14^th August, Thursday

We left Longreach this morning, heading towards Sapphire where we will spend 2 weeks.  We have stopped over in Alpha overnight which is a tiny, windy, dry, dusty and lots of flies town.  There are not many people at the camp. We will have an easy 120km drive tomorrow which should see us in Sapphire in the morning so we have the whole day to set up and do whatever.  The camp in Sapphire gets 4 ½ stars on Wikicamps which is huge and it looks like a really good place to stay. We can’t believe how many dead kangaroos there on the road.  We have never seen so many, there would be 100’s and I am not exaggerating, it’s sad really.  Some places there would be about 4 or 5 in one spot.  The road trains come through at night and the roos sit in the middle of the road.  The trucks can’t stop or swerve as they are pulling 4 massive trailers behind them.  We stopped for breakfast in a place called Barcaldine which is the birthplace of the Labor party. This is a small town and there are 5 hotels within a 60m stretch.  I guess that’s all they do here.

“history of the Labor movement” (Wikipedia) Barcaldine played a significant role in the Australian labour movement and the birth of the Australian Labor Party. In 1891, it was one of the focal points of the 1891 Australian shearers’ strike, with the Eureka Flag flying over the strike camp. The landmark Tree of Knowledge, under which the strikers met, stood outside the railway station. In 2006, persons unknown poisoned the tree with the herbicide Roundup, which led to its demise. One of the first May day marches in the world took place during the strike on 1 May 1891 in Barcaldine. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that of the 1,340 men that took part, 618 were mounted on horses. Banners carried included those of the Australian Labor Federation, the Shearers’ and Carriers’ Unions, and one inscribed ‘Young Australia’. The leaders wore blue sashes and the Eureka Flag was carried. The Labor Bulletin reported that cheers were given for “the Union”, “the Eight-hour day“, “the Strike Committee” and “the boys in gaol”. It reported the march:

It doesn’t say so here but we’ve been told that the reason why the strike took place is because the local stations hired Kiwi shearers and their shears were a lot broader than the ones used in Oz so the job could be done quicker and so had the locals up in arms – so we believe.  

15^th August, Friday

It rained quite a bit last night and thankfully we didn’t have to pack up as when we are on an overnighter we don’t take much out and we leave the van hitched.  It rained all the way to the Sapphire but we can’t complain as they so need the rain.  They haven’t seen any decent rain for about a year and the farmers and the towns are battling.  It was only 120kms but it was a slow drive, the rain, the road was bad and through some mountains, so some climbing and dipping.  It’s 3.00 pm and it’s still raining, Ralph is under the blankets and started watching Madagascar (ha, ha), but decided that it wasn’t for him and now he is reading his book. I have a curry on the stove as it’s that sort of weather and there’s not much else to do. The campground is awesome, we are so private and we look out onto forest where there are heaps of wallabies hopping around and enjoying this weather.  They have designed this place well to give everyone their privacy and space and we are very impressed.  I think that we will enjoy the 2 weeks we are staying here.  I think that it will still be raining tomorrow so we will drive into Emerald (about 60kms) and stock up as it’s a big town and there’s not much here and seeing as we are here for 2 weeks we will need a bit of stuff.  We will stop and see Rubyvale on the way back and then check out Sapphire and the tag along tours and gem fossicking places that Ralph wants to do.  We are here to make our fortune (BIG, HA, HA).

16^th August, Saturday

Today we took a drive to Emerald, it was cold last night and I needed to go to Target to buy another blanket.  On the way back I made Ralph stop at the local cemetery (my fetish), andyway it wasn’t an old cemetery but there was one grave there that I found pretty awesome and I took some pictures to show you. Emerald is a big town and they have traffic lights (that’s how we define a big town)  Emerald is only called Emerald because the farm lands around the town are an Emerald colour, there are no emeralds here at all or any other gemstones.  We took a drive through Rubyvale… The place is full of leases and humpies where people live.  You really can’t believe how they live.  I will be taking a series of photos and I am not sure that they will do them any justice.  There are sand piles all along the roads and I have never seen anything like this before.  The campsite where we are staying is awesome, like I said before and we went for happy hour tonight but the only thing is that they all know each other and they come here for months on end and have leases that they have bought and they don’t talk to you, so we won’t go to another happy hour.  We have met a lovely couple next to us and they agree so we will have happy hour with them tomorrow. There are little wallabies all around us and we chopped up some carrots for them.  A little mommy wallaby came and got some with her little joey in the pouch, so cute.  It was so awesome speaking to you all last night and I miss you all so much.. Love you all. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

