While out in the bush you come across some amazing parts of the country. I took this footage when we stopped off at Lake Ballard on the way to the historic town of Menzies on route home from our last trip.
Category: Gold (Page 4 of 4)
October 2020
I am pretty convinced that if we had had more than just a week we would have found gold. In saying that, of course finding gold would be good, even the tiniest piece, but just getting out into the bush, the proximity to nature, the peace and quiet, the chance that maybe today we will find a tiny slither or our fortune in gold, just the shear adventure of it all means that we have got many more trips ahead of us.
When we got home, we ordered a GPX5000 which has now arrived and is set up but at this stage unused, just waiting. We have also made another purchase, the Forester can breathe a sigh of relief and stay at home, we shouldn’t have a problem with the bush tracks anymore.
Summer is coming and Gold season is over but when Autumn comes you know where you will find us! Well actually, you probably won’t find us unless you have access to our satellite tracker which we can’t give you because that would be telling you where the gold is and that is a secret.
The Forester did its best but it was not built for this.
When I purchased my walking boots, several years ago, metal detectors were not my primary concern. The fact that they have metal eyelets is not, in my opinion, a reason for me to be ridiculed. Debbie, on the other hand refuses to stop reminding me that I should have considered the implications before I brought them with us.
August 2020
While we agreed that purchasing the entry level Equinox 800 was probably good advise for beginners we felt that if we are serious about finding gold, then we should invest in a professional detector before we head out to the goldfields again. Unfortunately, because travel out of the state was not possible, every man and his dog had taken up gold prospecting for their holidays, there was not a detector to be found for sale anywhere in the state.
By August, Debbie had taken advantage of some more prospecting courses run by APLA and we were keen to hit the road again. We decide to hire a Minelab GPX5000 just like the “Aussie Gold Hunters” use on tv and we were off again. This time we were heading to a productive area a couple of hours north west of Kal.
Again this tenement was well off the beaten track and our trusty Forester could get us close but not quite where we wanted to go. It meant a walk of a couple of klms. each day to get us to our target area.
The GPX made an incredible difference and we were able to identify targets within minutes. We continued to use the Equinox but ran the GPX over each target to decide if they were worth pursuing. We were really rocking and rolling now, how could we not find gold this time?
June 2020
Then, while digging not for gold but to dispose of the contents of Debbie’s throne, my back gave up. Jolts like what I would expect would be similar to 10,000 volts shooting through my lower spine meant that the trip was over. I did try for another day but it was hopeless and being as remote as we were, meant that it would be irresponsible to try and continue.
Packing up camp was a challenge and Debbie really had to work harder than she should have. For my part, getting the gear on the roof when I could hardly stand up was interesting. I managed to drive the car back the 200 klms back to the main road purely because it was a straight road and that we didn’t see another living soul, but as soon as I had to brake or turn the steering wheel I knew I would be unable to continue. Debbie drove our overladen car the remaining 800 klms home with an overnight stop at the road house at Payne’s Find.
Bush camping in winter was perfect for prospecting during the day but it is a bit chilly in the desert at night. We made good use of the hot water bottles Debbie was wise enough to take with us.
The remainder of my second week of my holiday was spent drugged up, flat in my back but even while lying there in pain, I was planning to get away again.
June 2020
So, late and extremely tired we arrive at the tenement. Beyond the locked gate was a miners track that in places was as good as any of the unsealed roads we had been on but others where the rain had washed parts of the road away, needed some very determined and gentle manoeuvring in our little Subaru Forrester that was not really built for this environment.
We were looking for the site of some old test drill holes but when we couldn’t find them decided that where we were looked as good a spot as any and camped there. Later, when I gave my new birthday present (a drone) it’s inaugural flight I discovered that we were in fact camping on one of the drill holes. I must say that I was pretty impressed with my navigational skills!
This was an impressive landscape, in order to prepare for this trip, Debbie and I had undertook a brief geology course to help us in the words of our tutor, Aaron (remember him, the expert detector salesman) to find the haystack. WA is so big that before you can find the needle you have to find the haystack. Well, this site had pretty much all of the geology Aaron had told us to look out for, we must find gold here surely. Again, the metal detector found plenty of metal but alas after a week of digging, no gold.
As we sat around the camp fire in the evenings we noted how much quicker we were getting at identifying our targets, it used to take about 20 mins from the first indications of a target to confirming that we were looking at a staple or a hot rock and could move on, we were now down to around 6 or 7 mins. Next week we would find our first nugget for sure.
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.
March 2020
Detecting practice continued at our local beach, Debbie now has a comprehensive collection of beer bottle tops, fishing weights and foil from cigarette packs.
Another strange looking bit of kit has appeared in the garage. Apparently, it is a sand scoop for finding treasure along the sea shore.
March 2020
Plans went full steam ahead for our return trip to Alice via the so called “Outback Highway” . Permits were applied for and granted because we were to travel through remote Aboriginal communities. We were set to leave in just a couple of weeks when Covid-19 hit. Borders were closed and permits revoked. Very soon it was obvious that we were not leaving Perth under any circumstances anytime soon.
January 2020
Our metal detector worked as advertised and found us plenty of metal. When you look around you think you are in pristine bush land but we found plenty of evidence to suggest that we where not the first people to venture to these parts. We found bullet cases, nails, old rusty knifes, bits of old horseshoe but no gold. We encountered hot rocks for the first time and I now know them to be a regular thorn in the prospectors side.
The mornings and evenings were spectacular BUT talk about “mad dogs and Englishmen”, the middle of the day was unbearable. It reached over 40 degrees on our first two days and with only our tent and awning for shade it was too much. We didn’t want to cut our holiday short so we booked into a hotel in Kal (Kalgoorlie) and spent New Year’s Eve visiting as many pubs along Hannon Street as we could. We ended up in the Criterion Hotel watching the locals strutting their stuff, singing karaoke, a night never to be forgotten.
We didn’t find gold but I knew that we would be back.
Late December 2019
Aaron, Reeds owner is very good at his job and we left his store having not hired a metal detector but being the proud owners of a Minelab Equinox 800 machine, complete with all the accessories we were told we would need.
Finally, we hit the road. I had done a little YouTube research and found where we could legally prospect and Debbie had obtained the appropriate Miners Rights licenses that were required. We had also joined APLA which proved invaluable in helping to set us on the right path. We decided that an area near Bullfinch would be a good place to start. It is now a ghost town but in its heyday produced an abundance of the gold stuff and I figured that they must have left a little bit for us to find.
We found our spot on the tenament, just a kilometre or so from the road and set up camp. It was beautiful and so peaceful but we also found out very quickly why Gold Hunting not a summer activity.
