Froggles Travels: May 2016

We left Yeppoon after saying goodbye to our new found friends and headed off towards Emerald, Rubyvale to do some fossicking in the hope of digging up the mother lode and landing up with a good quality Sapphire and then off to Springsure to see the Virgin Rock Impression.

We had to break our trip from Yeppoon to Emerald due to the distance we had to travel, so our first stop was a free camp stay behind the Bluff Hotel, the second at Emerald show grounds, then off to Rubyvale after which we went to Springsure.

Fossicking is the term used to dig up, wash and sort gravel to expose Rubies, Emerald and other precious Stones. Rubies are the second hardest stone found and reaches a hardness of nine on the Mohs scale, whereas a diamond will register ten on the scale Corundum on the other hand measures 9 and yet a diamond is 4 times as hard.

Yeppoon to Bluff Hotel

Our first overnight stay was at the Bluff hotel which is run by a great guy called Graham, he allowed us to stay at the back of the hotel for free, providing we spent some money at the pub and restaurant. He did not have to convince me as by that stage, I was so thirsty that my tongue was hanging out and could easily be mistaken for a tie. I had a few cold ones and Shirley had a few lemonades as well. You meet all sorts of people in these small towns and here is one of the fury characters we met at the pub.

My long lost mate

The Bluff Hotel

The famous pub

Waiting for our breakfast prior to leaving

This is where we spent the first night

Lesson learnt from our very first “Free Camp”

1. Change the Fridge from battery connection to gas

2. Unplug battery charging connection from car to caravan

3. Unplug fridge in back of car from charging

Reason for this: Woke up in the morning to a car with a flat battery. Luckily our lovely hotel owner Graham came to our rescue and got us back on the road.

Another lesson learnt - Staying behind a pub was great however we did overspend a bit.

Emerald

We left the pub and headed to Emerald where we spent two nights at the Emerald show grounds caravan park. Emerald is a fair size mining town which is now struggling as the result in the downturn in the economy, we went to town on two occasions and must add that it was not a very interesting place. We met another couple (Philip and Pauline) who were from Mackay and were also travelling to Rubyvale, so we teamed up and travelled together.

The only exciting thing in Emerald was the visit to the botanical garden. These pillars depict the history of the town.

Rubyvale

Rubyvale is a dry, dusty town and exists only as a result of the Sapphires found in the vicinity, it is not a very exciting town and only has a few shops and areas where you can fossick or wash already mined material in the hope of finding a big stone. There is an underground tour as well which shows how the miners had to grovel in the dirt by candle light at depths of up to 20 meters. The brochures below shows the areas around Sapphire and Rubyvale and gives a brief insight of the gems found in the area.

On the first day at Rubyvale, we stopped off at Pat’s fossicking area and washed a bucket of gravel, we got a few small stones and one in particular which was a golden colour and of gem quality. It was great fun and not too stressful. The picture below shows us at the entrance to Pats Gems and the following pictures are of me collecting dirt, washing it and finally sorting the gems.

Step 1- Load the bucket with gravel that was dug up the day before.


Step 2 - Sieve the material to get rid of the loose sand

Step 3 - Remaining gravel is then washed.

Step 4 - The gravel is hand sorted.

The experience was a whole heap of fun and the end result can be seen below

We had great fun that day and ended off by going to an underground mine tour.

The mine tour was very interesting and informative. You have to feel sorry for the poor guys who worked in these confined spaces in the bygone years.

New and easy access into the mine

Life underground in the good old days, digging then sifting the dirt.

The picture above shows the original entrance to the mine which was down a shaft on a rickety ladder.

Tunnel that was hand dug

The next day feeling very excited to strike it rich, we headed off to a fossicking area and started our journey to becoming millionaires. By the time we got to the digging area, the sun was already high in the sky and I was already sweating bullets before I started digging. We started off with a hiss and a roar and soon discovered that this was not an easy feat. After a few minutes of digging, I already had plans on bringing an excavator with a rock breaker to do the hard work. I mentioned this to the caretaker who was there at the time and he did say that this would result in a jail sentence, so I had to abandon the idea. The thought also crossed my mind to bring Sipho out from South Africa (just joking) but the cost would be prohibitive, so I had to rely on my better half instead

Does it look like I was built for this? The over burden first has to be removed to expose the aggregate below.

Once the aggregate is collected in a bucket, it then has to go through the tromel to get rid of the loose dirt, this particular tromel is powered by a 1 HP Shirley

The remaining stones are then poured into a double sieve.

The sieve with a portion of the gravel then gets washed in a Willaby

The washed gravel is then turned out onto sacking to then be sorted or inspected for any shiny stones.

Needless to say that we were not there too long, Shirley did not want to dig anymore and no matter how hard I tried to crack the whip, the result was poor, so we left and had lunch and a few cold beverages instead. If I had to choose between been rich or having to dig this hard ground in the middle of nowhere in this God forsaken heat, then I would rather be a pauper. I must say that Pauline and Phillip did rather well and managed a few buckets of their own. Considering that this poor lady was on blood thinning medication, she kept up with the pack. The picture below shows them hard at work.

After all this physical work, we found this great little air conditioned pub in Rubyvale and this suited me just fine. If I had my way, I would have been there until closing time.

Springsure

The next morning we packed up and headed towards the small town of Springsure which is situated roughly one hour south of Rubyvale. The town supports a few mines around the area as well as a bit of farming. The town has a beautiful view of a mountain range and the impression of the Virgin Mary on the side of the mountain. See the picture below


Impression of The Virgin Mary

Boab Tree in Springsure

While we were there we also took a scenic drive up the mountain ranges overlooking Springsure, and we were absolutely blown away. Was is if we were looking out at God's Window in the Northern Transvaal in South Africa.

180 degree view of the mountain ranges overlooking Springsure.

Another lookout that we went to and this too was so beautiful, the photos don't do it justice.

Along our travel we came across the site of a mass grave where 19 settlers were murdered in 1861 by the local aboriginal tribe in the area, the retaliation would have been quite fierce, however I could not find any more information of this account.