17^th August, Sunday

The sun is shining and it’s a beautiful day. It’s cold though but it will warm up later.  There is a market on a Sunday morning and 95% of the stalls are Sapphires.  Apparently this is the biggest Sapphire field in the world and let’s hope that Ralphie finds something.  If he doesn’t it doesn’t really matter, it’s like fishing, if you catch it’s a bonus and if you don’t you enjoy the experience.  We saw some beautiful Sapphires this morning.  I always thought that Sapphires were like secondary little stones and they were all blue and didn’t have much value.  Geez, was I ever wrong?  The colours are amazing, green, yellow, orange, blue, just so beautiful. Emeralds have always been my favourite stone but now I have changed my mind.  I am not fussed on the really blue ones though but the others are stunning and I can’t believe how expensive they are, costs more than a fish (ha, ha).  This town, as I mentioned before is weird, humpies everywhere and cattle and wild horses roam the streets of the town, it’s a free for all and quite an experience.  Apparently the odd camel or two comes strolling through as well so let’s hope that that happens before we leave.  Ralphie has booked for a tag along tour on Tuesday so he knows where to dig and what to do.  He has bought his licence so he is all ridgie didge and ready to rock and roll. I have a pamphlet here that says “ The Rubyvale – Sapphire area is the last surviving miners common in Australia, so don’t be surprised to see horses, cattle or camels roaming the streets”.  We had drinks with the people next door and found out about where they live and what we should see, this is the way to do it.  Night peeps, love you all. xxxxxxxxxxx

18^th August, Monday

Today, we took a drive to Emerald to wash the car because it was so full of mud as you are not allowed to wash your car in the caravan parks as water is so scarce, so we use the car wash and at the same time they had a doggy wash there so while Ralph was washing the car Hugo went into the doggie wash.  He wasn’t impressed but he smells and looks so gorgeous, his coat is shining. We had to stop at a hardware to get Ralph a decent spade for his tag-a-long tomorrow.  On the way back to Sapphire we stopped at Maraboon dam.  It’s huge and the levels are very low, lower than Mundaring.  There are so many Pelicans in there and people fish there as the dam is restocked with Baramundi, Yellow belly, redclaw yabbies and a few other species, so they say that the fishing is good, no wonder that there are so many Pelicans. We came back to camp and driving back (about 50kms through the never, nevers) we played our new Slim Dusty CD, it was so magic. Just had a BBQ and early to bed as Ralph is going on his tag-a-long early in the morning. There are not a lot of photos that are going to be happening here because there really is nothing to see.  It’s the gem fields and people live in humpies and there are just lots of dirt mounds around the place and it’s not renowned for it’s great scenery, but it’s still a fascinating place. Oh Yes!…… the cattle were in town again. xxxxxxx

19^th August, Tuesday

Ralphie went for his tag-a-long fossicking, AKA, looking for our fortune trip early this morning. I spent the day doing another painting which I have hung in the toilet (ha, ha)… It wasn’t that great and it really is hanging in the toilet in the van. Ralphie came back at about 3, he was so dirty and so knackered.  The poor bloke could hardly lift his arms.  Anyways, he got 5 small Sapphires, not big enough for cutting though, but still a nice little find and souvenir for all his hard work.  He said that it was so hard that he can’t understand how these guys do this day in and day out for not much return. On Ralphs little tour one lady however found a 10 carat Sapphire – yellow, green in colour which is worth much more that the blue and quite honestly, I think is a much prettier colour, the blue doesn’t do much for me.  We will go and get a bucket of wash tomorrow at one of the local mines and see what is in there for us.  Quite honestly, I think that these little bucket of washes they offer people are a commercial thing and I think that they might put a few little stones (not worth anything) in there.  Ralphie is going to go to the places where there are no leases and bring back a few buckets for us to wash and have a look see.  It’s all good fun, especially for me because I don’t do the hard work. We were sitting outside just before dinner and throwing cut carrots out for the wallabies.  They are very shy and come up slowly to get the carrots.  One little one had her little Joey with her and as soon as she say us the Joey jumped back into the pouch but she still came up slowly to get some carrot.  It’s such a peaceful thing just sitting here and watching them come slowly, slowly to get something to eat, quite an honour really.

