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| Erin "kissing up" to the local miner in Saphire hoping for life long riches!! To No Luck!! |
| Glenn's Journal 02-07-03 & 02-08-03 Queensland Today we are off to the Carnarvon National Park and, more specifically, the Carnavon Gorge. The day is overcast and rainy but you never know how the weather is only a few miles away. The rain is moving southwest and with a little luck we may be able to drive right by it. We were out of town earlier than our usual which whould place at the National Park before noon. The "outback" is pretty baren and with the lack of rain that most of Australia has had it looks very dry. The rain was much appreciated by the locals and they hoped it would rain for days. The creeks were dry as well as the town reservoirs and water restrictions were aplenty. The drive was uneventful as we reached the turnoff to the National park around 11:00 am. We were aware that the last 25 kilometers were un-sealed roads but you never know what to expect. We made our way until we came to the un-sealed road. Usually un-sealed roads are just gravel roads that, with care, are fine to drive on but sometimes slower than the main roads. Unfornutately for us the rain had made the road quite muddy and slippery. We drove for as far as we felt comfortable in our little Toyota (2 wheel drive) and decided to turn back. We did not want to get stuck out in the middle of now where, especially during the off season, when you had no idea when anyone else would show up to rescue you. We also did not want to get stuck in the park in case more rain made the road out impassable. It was raining quite consistently and would probably not get to do much hiking any way. We decided to skip the National Park and continue on to our next destination of Emerald. On the way to Emerald we stopped to help a gentleman with his car hood up. He needed a jump start and we did not have jumper cables so we offered him a ride into the next town of Rolston. After locating jumper cables we then drove hom back to his car, gave him a jump start, and then followed him back to Rolston where he couldhave his car checked. We got gasoline and continued on our way to Emerald. Once at Emerald we stopped into the information booth where the nice young lady provided is with plenty of information about the surrounding area. We were here to mine for Saphires so we continued west to the little town of Saphire where we found a campervan park and booked a cabin for the next two nights. We would spend the day fossicking for saphires in the hopes to become rich. Yeah right!!! It was only 4:30 pm when we finshed settling in to our cabin so we decided to head back into town. We quickly found the little town pretty well closed down for the evening so we drove up to Rubyvale to take a look around. Mos everything was closed here as well but the manager of the campervan park mentioned that the Rubyvale hotel had $8 Friday nights where all dinners on the menu went for $8. After driving around Rubyvale we found ourselves reading our books in the car while we waited for our hunger for dinner to arise. We finally gave in around 6:30 pm and went into the hotel/bar/restaurant. We were too early for the specials as they did not start until 7:00 pm but "Happy hour" was on. We bought a few drinks and chatted waiting for the seven o'clock hour to order our meals. Dinner was very good and we finshed up around 8:00 pm and returned to our cabin. The drive back was a slow one as it was dark and we did not want to hit a kangaroo or cow crossing the road. We were lucky enough to see them far enough ahead that we did not have to completely stop. Once at home Erin worked on journals while I read my book. I finshed another John Grisham and started a new one tonight before crashing around 11:00 pm. Tomorrow we would fossick for saphires. 02-08-03 New South Wales We were up early today as some of the day tours were listed as leaving around 9:00 am and we thought we would try and catch one. We prepared for the day, including making lunches and fillig our water bottles, and headed out to the main street to find a phone booth. The phone booth happened to be in front of the main post office so Erin went in to mail some letters and postcards while I made phone calls. The first place I called said that he was not having a tour today due to the most recent rain and how hard it would be to reach the mining area much less peform the work if it started to rain again today. The day was overcast and muggy but you could not tell if it was going to actually rain or not. We'll see!!! I asked for any recommendations and he said that the other driving tour operators would probably not be working today but he did recommend some local places to visit. Erin and I were o.k. With that so we headed back top Rubyvale and the Heritage Mine. We went on an underground tour including explanations on the history of the area and how they prepared the stones. It was an interesting tour. After the tour we stopped in town to gather some groceries before continuing our day. We dropped the groceries back at the cabin before ending up at Pat's Gems. We spent the rest of the afternoon sifting through dirt and rocks looking for saphires, especially the "big one" that would allow us to travel for the remainder of our lives. Lucky chance!! We did find some small but beautiful saphires but none that seemed worth having cut and mounted. We sifted through dirt until after 5:00 pm and we even took some dirt home to sift later tonight. It was an enjoyable and relaxing day. Erin cooked a spaghetti dinner with salad and we spent the rest of the evening reading the paper working on puzzles, typing journals,, and reading our books. |