Judy & Brian Tour Oz

Charters Towers Qld 28/29 July 2019 The only highlight to break the uneventful run up from Clermont was a  few hundred head of cattle grazing the long paddock, attended only by two dogs, a jilleroo and the drover, both on horseback. One could hardly believe ones eyes as you are cruising up the Gregory Highway at 103kph: you can see them but not believe that it could be real. How could the road be completely blocked by a bunch of cows? It's bad enough to have random cows grazing on the side of the road, or a bunch of 'roos (15 was my count) bouncing leisurely across in front of you. The rule is to  slow right down obviously and then to just drive forward slowly and expect them to just get out of the way. Having been given a friendly hurry up on the two-way I started to move through them, but my 'slow' was too slow for Mr B-Double Driver who came past us a bit faster, so we just tucked in behind him and let him clear a path. And then followed him for 6...

Clermont Qld 27 July 2019 After our lunchtime start from Rubyvale, we took what we thought was the short-cut up to Clermont, avoiding the return trip back into Emerald. However, we came out on the highway at Capella still some 60km short of the target. We had thought we were going via Therese Creek Dam or thereabouts, but all we saw was the dry bed of said creek somewhere outside Clermont. We took up our spot in the caravan park in this pleasant, quiet town and had some lunch. In the afternoon we went to find the Therese Creek Dam, which is about 20km out of town on the road that we obviously missed. On the way we stopped to look at a brick chimney at the sight of what was a productive copper mine in the 1880s. All that is left is the hole in the ground, the chimney and the tiny general store which was once a museum. As the whole place is surrounded by a tall chainlink fence to keep the idiots and vandals out, all I could do was take a few quick snaps and head off for the dam. R...

Rubyvale Qld 26 July 2019 More fossicking today, but done the genteel way. Just down the road there is a place called The Miners Cabin, which is someones house, but down in the backyard they have set up a shed and a range of sorting tables, sieves and Willoughbies all set up and ready to go. You give them $20 and pick your bucket of wash, receive two pair of tweezers and are shown your table. The whole process is explained and away you go. It took us an hour and a half to work through our bucket including taking time out to to eat the complimentary coffee/tea and scones. Anything you find you pick up with your tweezers and pop the stone into your dish. When you are finished you take your dish to the checking stations where experts examine each stone, sort them, and give you advice as to what to do with them. The advice ranges from putting them into 'Show and tell' bags, to 'Polish' and best of all 'cutters'. They even give you documents and instructions on how...

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...

Rubyvale Qld 24 July 2019 Rubyvale is 60km west of Emerald, in the heart of the gem fields, and just as there are no Emeralds in Emerald, there are no Rubies in Rubyvale. There are Sapphires in Sapphire, 6km back down the road and possibly anarchy in Anakie, which is where the turn off is on the main road. But for now we have come to Rubyvale for a few days, hearts set on finding a big chunk of sapphire. That's the plan anyhow. Heart of the 'throbbing cattle country' as it was described in days past. Rubyvale Qld Today we went on a tour of a walk-in mine, right around the corner and very interesting it was too. Now we know where the gems come from, how they were made and how to find them. We would have stayed and run a bucket of 'wash', which is the gravelly stuff in which the stones are found, across the table, but the 130 school children pretty much took up the entire area. Travelling back into town we thought we'd try our hand with a bag-o-wash at the...

Roma Qld 19/20 July 2019 Leaving Lightning Ridge and heading north, the road continued to be a bit of a struggle, not as bad as before but not quite right either. However, past Hebel, which is in Queensland and on to St George it is in much better repair and makes for a safer more enjoyable trip. And you, it weren't to safe for the literally hundreds of 'roos splattered all over the place, mile after mile, some in groups of ten or so. As J Williamson sings, 'Birds flying round with a knife and fork, dam good feed for an eagle hawk'. We had lunch in St George at a cafe that derives its fame from having engraved emu eggs, if you like that sort of thing. One reason I wanted to stop here was to see if the Town Fathers had paid any tribute to Len Waters, Australia's only Aboriginal fighter pilot, who earned his stripes flying a    Kittyhawk he named 'Black Magic' in New Guinea during World War II. We ended up at the Info place and I asked the nice lady if s...

Emerald Qld 22 July 2019 Lovely relaxing day sitting in the sunshine. Wandered around to the Info place and had a chat about fossicking and how much 'it' was going to be worth when we find it. Wandered down to the shops, drank coffee, bought food, wandered back to van for lunch. While we were waiting for the 'little man' to come and have a look at our door, we went down to inspect Fairbairn Dam and Lake Maraboon, reputedly 3 1/2 times the size of Sydney Harbour. Last time we were here in 2012 the dam was overflowing, today, not a drop. In fact it looked pretty alarming the water level was so low. Here's the then and now snaps. THEN, 2012. Lake Maraboon, Emerald Qld NOW 2019. Lake Maraboon, Emerald Qld According to Dave, our caravan repair man, the lake has come up a few percentage points over the last 3 months and might even be at 10-11% capacity. Speaking of Dave, he is David Morris, of Minor Caravan Parts, Emerald and I can recommend him to anyo...

Emerald Qld 21 July 2019 Aren't we supposed to be in Carnarvon Gorge? Yes, well we got away from Roma in good time and made it up into Injune safely where the instructions are to fill up the fuel tank before going into the gorge. It was here that we discovered the caravan door had basically smashed its way onto the wrong side of the door jamb , inside the van, and wasn't coming out anytime soon. It looked like if I could remove the three striker plates from the door jamb, that would allow the door to come back out, but, all my tools are in the van, aren't they? Fortunately a Good Samaritan had a full tool kit in the back of their truck and we could get the plates off easily enough, only to reveal bits and pieces of broken plastic door lock parts. I was able to secure the door after a fashion with gaffer tape and an occupy strap, but not good enough to lock up and leave for hours at a time while we went walking into the gorge. What to do? Find the only cafe in town and d...

Lightning Ridge NSW 17/18 July 2019 This is our fourth visit to the Ridge, just a quick two-night stop-over, mainly to catch the tour and show put on by Mel and Susie, the bush poets we first met in Winton ten years ago. Before I mention the Mel&Susie tour, I have to say that the road from Coonamble up to Walgett and on to Lightning Ridge is still rubbish. Looking back through this blog, it's been that way since our first trip here in 2011. Even though it is sealed, you could use this as practice for the Gibb River Road and travel at 20kph for the 240k. The tour. We were picked up from the van park at 630pm, just 10 of us. Mel and Susie moved to the Ridge about 5 years ago, when they bought the 'camp', as houses are called, which was set up by John Murray, the famous local artist. The tour started with the girls giving us an hour long show of material all about Lightning Ridge and its inhabitants, which was very entertaining. They followed this with a tour of the ...