Fascinating fossicking!

Nick and I both spent periods of our childhoods looking for opal - Nick at Lightning Ridge and me at Yowah.  We have returned to both areas in more recent years as well as trying olivine fossicking at Mount Shadwell in Victoria.

Sapphire fossicking was new to all of us, so we joined a tag-along tour to learn the basics. The day started at 8:30am when our guide met us near Anakie. We then drove in a small convoy to Glenalva fossicking area, which is known for its shallow wash (ie less digging)!

Our tour booking included the use of all equipment as well as the benefit of an experienced miner's supervision and advice.

I have uploaded a short movie to our YouTube channel (linked in a page above), which shows the full process we followed throughout the day - repeatedly!

As usual, Nick did most of the digging. We all assisted at various points, to the best of our strength and ability.

It took a while to get our heads around what we were doing.

All looked quite straight-forward when we watched the demonstration but seemed less so when working independently.

Fortunately our guide was able to double-check our digging site and method.  He confirmed we were on the right track and a little while later we found our first two stones - which caused huge excitement!

We found five stones in total, over the course of around four hours. By lunch-time we'd had enough so handed back tools and mugs before heading off, well-pleased with our treasure! First stop was the small chemist at Sapphire to acquire liniment for Nick's cramping muscles!

We also bought ice-creams in Rubyvale, before taking our stones to be assessed for cutting. Three were considered suitable and we chose the best to be faceted. It will be posted back to us in about 12-14 week's time - so we'll have to be patient till then!

Mother-of-millions and cactus anarchy!

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the massive bottle trees at Jandowae so when Nick spoke of a historical bottle tree at Anakie, I really wanted to see it!

At the beginning of WW1 local men seeking to enlist departed the area from Anakie station. Many carved their initials into a young bottle tree, which has grown to it's current size - so stretching the carvings upwards.

From Anakie we drove around 40km to the Willows gemfields. Vaughan had commented about these red flowers earlier in the day and there were so many growing on a hillside that I called for a stop - keen to photograph them in the lovely afternoon light.

I've since discovered there are five species of Mother-of-millions ornamental plants, originally from Madagascar.

They are restricted invasive plants described in the Biosecurity Act 2014 - and are poisonous to stock, at times causing significant cattle deaths.

We drove around the fossicking area, amazed by so many huge cactuses. I've googled them, too.

You guessed it - another declared pest! I've found an article where they are described as Willow cactus, which has caused me to wonder if that is how the area was named.  I'm still researching that theory though.

We were based in Sapphire this trip, about 49km from the smaller Willows township. The quieter area really appealed though and we might stay there another time.

Mining (and micro-bats)!

Given our early start and big drive on Sunday, we were a bit slower off the mark on Monday! We drove around a bit before deciding to do a mine tour.

Vaughan wasn't keen to listen to "old farts talking about rocks" so stayed in the car reading his book, keeping Bandit company!

The rest of us enjoyed seeing a different style of mining to those we'd viewed previously (ie. an organised opal mine tour at Lightning Ridge, the walk-in gold mine at Maldon and our excellent geocaching adventure).

Our guide showed us bands of wash that were once river beds (around 70 million years ago), with a few sapphires and a zircon left in situ.

We also viewed a short movie showing equipment being used in a working mine.  The pic at the bottom right of the first collage is a "tummy tunnel".  Pioneer miners excavated these from a prone position. Yep, they were very keen fellows!

Our tour guide wasn't a fan of the micro bats living in the mine but we thought they were lovely.  I've tried to identify them using my Australian Mammals guide but it's a tricky process and I'll need to research further.  (We don't usually see bats so closely, though encountered some in a cave at Kwiambal during our 2010 visit).  

Sunday sojourn to Sapphire!

Some of our breaks are planned well in advance - and others aren't! Although Nick requested annual leave for the school holidays, it wasn't approved.

We didn't expect to go anywhere so when partial leave confirmation later came through, we needed to come up with a quick plan.

Of course, available funds influence destination choice and once pay-day rolled around we had a better idea of how far we could go.

After a few phone calls, we booked accommodation on Wednesday morning for our Sunday evening arrival - and I started prepping our provisions.

Sapphire is 860km from home.  We were in for a huge drive, so as well as my usual meal preparations I planned to make sandwiches for a quick lunch stop along the way.

We did a few things differently this trip. Juice boxes and water were packed into insulated lunch boxes (with mini ice-bricks). These were stashed inside the car for easy access. Bandit used the coolers as pillows!

