explained and another exciting day over...

Love to all, OH.....And a Happy birthday yesterday for our Lou.... (love that girl, she does all our PA work, back home, think I will give her a day off soon....)

Byeeeeeeee xxxxx