We left Carnarvon Gorge, though we all were still quite tired from the massive walk yesterday and the packup was a difficult one. You were correct Andrew the biggest danger IS from within. Certainly the party atmosphere was gone this morning. To make matters worse one of the tyres of the camper had gone down quite a bit so that needed attention before we headed off, nearly half an hour on a little 12v compressor.
It was just a short drive to Emerald which turned out to be a much larger town than we expected. There was a Harvey Norman, Coles, Woolworths, Subway and McDonalds, the first we had seen of these since leaving Sydney. After a visit to the tourist info centre and lunch at Subway (bit of a treat) we formulated a plan to head out to the Sapphire fields another 50km west and visit one of the tourist spots for some fossicking.
We got preferential treatment at the Anakie Caravan Park (this Anakie doesn't have a Fairy Park just a Caravan Park). We were offered a site right next to the camp kitchen with an old boiler for heating. Sheryl and Graham who ran the park were super friendly and would have setup the camper for us if we had asked I reckon. We dropped off the camper and plugged into power (first 240v charge since Melbourne) and headed for the Heritage Miners Centre.
This area has been mined for sapphires since the 1800s. Some lucky people have found HUGE sapphires just laying around the surface. No such luck for us. The locals tell us that the three largest sapphires ever found were on the surface in this area, one was used as a door stop because the owner thought it was a pretty stone, yeah a pretty stone worth millions! This has not been verified as fact, stories are exaggerated a little out this way it seems.
We had a tour of the sapphire mine that was working until a few years ago. OH&S rules now mean that they cannot conduct tours in an underground working mine. Love OH&S rules. The ground is so hard that the mines need no props or supports. We saw only two props where they had found a rich deposit of sapphires and they dug out a small room of rock for processing. The mine was also quite warm 22 degrees, much warmer than the mine at Sovereign Hill.
Back up on top the girls all had a go at fossicking for sapphires. All three came away with a 'deal-bag' with a few small sapphires in it. Nothing large enough to have cut but precious to their new owner. Only 20% of all the sapphire that the commercial miners find are of jewellery quality, all the rest are used in industry. The sapphire is second only to diamond for hardness and weighs 4 times more than water. Diamonds are more plentiful than sapphires yet cost more, that's just good marketing by the diamond producers.
Leaving Anakie the other tyre on the camper was quite flat. Will get those checked at Longreach also. The car is already booked in to have the exhaust manifold machined. RACV Total Care is a good investment when travelling out here.
Oh and QLD has now been dubbed the 'roadwork capital of Australia'. Roadworks everywhere. Oh look there's a bit of road, lets dig it up, sure it's a highway so we can only open one lane at a time, OH&S you know.
The odd one out. Nicholas, always was, and always will be abc
ReplyDeleteSeems quite hit and miss as to whether the iPod iPad, etc will let one post coments. Currently in Anurandhpura ...go on say it then spell it. Lots of old stuff, average 1000 years old. Older than us.....take care, NJC and abc ( note the case difference)
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