Judy & Brian Tour Oz

  Emerald Qld July 14, 2024 Good run across to Jericho, but then you approach the Great Dividing Range and it turns a bit ugly. The road is winding as it climbs to some 500 metres and the narrow road surface is best described as “rough”. Not pot-holes as such but bumpy and jolting. Turned a dream run into a very long day in the saddle. We have decided to stay in Emerald itself this year and take a run out to Rubyvale tomorrow, rather than camp out there again. Sky's on fire. Emerald Qld Well, its tomorrow and we set of at a leisurely 10 am or so and wandered out to Rubyvale, via the Snake crossroads and Sapphire. Nothing much seems to have changed in town since we were here last year, except the Miners Cottage fossicking place has changed hands. First thing the did is double the price of the buckets of wash, and halve the number of fossickers. Or so it seemed to me. Still, they do give you scones with jam and cream and a nice cup of tea for ‘smoko’, so it’s not all bad. The $30...

Rubyvale Qld 25 July 2019 Today we join the ranks of the fossickers and miners, all chasing that elusive bit of colour. We decided to go on a tag-along tour, mostly because they know where to go and what to do, and they have all the equipment. We went with Fascinations Tours, organised through the Fascination Gems shop in Rubyvale. So at 830am we met the tour guide and the rest of the hopefuls at Anakie, back out on the highway. Meeting fellow fossickers, Anakie Qld Note Treasure map behind!  Maybe half-a-dozen vehicles followed Keith out and onto the Capricorn Highway for 20 km, then down a side road for 11 kilometres to The Willows Fossicking Grounds Road down to The Willows Gemfields, Qld And then another turn down the side of a side road to the 'diggins'. Track into the actual diggings. Willows, Qld Once on-site Kieth gave us a very thorough run-through of the basics: dig, tumble, wash, examine. Repeat till exhausted. The theory is that we are standin...