Departure was 4:57am and we had already traveled for three hours before stopping for brekkie in a park at Chinchilla. Cereal, fruit and yoghurt were offered. Vaughan opted to eat passionfruit in a tree while Nick accessed a roof-top suitcase. (I hadn't expected Vaughan to finish his book en route, so packed several into his bag rather than keeping the next one of the series handy).

I'd cooked corned beef at home and used it to make bread rolls on Saturday night. We pulled into a stopping bay for lunch and ate standing at the end of the tailgate because there weren't any facilities along that stretch of road. Of course, we hadn't gone much further when we found a pretty lookout with a picnic table - but lunch was gone by then, so we stretched a bit while admiring the view.

We made a few short stops during the day and had several driver changes as well. Even so, we were pleased to roll up to our accommodation at 4:45pm and unpack gear into a neat "billy boulder" cabin (named "Lizard Lodge", which seemed rather fitting for a family of lizard lovers)!  I was definitely appreciative of my pre-cooked bolognese sauce later that night, too - and my bed not all that long afterward!

Get a Giza at this!

There was frost when we woke on Sunday morning.

The guys in the cabin next to us needed to move their motorbikes into the sun for defrosting before departure!

We packed up for the 10am check-out and admired the dam under clear skies as we drove along.  First stop was at Heavenly Chocolate, near Ballandean - chosen by Vaughan (who felt he deserved a choice cos fancy cheese isn't really his thing)!

The main street dinosaur was made as a float in the 1998 Apple and Grape festival, hence it's neat Fruitisforus name! We spotted him/her en route to the Washpool Farm Soaperie, where Erin and I bought a bag of bargain, hand-made soap seconds.

When I read about the pyramid at Ballandean, it was high on my list of things to see. It's made from blocks of local granite and stands about 17.5 metres tall. It took around eight months to build, using an excavator and dump truck. You can read more of it's story, here.

Vaughan isn't always keen to participate in our group shots, so I bribed him with quicker access to his hand-made chocolate, to ensure positive co-operation!

Feasting like royalty!

We made a slow start on Saturday, sleeping in and then lingering over our BBQed brekkie.

Once on the road, our first stop was to taste some specialty apple juices and a rather fine apple syrup (which we're scheming to drizzle over pikelets)!

Our intended destination was Donnellys Castle - a rock formation and picnic area that we could explore with Bandit.  (Stanthorpe is know for huge boulders in nearby Girraween National Park but that was off-limits for us).

We spotted a cheese factory en route to the castle, so called in to sample some excellent offerings - and bought a couple of favourites.  (We highly recommend Jersey Cow Feta and Brass Monkey Blue)!

It wasn't all that far from the cheese factory to the picnic area and we saw several groups enjoying cheese platter lunches!

Donnellys Castle had quite mixed reviews on some of the sites I checked.

We thought it was brilliant!  So many rocks to scramble over, around and between.  We easily spent several hours there - feasting on cheese and soaking up the sunshine, in between bouts of squeezing through the rock maze. We outlasted many of the other visitors.

The area is said to be one of Captain Thunderbolt's hideouts.  He was obviously another slim individual, like Captain Melville, who had a hideout at Melville Caves, which we visited while in Victoria!

Donnellys Castle is Crown Recreation Reserve named after Ned Donnelly, an original settler of the area.  In 1973 the local Lions Club began to develop the facilities and still maintains them for public enjoyment.

It's quite likely we'll visit Stanthorpe and Donnellys Castle another time.

We may even travel a little further afield to fossick for topaz in the Passchendaele State Forest. Fingers crossed for success!

Stanthorpe sojourn ...

In contrast with our Dalby long weekend, there was very little preparation for our next mini break.

Nick and I bought some provisions from one of our local supermarkets on Friday morning but there was no menu plan - which Nick found quite novel!

We were packed up ready to depart after Vaughan finished school and had a smooth run out to our accommodation on Storm King Dam, near Stanthorpe.  Once there, we sorted ourselves fairly quickly.  It was a little cheaper to take linen for our "mini hut" beds, so we did that - which meant making beds on arrival. (The small cabin didn't have an ensuite but it was Bandit-friendly and definitely bigger than the van)!

I used the small kitchenette and plug-in hotplates to chef some creamy bacon and mushroom pasta for dinner - an easy option that seems a bit flash!  (Well, easy-ish with some improvisation around the limited space and utensils).