20^th August, Wednesday

Today we went to a place where you can buy buckets of wash, as they call it.  These place are leases and the owners make more money doing it this way than finding gems and getting them cut and polished and selling them as it is very hard work. Sometimes you can find gem quality and sometimes you find nothing.  We went to a place today called Willys wash (don’t laugh). The bloke that owns this place is really strange as are a lot of people who live here.  Anyway we got our 3 buckets from his mine/lease and surprisingly we found quite a lot of stuff.  Most of it is not worth cutting but still worth polishing and set into a bracelet.  We found about 6 pieces which we believe it worth cutting as it is not bad gem quality.  We will take it to someone while we are here to get a second opinion.  The stones look like nothing but when you hold them up to the sun you can see through them and see the colour, they really are quite amazing.  After we found our stuff and the guy had a look see and told us what was what and he brought out some cut stones and Ralphie bought me one for my birthday.  Ralphie went inside with him to get the stone weighed because the price is dependent on it’s weight an Ralph wanted to make sure that he wasn’t having us on because this bloke is a bit sus.  Anyway, while Ralph is waiting for him to set up the scale he says to Ralph “Would you like a smoke and please help yourself”, well!  He wasn’t talking about cigarettes (cracked me up, Ralph been offered Pot).  This bloke is about 60 something, wirey and thin, probably from all the digging and stuff.  I tell you something, we have never experienced anything like this before.  We took a drive after that to where Ralph wants to have a dig tomorrow (it’s a public fossicking area and is crown land), called Grave hill, you have to drive through leases where people live to get there, it’s an experience.  He found a hole and left his bucket in there.  You are in big trouble if you find a hole and there is a bucket in there and you dig it, so now Ralphie has his special little place with his bucket in there, I bought him this bucket especially for this purpose.  This bucket has pictures of butterflies all over it (ha, ha), everyone else has daggy old dirty buckets but my Ralphie has a real fancy one.  I am sure that if anyone saw it they would crack up.  Back to camp and dinner because Ralph will head off early for his digging in the morning.

21^st August, Thursday

Not much to report to you for today.  Ralph went fossicking this morning and all he brought back was mud on his clothes and boots and very sore muscles.

22^nd August, Friday

We had another lovely day today.  We went to one of the local restaurants, come fossicking place, come gift store for some lunch and we did a bit of fossicking as well.  We found quite a few stones but nothing of note so I decided to go Visa fossicking after that, very therapeutic and I can recommend it.  Lunch here is unreal, we had a hamburger, home made patties that are so thick that you can’t get your mouth around it.  The hamburger comes with the works, and is probably one of the best we’ve had. We had those with a bottle of wine and 1 beer – $40 the lot, couldn’t believe it. Just chillaxing for the rest of the day, I probably won’t do dinner because that burger really was ginormous.

24^th August, Sunday

Sorry folks, not much to report for today again.  We went to the market this morning and the market here is all Sapphire sales, I bought some Mandarines (ha, ha) and some pickled onions for Ralph, they are actually called “bum hummers” so Ralph is looking forward to trying them :-).  We went to Pats gems again and did another bucket of wash (just got some small stuff, nothing of note). We had morning tea there, very nice and then came back to the caravan just to read and do nothing much else in particular.  Tomorrow, Ralph is going to go on another tag-along so we is hoping to get something to take to his polishing lesson that he has booked in on Wednesday.  Night all xxxxxxxxx

25^th August, 26^th August – Monday and Tuesday

Well, not lots to tell you.  Ralphie went for another tag-along on Monday, he got some small stones but nothing of note and he was so dirty and so tired.  Tuesday, we went for a drive to Anakie and Rubyvale (again).  We spent the rest of the day watching movies and reading and generally doing not much, so sorry folks, we are boring old farts at the mo. Xxxxxxx

27^th August, Wednesday

You must all think that this is the most boring of our stops so far, not much to tell and not many photos.  Ralph spent the whole day at the Lapidary club learning to polish stones.  He had a good time and guess what he is going to be doing with all his stuff that he has found when we get home?  Will keep him out of mischief and off the streets. Tomorrow we will go to Emerald to do some shopping and then on Friday will pack up the van as we leave for Kinka Beach on Saturday which is close to Yeppoon and is on the Sunshine coast.  I can hear you all saying “YAAAW, no more boring posts” :-). So, it’s not much news to tell you again, so nighty, night.

28^th August, Thursday

I am just writing this post so that I know the date, the day of the week and where we are at the moment ;-).  We tend to forget all that stuff from time to time.  We went to Emerald today to do our shopping, so nothing exciting to report. We will pack up tomorrow and go for lunch and the last bucket of wash to find the big one before we leave.  xxxxxxx

29^th August, Friday

Today, we started packing up as we are leaving tomorrow.  We were going a bit slow as both of us are not feeling that wonderful. We both feel a bit quesy today so not sure if it’s something that we have eaten.  We went for lunch, and Ralph did another 2 buckets of wash, I wasn’t in the mood.  We thought that we might feel better after that and came back to the caravan and lay on the bed and I went to sleep while Ralph read.  Feeling a bit better now, which is good considering that we want to leave early tomorrow.  We will have a night stop over at one of the 24 hour stops along the way and then the following day to Kinka Beach which is close to Yeppoon.  We have decided not to stay in Yeppoon as it’s a very busy place and packed in like sardines – not our cup of tea.  So, will catch up when we get to Kinka Beach. Xxxxx