Sun, 3rd June, 2018 Bush camp, Mt Dockrell goldfields, south-west of Halls Creek, WA

7am 16. Degrees, clear sky and ESE wind again.

Packed up and drove over to Steve’s ‘silver stuff’ spot to check out another signal. More of the silver stuff in the quartz.

I walked along the quartz outcrop to where he had dug out the stuff yesterday. He filled it in.

We got phone reception on top of a hill and got some texts through. Two were missed calls from Mike and Malcolm. Rang Mike back – they are heading up this way soon so we will send them the GPS marks of the ‘patch’ in case it will help them. We told him about the silver stuff and he thinks it could be lead, which is Pb on the mineral lists. Malcolm said it was minus 1 in Westbury this morning so he is looking forward to heading north soon for the Cape York trip.

We drove down to Willy Willy Well which is beside Willy Willy Creek (of course). The old windmill has been replaced with a solar-powered pump and there is plenty of water going into the tank and the cattle trough. The tank is full and overflowing on the other side down into the creek (which is dry). We removed a dead cane toad from the water trough then got some water for showers and clothes washing from the overflow.

Drove over the hill and found a tree to hang the washing line then did our washing. We had a cuppa while we waited for it to dry - shouldn’t take long in this sun and wind. We would look funny to someone passing by. I decided it was a good time to wash my hair too. Steve got out the 2300 and went for a wander and amazingly in all the rubbish he found a little bit of gold.

We headed off again and tried another area further around to the east. Got one bit each. Got phone reception again and had missed a call from Jeff so rang him back. He is in Marble Bar but hasn’t had any luck yet. It was even good enough for the internet so I managed to upload a couple of days of my blog. I also posted photos on Sandy Desert 18’s Facebook page for the boys. I wonder how they are going. Looked up Steve’s silver stuff – we are thinking it is Galena (lead) or zinc so probably need a ton of it to make any money!! Oh well, it looks good. Steve rang Kev and Linda as he didn’t need to have the phone connected to the aerial either.

We went further along the track looking at our Tengraph map of old workings and found a spot for the night. Cleared some spinifex away and we were set for the night.

Still have phone service too but not enough for the internet. Rang Mum and Dad for a chat. They had 13 degrees so they are feeling cold. It is down to below 0 on the Tablelands. They were watching a movie about Mosquito Bombers. Dad said Grandad Brotherton bought a wood lathe from England that was used to make the veneer for those bombers. They stayed with a friend in England who had made the bomb doors during the war.

The wind has gone so it was a lovely evening.