Wed, 4th July, 2018 Graves Hill Fossicking Area, near Sapphire, Qld (Mum’s birthday) (exploring Anakie)

7am 8.9 degrees, clear sky. Got up at 7.30am as it had made it to 10.4 degrees.

Had breakfast with the lorikeets again – cheeky little things.

Rang Mum and sang her Happy Birthday.

Drove to Glenalva which is another fossicking area. Erica & Terry’s friends, Merv & Carmel are camped there. Merv had been learning to cut gemstones and Erica took down some of the broken glass from the floor over the cellar in Dad’s family home in Millaa Millaa. He cut some teardrops for each of our family which was wonderful and I thanked him from all of us.

When we arrived another couple of friends, Ron & Joan were visiting from another fossicking spot called The Willows so we had a great time chatting over morning tea. We brought out our ‘show & tell’ to show them what we are doing while we travel. We commented we think it is easier than gem hunting.

Stopped off at Anakie on the way back. Big gem and a miner in front of the caravan park.

Checked out the old railway station and information board.

The Anakie Hotel.

At the intersection we stopped to check out the big information boards. The Centenary Sapphire was found by a 14 year old girl, Serlie (Smilie) Nelson, who specked this massive 2,020 carat gem at Sapphire in 1979. It was purchased by the Richardson Brothers of Sapphire. The ‘giant of gemstones’ has a colourful history. In 1983 the stone was stolen from an exhibition in Sydney with other gems to the value of $8,000,000 but surprisingly, the rough gem was recovered in 1986. It is the largest gem quality sapphire in the world.

Interesting sculpture – luckily we have a sunny day to get the colours in the sculpture.

As we passed through the mining leases we spotted some people working on theirs. Some have their holes under their sheds to they can’t be raided.

Dug some more from the last hole after lunch and on the last turnout we found a lovely green sapphire and a few other gemstones. You can see the green better with the torch under it.

Robyn rang back to give us the details of Archina and Mark’s wedding details and her baby so we could update the family tree. Erica’s eldest sister, Maree, was there so we had a lovely chat with her.

After dinner played some more Skipbo – Erica is very good at it but Steve still managed to win.

Lovely clear evening with a light cool breeze. Steve got the ‘lovelies warmers’ out for Erica and Terry – they were most impressed.  Terry said when he was in the forestry they used to put their hurricane lamps under their beds to warm them up.