27 August – Wednesday
Another beautiful day in Queensland – 28 degrees, clear and no wind. We started the day with a look around Emerald and their park which features a copy of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Evidently the district used to be known for its sunflower industry, before a disease wiped them out a few years ago.
Then it was off to Sapphire and Rubyvale for a spot of sapphire fossicking. Both these towns seem to be made up of fossickers who also have a tin shed/shop to sell their gems. Some of the jewellery was quite beautiful (I could have really enjoyed myself if given the chance) and we never realised there were so many different coloured sapphires. Evidently there are over 300 shades of blue.
If one wants to do a spot of fossicking for oneself, then one can either buy a license and equipment and do it the hard way, or buy a bucket of dirt at a fossicking park and do it the easy way. We did it the easy way. We bought a bag each and I found a sapphire immediately in mine – already cut and in a plastic bag! After this big find, it was wash and sort the gravel ourselves, keeping what we thought were sapphires to be inspected by the store owner. We both ended up with a nice little bag of gems, I had quite a few green ones, including a blue/green parti which was big enough to have cut.
We finished the afternoon with a game of bingo at the caravan park – our first ever effort – and ended up making a donation to Angel Flight.
Another beautiful day in Queensland – 28 degrees, clear and no wind. We started the day with a look around Emerald and their park which features a copy of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Evidently the district used to be known for its sunflower industry, before a disease wiped them out a few years ago.
Then it was off to Sapphire and Rubyvale for a spot of sapphire fossicking. Both these towns seem to be made up of fossickers who also have a tin shed/shop to sell their gems. Some of the jewellery was quite beautiful (I could have really enjoyed myself if given the chance) and we never realised there were so many different coloured sapphires. Evidently there are over 300 shades of blue.
If one wants to do a spot of fossicking for oneself, then one can either buy a license and equipment and do it the hard way, or buy a bucket of dirt at a fossicking park and do it the easy way. We did it the easy way. We bought a bag each and I found a sapphire immediately in mine – already cut and in a plastic bag! After this big find, it was wash and sort the gravel ourselves, keeping what we thought were sapphires to be inspected by the store owner. We both ended up with a nice little bag of gems, I had quite a few green ones, including a blue/green parti which was big enough to have cut.
We finished the afternoon with a game of bingo at the caravan park – our first ever effort – and ended up making a donation to Angel Flight.
1 comment:
Wow, you get sick for a week and you miss a lot of blogging action! You guys have definitely been busy, and I'm glad to see that you're headed in a southerly direction again. We're only a couple of sleeps away from going north, so we'll be seeing you before too long!
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