June 2020

In June some of the local restrictions were lifted and we decided to head back out into the bush for a two week stint to have a serious hunt. This time we would travel 1000 klms to an area that is still producing gold. This place was remote and would take some getting to, but while we were waiting for travel restrictions to be lifted we had both been been researching and we knew that we where on the right track, the gold was waiting for us.

You would be mad to head off to these places unprepared and we made sure that we had satellite tracking devices that were being monitored, that we had several means of satellite navigation with us and that we knew how to use them. Our car was laden down with massive amounts of water and we had plenty of spare fuel. I left Debbie to sort out provisions which meant we would be carrying enough food to last months, not just the two weeks that we intended to be off the grid.

It took us two days to drive the 980 klms to get within 20 klms of our intended tenement when we came across a locked gate across the road. Undeterred we spent the next three hours trying to find another way round, I think it was while reaching for a map during this time that my back began to twinge. We ended up driving to the nearest cattle station about 40 klms away where Debbie displayed some very impressive diplomacy to persuade the station owners to tell us where the key for the gate was hidden.