Tues, 16th July, 2019 Bush camp, south-east of Eastern Creek, east of Nullagine, WA (4 years 11 months on the road)

7.30am 13 degrees, clear sky and the wind is still blowing.

Fozzie’s 60^th birthday today - hope he has a wonderful day.

Drove back to the track down to the Mt Hay West 1 spot and detected but no joy. Followed another track trying to get to Mt Hay West 2, these are old exploration spots on our map. A creek stopped us and I think we would have to go over a mountain too so maybe there is another way to that spot from the south.

Continued along the track heading east till we reached the west end of the burnt area. We went wandering – so much ground to cover and no indication of where gold might be. I walked along the edge of a little creek and got a signal – it was not a clear gold signal but it was a lovely little bit. Steve calls them Kinder Surprises as the nugget is encased in the gray clay soil, hence the funny sound. About a foot over I got another signal, again a weird sound and out came another Kinder Surprise.

I continued slowly up and down the side of the creek with more little bits appearing. Steve came back empty-handed just as I got another signal so I gave it to him to dig out. He couldn’t hear it with his detector in one direction but when he turned around he got it.

He said thanks and moved on. I went back over it and there was another signal right beside it. The 2300 can hear little bits much better than his detector. Shame there isn’t any more big bits around for Steve to pick up.

Headed back to camp via our new track through the creek. Passed three more vehicles – someone has spread the word.

When we got back out to the main road we saw another couple detecting by the road. We stopped for a chat. They are from Geraldton and have come out here previously, finding some gold so are happy to see the spinifex has been burnt so they can go over their area better. It is old exploration pushes. They are camped further back along the road before all the bulldust holes.

Home for a late cuppa with the wind still blowing. The sun is shining on the van and is quite warm so opened up the windows to cool it down – 28 degrees.

Played Skipbo till the sun disappeared behind the hill beside us then closed up the van again as the wind is cold and it doesn’t take long for the van to feel cool again.

No sitting out around the fire here as the wind is too windy and there is no one to chat to any case. So more Skipbo while we had our drinks then shower and dinner.

NO PHOTOS TODAY.