Mon, 12th Sept, 2016 Bush camp, 5km E of Nullagine, WA

7am 19 degrees, clear sky, light SW breeze.

I did the washing in the morning while Steve wandered around with my 2300. By morning tea he had 11 tiny little nuglets. He had it cranked right up onto 5 which I never do as it warbles too much.

33 degrees in the van at 11am but there is a nice wind blowing and the washing is drying very quickly. Checked out Newman’s temperature (200km south of here) and it is only 26 top with 11 overnight.

Steve back for lunch with a total of 27 nuglets giving him 2.34 grams – well done, we made our quota for today. I will let him have the gold on his tally since he is the one wandering around in the heat of the day. It is hot but not humid so you don’t feel the heat as bad – though when it is reflecting straight up from the quartz rocks it can get a bit too hot in the middle of the day.

He is finding such little ones – this one doesn’t even register on the scale which goes down to 0.01 grams!!

I wandered around and helped him dig a few out – they are so small and hard to find in the dirt. The wind has come up strong from the west but he kept going and found 16 more for 1.43 grams – they all add up so he ended up with 3.77 grams for the day which is great compared to when we started and he was bringing home 0.50 grams and we thought that was great. I am wondering how much I have missed not having it up on 5 but I have tried and it nearly drove me nuts as it sounds off like a signal every time you bump it on a rock!! It’s not as if I haven’t found any!!

After smoko we drove into town to visit Joe and Peta. Had a great chat about the characters and where the gold used to be. He has had mining leases and done dry blowing as well as push and detect. He had a lease where we are camped and he said there is still plenty of little gold there for the 2300 to pick up. He said it is called Razorback because of the narrow hill in the middle. Old timers had dug shafts into it which we saw. He gave us a couple of places to look at and said to call in next year and he will take us out detecting.

This is Razorback. Steve got all the little bits on the slope in front.

After the sun set we walked back over so I could try detecting on the 5 setting. I got 4 bits but found it difficult – Steve is much more patient sorting the signals from false signals. My 4 bits brought the day’s total to 4 grams so we were very happy with that.

Late dinner but it was a beautiful night so enjoyed being outside.