Sapphires!

 

 Wonder if it is manual or automated?

Thursday, 21 June 2012

Yesterday evening was very special in that we had dinner with our “other son,” Warwick, who is flying surveys out of Emerald at the moment. We had a very nice meal at an Irish pub and spent a very pleasant couple of hours catching up. It was wonderful to see him so happy with life.

This morning, it was on with our oldest, darkest clothes ready for a day at the gemfields of Rubyvale. It was a nice drive to Sapphire and Rubyvale, passing lots of cotton fields (explains why there is a massive cotton gin in Emerald!) and cattle properties on the way. We decided to take a tour underground when we arrived and were rather glad to find that the tunnels had been built in the 1980’s and we didn’t have to crawl on our hands and knees like the early miners. Of course, we exited through the jewellery shop! There are a large number of jewellery shops in Rubyvale, and Sapphire. It certainly wasn’t hard finding pieces that I liked – it was just the prices I didn’t like. A little purchase did happen, though (one must do one’s bit for the local economy). Lunch was at a lovely little coffee shop, which was a bit of a surprise.

After inspecting some rather thought provoking signage, we decided to try our hand at fossicking, the easy way with the dirt already dug for us. With a bucket of dirt each and a sieve, with some guidance as to what to do and, more importantly, what to look for, we started washing, sieving and looking. Cat was a great help and very quickly spotted a few likely looking rocks. We did end up with rather a nice collection of stones by the time the buckets were empty, including a couple of a decent size. Some were blue, some green, some parti-coloured and a few yellow zircons completed the haul, along with a collection of rather dubious stones. It was into the shop for the big inspection, with Cat quickly donning the head binoculars for a close look. The lady immediately picked up my largest stone, said it was a beautiful colour and would cut well. Another was large enough to cut into a decent gem, but did have a flaw. While some of the other stones were bit enough to have cut, the resulting size wouldn’t really be worth the expense. I decided to have one cut and will have to wait until I get home to see the result.

The shortest day has been nice and warm, the first day the air has actually felt warm when out of the sun. For those who are chilling out back home, it was 25 here.