7.30am
14.9 degrees and the misty rain is back.
A
black faced wallaby stopped by to nibble on a few leaves beside the truck.
A
few rosellas sat in the tree above us then the lorikeets came back. Had fun
with them with their crackers again. Taught Erica and Terry how to play Skipbo.
The
wind blew the clouds away so the sun is out again.
We
went for a drive. Over Retreat Creek which runs down the north edge of the
Graves Hill area.
Through
Sapphire, across the Tropic of Capricorn (will come back for photos) and into
Rubyvale to check out the gems at one of the many jewellery shops. There were
some very impressive stones. Learnt that a carat is 1/5th of a gram.
Found
one of the many information boards around town. Will do a wander when we leave.
We
went down to the creek to see if we could get any zircons as their friend had
got a few from there. Filled up a bucket.
We
were going to a café that gave you a bag of wash when you have their tea and
scones but it was closed so we headed back to the Bobby Dazzler Mine. Bought a
bucket of wash (leftovers from their mine) to see what treasures we can find.
A
bit of history and information about how these sapphires were cut to be busts of
some American Presidents – amazing work.
The
locals roam freely through town.
On
the way back to Graves Hill I spotted another info board about the gemstones
used in the Queensland Parliamentary Mace.
Washed
the bucket of ‘wash’ and got some little blue and green sapphires and zircons.
Weighed them – a chap sells stones at the market for 50c a carat so we probably
only got $8 worth from the $10 bag of wash. Oh well, saved Steve digging.
Weighed
up what we have found ourselves so far.
The
word is out and more lorikeets arrived for a snack. Took a video of them.
Steve
got a good fire going.
Lovely evening though a nippy cool breeze came up about
8pm bringing some clouds over.
Played
a few games of Skipbo.
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