Robbo and Paulines big trip 2010: The Gem Fields and on

31.8

We pass through Emerald and stay at Sapphire – where some of the worlds richest sapphire fields are found around Sapphire, Rubyvale Anakie and the willows.

We spent 10days exploring the gem fields, did some fossicking in the river bed and found a couple of sapphires but alas not Gem quality ones. Technically you need to buy a permit to allow you to fossick but we were told that if we were stopped to just say we were Bird watching!! Oh Well...

There is a commercial mine called armfest ( there are loads of them but this one was reccomended) that gives the novice a chance to see how fossicking is done we got there about 10am and it was buzzing you buy a bucket of what they call wash for $20 and they show you how to clean it and recognise any gems in your wash – that was great fun we bought two buckets and found a few chips ( they let you know that they take the choice sapphires and sell the rest in buckets ( of wash) there were quite a few people who got one and two carat sapphires ( they also do a faceting service if you choose to use them – another $25) I did a flip video of this and will post it later

The sapphires that are most rare are the yellow ones followed by the green ones and then they have parti colours in fact there are Sapphires that are every colour of the rainbow, with the most common being blue. It seems that the Asian market snaps up all the non common colours and Europe seems to favour the Blue ones.

I was walking up the road one morning and looking at the ground ( we had been told by many local that they had found thier sapphire on the side of the road) as you do when a voice said did you find anything? I looked around and this Lady was walking down the road so I crossed over and joined her and laughed about looking on the road, we got chatting and she invited us to thier property in Rubyvale where they have a mine lease of thier own - I was really excited so raced back to Rob and told him about the invite, so off we went To Barbara and Grahams - what an experience, they invited us down the shaft but it was a vertical ladder about 30meters down so I declined and Rob donned his hard hat and down he went.

Graham took us through his process of cleaning his wash and then showed Rob his latest Sapphire ( by the way they bought thier lease for $8.500 and Modified the shed on it to live in, they are one of the few with a flush toilet -yes it was a real eye opener).

Barbara and Grahams uncut Sapphire from thier mine this is how they look after washing.

Rob & Graham donning the hard hats and Barbara looks on at the process after the buckets of wash are put into the system. On the right the corrugated iron surrounds the mine shaft for safety. The wash starts in the green and white tube and follows its way around to where they are stood and then the cleaned wash is then put onto the blue drum with the sacking on it for inspection.

The mine shaft with the vertical ladder 30 meters down to the base

This is typical of how the properties look around here

The free camp at sapphire where the cattle and anything else roam free it's to be seen to be believed!

Rob with a Rainbow Lorrikeet at Sapphire

We stayed in Sapphire right opposite the place that Everyone went to get thier water, filling tanks of up to 400 litres at a time and there were ques most of the time, most people live out on a big fossicking area such as Big Bessie where again people live in tents, Combi wagons with a tarp tied on the side, some in derilict caravans and an odd few hopefuls in modern Motorhomes - I just don't know how they do it

This is real but no ones home right now! and this is what the type of land looks like in the fossicking areas

9.9

On to The willows where the other gemfields are but we are all fossicked out and there is lots of talk of snakes on the move after winter – day two at the willows I was walking up to the showers and there was a fellow standing in the pathway who said he had just had a western brown in his annexe Arggg you have about 4hrs without treatment with these nasty creatures– I now can’t wait to leave the Gemfields.

11.9

We are still heading west on to Jericho – yes this little town is the namesake of the battle of Jericho and its built on the Jordon creek south of Lake Galilee how inetresting. The town has a shrine dedicated to the battle called the Crystal trumpeteers.

Wer’e staying at the community park running on the banks of the river for two nights, and managed to go and watch the Spirit of the outback pass through the town ( the old train ) it brought me back to childhood pretending to be one of the Railway children – a kids program on at that time.

The town is a bit antiquated we pulled up outside the local Hotel (Pub) and a sign outside said something like good food and even the cook eats it!! He people are friendly though.

It has a cute outdoor drive in theatre next to the town hall that would hold about 10 vehicles where you drive in and pick up the speaker on a short pole and hang in your car window, and funnily enough they showed a movie the night before we arrived - shame we could have had a real piece of nostalgia