July 23rd to 26th
Blackwater to Sapphire (129m)
Part 3 of our 2021Adventure
Situated on the banks of the beautiful River Red Gum lined Retreat Creek, “where sapphires were first discovered in the region”, the Blue Gem Tourist Park offers a range of facilities to the sapphire seekers. Accommodation ranges from ensuite and economy cabins to more than 40 powered sites positioned in tree lined, lawned gardens with several drive throughs to accept the larger vans and homes. Our convenience store boasts a range of fresh food and quality takeaway delights. We also offer unleaded, premium and diesel fuels from our service station.
Well the Ranger is travelling well, and we have now re arranged some dates, and all our plans are now back on track.
We started the day with a cup of coffee and said goodbye to Katrina and Rod before heading to our next destination, Saffire, for some Fossicking. We stopped at the local bakery in Blackwater, but the pie and sausage roll were terrible, so we'll make a note not to stop there again. We then went to Emerald to stock up on food, beer, and fuel before heading west. The main roads were bumpy, and we felt every little dip and bump as we were carrying 2.5 tonnes of van. We checked into the Blue Gem Tourist Park, where we would be staying for the next three nights. We were pleased to discover that we could have a campfire in the park as long as we had our own fire pit and it was off the ground. The girl at the counter was helpful and gave us all the information we needed about fires.
We headed out that afternoon to check out what this fosiciking was all about, and we were told Pat's Gem is the best place to learn how to make our fortunes.
SO today we learnt the art of searching for sapphires, in Sapphire1 Pour some of the dirt from the bucket into a special double sieve so you can shake the excess dust out
2 Put the sieve into the dunking contraption called a Willoughby
3/Spend some time washing the dirt and mud off your rocks
4 Take you seive full of wet roacks to the table and flip them out like a pancake
5 Grab your tweezers and start pulling out the sapphires
6 Goto the bank, deposit funds, contact your boss and say we are not coming back to work
OH Welll, 1 to 5 worked out well, have to work on number 6 next time
Saturday 14th July - Day 8
Miners Heritage is Australia's largest Walk-in Underground Sapphire Mine Tours. Established in 1982 as a working mine, it was then decided to run Mine Tours after the mine entry and underground showroom were completed. Miners Heritage was officially opened for its first tour in 1984.
The new above-ground air-conditioned showroom was completed in 2004 for their 20th anniversary.
We highly recommend this tour as it is a 40-minute fully guided walk underground, learning about the process of underground mining and the history of this particular mine. The walk is full head height all the way through, and while Kat and I didn't have a problem, Fiona felt very claustrophobic. Once back up on the surface, when you try to imagine where you walked, you have no idea. How they managed to make these trails beats me...
The cost of the tour is $20 per head.
Back to camp for a good feed and a camp fire, by the way, Lovin the new fire pit.
_______________________________________________________________________
We had an amazing few days in Sapphire/Rubyvale. It was a bucket list item for you us to go fossicking, and after two days of doing the tourist fossicking, we headed out on a tag-a-long tour to a private plot to do the real thing. It was hard work, but Kat managed to score a pretty nice star sapphire, as you can see in the picture after it was cleaned up. We had a blast
We hooked up with Keith from Fascination Gems & Crystals, a Kiwi bloke who has been fossicking in the region for over 30 years. It cost $50 per person and all equipment was supplied. We were told to meet him on the main highway at the rest area at 8:00 am, and he would lead you to the dig site.
There was another couple from Brisbane who were at the rest area. We all headed off in a convoy, driving west on the main road. Eventually, Keith's indicators went on, and we turned left onto a dirt road, thinking we were getting closer. Eventually, he turned off again on a small, rough and dusty track. As we headed down this track, we noticed all these other vans set up and off the grid.
Keith stopped in the middle of the track, got out, and wandered around getting some gear out of his trailer. Then, he said, "Follow me, grab a shovel and a bucket." We all wandered off to this dig, and he explained to us about the different levels and creek beds and what we were looking for and how the dig works. So he filled a bucket, walked us over to the big sieve which we poured all the bucket through, to get to the smaller stones. Then he walked us over to the Willoughby to do the wash, and we poured the stones out on the sorting table, hoping to find our riches.
Between the three of us, we actually loaded up about eight buckets each, and these were about twice the size of the buckets we got at the tourist parks back in Sapphire and Rubyvale. Considering they were $20 or $25 a bucket, and we paid $50 for the morning, it was worth every cent.
Aparently Kay did alright and afound a STAR Saffire
It was a tough morning at the office, so after some lunch in the bush, we back up and headed back to Rubyvale to wash down the dust with a bloody cold beer at the NEW Rubyvale Hotel.
|
|
Fossicking Tag along Tours
Big Thumbs up to Keith
Awesome day
|
|
|
