Clermont Qld July 17th 2023
Feeling lucky, we went up to Sapphire to Pats wash-n-wish and ran a bag of their wash through the process. This time it was a different technique, only the one fine sieve and no Willoughby to wash with. And just shake the dust onto the ground. Washing was done in a trough by hand and worked just fine, there not being a lot of mud on the stones, but at least some.
And you get to sit down at the sorting table and take your time making sure you picked up every little bit of coloured stone. Well not all the coloured stone,. most is rubbish, just as well Judy has a good eye for this and quickly filled the jar-lid with her treasure.
 |
| Judy at Pats, Sapphire Qld |
The people here are new since last time and very friendly, however, the expert was a bit off-hand about Judy's gems, not declaring any as "cutters".
Even though it was a very pleasant spot to sit and drink coffee and chat with the locals and their dog, we had already made our minds up for a change of plan.
We had decided to leave Rubyvale a day early and move up to Clermont, which is 120km north. It's not much but brings the next day's run down from 490 to a more manageable 370. Actually we ended up taking this nice quiet drive up a narrow, winding hilly backroad, but one with great views of the volcanic plugs and the fertile plains. The backroad is 35km shorter than the main Gregory Highway, but probably takes just as long as its 85-90kph touring, the road being quite narrow and no marked lines.
The surprises keep coming. On arrival in Clermont CV, we are summarily told to go straight back out again and take ourselves down to the overflow parking area, which is ok for one night but a bit off-putting nonetheless. The site allocated is quite steep for a van park, I had to take extraordinary measures to get the van unhitched, then even more extremes to jack it way up high to get it level. The back is so low I couldn’t use the legs and had to resort to our small bottle jack. A first for us, but not a bad spot once we settled in.
 |
| Angle parking, Clermont Qld. OK so the van is level, see how far the car drops down! |
We had lunch down by Hood’s Lagoon, one of those little gems one finds in remote towns from time to time. It’s a man made lagoon, complete with a bridge, boardwalks and three fountains.
 |
| Forest Kingfisher sitting on a safety fence. Clermont Qld |
 |
| Hoods Lagoon, Clermont Qld |
