Failed detectives

Today we paid a woman, Margie, to take us detecting for gold.  We enjoyed the trip but came back empty-handed, utter failures at detecting.

Margie's a character, with missing teeth and the raspy voice that signals a heavy smoker, but she's not a drinker- she drinks only Coke or water. She's had a bad accident in the past, breaking her spine in 5 places; the doctors said she'd never walk again but she's a hard case and wasn't going to let that stop her. She still likes to ride though she can't go enter competitions any more. She admits it's hard to put her boots on in the morning so she wears thongs.  Although she didn't bring her cat out today, she often drives with it on the dashboard or on her shoulder looking out of the driver's window.  Hmm. (Strangely enough, she has been booked for this unusual habit).  Still does it, but puts the cat in a cage when driving through towns. She drove us about 40 kilometres each way at high speed- I wasn't game to ask for details of her accident, but hoped that it was from falling off a horse rather than from a head-on collision.

It took about an hour to reach her secret spot, but most of this time was spent driving slowly over a very bumpy track, with sharp bends and sudden uphills and downhills.  We were driving in what's known as a GPA (General Prospecting Area)- an authorised fossicking area which has previously been thoroughly mined, but people still find gold there.  (Not these people).

It was interesting to see how the detector works, and we each had a try at it- each of us had the excitement of a signal which turned out to be other than gold- a few tiny bits of lead, and some metal that looks like bits of an old watch band.  Disappointment.  John had made divining rods from a coathanger so we tried that, too, to no avail, oddly enough.

Margie helps Chris don the gear.  It's fairly heavy but very well-designed to balance the weight.

It's making the right sound- unfortunately gold and lead make the same sound. Guess which it was?

                            Digging deeper, all intent on the task- except Ruby, who couldn't care less.

                                                    Complicated spider web

                                        John detecting, Val divining, Marg talking to Ruby


Once again the weather's great, though not as warm today.  We kept our jumpers on for quite a bit longer this morning.  We were out there for about five hours and quite enjoyed the experience (though we would have enjoyed it more if we'd found any gold).  Never mind, back to the caravan park- each couple has a bag of gravel from Rubyvale and we might find some sapphires when we sort them.

Tomorrow we head east towards Mackay, but we plan to detour to Lake Elphinstone for a few days first.  If you're following us on a map, we need to head north at Nebo.  We'll probably be out of touch for 3 or 4 days but maybe not.  We can always hope.