SUNDAY 25 JULY     GEMTREE

Had a pretty slow start this morning, in the chill.

Eventually got organized and decided to try some easy specking for garnets. Drove east along the Plenty Highway, for about 30kms, to where Gemtree have a lease where they take tour groups after garnets.

We decided to try our luck in the area over the road from that. There were a couple of camps set up by the road and a lot of diggings near the road. We drove in off the road for a couple of kms, following a little track. This ended in a clearing on bare ground, with lots of mallee and mulga scrub about.

We left Truck in the clearing and walked about, looking at the ground, and actually specked some garnets. Rather to our surprise, I might add. This was really just an exercise in going out for a while, rather than anything serious!

Ate our lunch at Truck, then tried some systematic specking. Picked up a few bits. We used the compass and GPS to walk in a straight line over the flat flood plains, through the scrub. It was a good thing that we did because it was really easy country in which to get lost – flat, featureless, and with fairly thick scrub for those parts. I would not have been confident of finding my way back to Truck, after walking a little way. Our method got us back to the track we’d driven in on, not too far from the clearing where we’d parked.

This was different country to where we’d been digging before, and quite a different experience. I found it slightly spooky.

We got back to Gemtree mid-afternoon, after driving 70kms.

I cooked lamb shanks for tea.