Mon, 20th May, 2019 Bush camp near Jubilee Hill, 50km south of Laverton, WA

6.30am 11 degrees, still put the heater on to take the chill out of the air and our clothes. Streaky clouds in the east and the wind is quite gusty.

7am 15 degrees, time to get up and do out weekly weigh-in, another reason to warm up the van.

We all went for a drive to the top of the western lease where it showed there was Rowena Mine on the map. There was lots of exploration done in the area with acres of land being pushed and then rehabilitated. We continued on and detected a few spots but no joy for anybody. Steve found a slope that had been scraped in the old days to clear away the bigger ironstone rocks so it looked like market gardens. We all wandered over it and at last Ray found a little bit. This is getting to be hard work!!

Stopped at Mallock Well to check out the old hut, dead windmill and old sheep troughs. One was made from red homemade bricks. The flies are back again as it has warmed up. The wind is still gusty bringing more clouds over.

Back to camp for a cuppa, 29 degrees in the van. Clouds blocking out the sun. Steve drove off to explore another spot so I detected along the track just up from the van. I got 3 bits, one on each side of the track and one right in the middle. They are so little but they are slowly adding up. I left big smiley faces made from little quartz bits to mark the good spots, ha ha. Claus leaves just one bigger piece of quartz in his gold holes – very handy as it gives you a guide to where others were successful, and they might have left something behind too!

No joy for Steve again.

Jess and Jon rang while I was out – the signal comes and goes. I tried to ring them back but the signal had gone again so I sent a text. They were just ringing for a chat. Jon had a good trip but no fish unfortunately. I said, Nana will be sad, as she was looking forward to some fresh Barramundi.

Chatted about our lack of success here while we had drinks around the fire – the wind has stopped at last. Started off well with the bits near camp and seeing the nice nuggets Heidi and Mark found but unfortunately we haven’t lucked onto a patch for ourselves yet. We will keep trying as we have to wait for our next 40E permits to be sent to Laverton before we can move on.

Warmer evening though we still close up the van as it cools of quickly into the night.

The sky has cleared and the stars are out as the moon comes up again later in the evening.

NO PHOTOS TODAY.