Fri, 26th August, 2016 Bush camp, 15km S of Marble Bar, WA

6.30am Wendy rang – forgot about the 2 hour difference but it was wonderful to chat with her over the next hour and a half!! Just like being there having coffee.

Got up at 8am, only 19 degrees. Still windy and a clear blue sky.

Headed south to check out Klondyke Queen and Klondyke Boulder Mines. Lots of rubbish left here near the Queen Mine.

More remains of houses made from local stone.

Further around we spotted this slab with a plaque remembering Harold who lived and worked in the mine.

Around to the mine marked by a boiler and winch and pumping equipment.

Below to the left we found a shaft leading into the hill.

We climbed up to the boiler area for a look. More excavations lead up the other side of the hill.

The boiler, winch etc. Later miners used an old truck body across an opening to pull things up. There was water in it.

Walked to the start of the hillside excavations.

Steve continued up the hill for a look. Obviously they were following a quartz vein like this one.

The view over from the mine area. The other shaft is on the bottom of this hill (down to the left).

Back down to the truck and we continued along the track a bit to turn around when we spotted another shaft going in the hill on the other side of the creek.

Only a small one – Steve checking for any leftover gold!!

Followed another track trying to find the Klondyke Boulder Mine but found this open plain and ridged hills. There has been exploration drills around here so there are tracks going in all directions.

Found the mine after we crossed another creek. Checked out the big hole in the ground first. Beside it was a shaft.

Steve found the wick part of a lantern.

Looking from the hole over an old boiler to the rest of the mine area.

Wandered over cleared slab areas – houses or work sheds.

Then we followed the excavations along the side of the hill. There were 10 shafts, most linking with another one.

On the other side was a ridge of stones. They used these for building material.

The spinifex is burning somewhere south of us.

Piles of quartz near the shafts. We got out the detectors to check them for gold but only found rubbish steel everywhere.

Steve found another shaft further down they went in from the side.

The miner wore out his pick on this one.

Headed back then turned off to have lunch near some scrapes from Doug Stone’s book – well we think they are - his directions and maps are terrible. And there was no gold – just rubbish. Heading out Steve spotted another track which he went up but it didn’t lead to anything except a sharp rock that got in our tyre. Steve is getting very quick at repairing punctures now!!

Back past the van and we went back up to our scrapes past the Salgash Mine. We raked back the stones and then I detected, got 3 nuglets straight up. Steve then cleared and dug out the area where he found nuggets the other day and I got another 3 nuglets. We made our 1 gram target for the day. Goes to show there is always more there somewhere.

Very still afternoon which was eerie after all that wind. No drinks with Mel and Sandra as he got called into work early so they had to head off. Will catch up with them in Geraldton one day.

Ray and Carol rang, they are now in Cloncurry on the way home to Woodgate.

Brian had put a post on Facebook about a prospector finding a 4.1kg nugget in Victoria – and Steve thought there was nothing left there!! Another post from Claude and Trish of a 13oz nugget in Wedderburn, Vic too – here we are thinking we needed to be in WA!! It’s just like fishing – ‘you should have been here last week – the fishing was fantastic!’