Brisbane to Longreach

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It was a great feeling to finally hit the road after planning the trip for over 6 months. We decided to head inland as we have done most of the Qld coast before. Our target was to head for Gold Rush country and try our luck at a bit of prospecting. After a quick stop off at Emerald to get some supplies we headed for the small town of Clermont. Lovely little town with lots of history of not only Gold but also one of the most devastating floods in Qld history with loss of life. After checking in at the caravan park we met with Clermont Prospectors who would give us the best chance of finding gold as we hired one of their state of the art metal detectors for 1/2 a day. We set out on a chilling 2 degree morning and headed to one of the general permission propecting area. After 1 hour of training on our high tech gold finding machine we were pretty excited and keen to get out and find our fortune. Dave quickly got the hang of the metal detector and we quickly started hearing some positive noises which sounded like a ghost to me but this meant we were onto something. I dug about 5 small holes in quick succession as the machine was making noises all over the place. After hovering the machine back over the holes several times we heard nothing then after about 15 minutes of more digging we realised Dave's boots had metal lace hole loops so that was what was setting off the metal detector. First let down of the day! But soldier on we did for 5 solid hours looking for gold. At the end of the 5 hours of fossicking we had found 1 empty bullet shell and 2 pieces of tin we definitely think we would have found gold if we were in the right spot but obviously we weren't. So back to camp we headed for a well desered rest and a few drinks.

The next town on our radar was Sapphire we thought it we can't find gold we are sure to find sappires. So after arriving in the blink and you miss it town of Sapphire we headed down the river to try our luck. We spotted to a few people who appeared to know what they were doing and got some handy hints off them and off we went. No flash machinery needed here just a bucket, water and a keen eye. We found some lovely looking rocks but unfortunately no sapphires. Amazing though to see how many people were down there also giving it a go. That night there was a camp fire with lots of singing and banjo playing what a great way to end off another day.

We decided to head off the next morning and headed for Jericho as were were advised of a great camping spot right on the river. How true they were we arrived and got a river front spot with a lovely view of the wild life and river. It was a popular spot and as the afternoon drew on the camp site filled up. We met a few of the other campers one I like to call "Big Noter" and one I like to call "Know it all" or "been there done that" I am sure you can work out what these terms mean. That night we got the Ned going and cooked up a lovely feast of beef stew and damper with some other travellers we met from Brisbane, Alison and Kim. the next afternoon we headed down the local watering hole

Well our next location was Longreach home to the Qantas Founders Museum. After a 2 hour drive during which we spotted a 3m brown snake, several Emus, Jabiru birds and 100's of dead kangaroo we arrived in Longreach. A farily large country town with lots of touristy attractions. Well straight to the Qantas museum for us which was very informative and definitely a must see for longreach. Our guide Ken was very passionate about aircraft and was overflowing with information about the resident boeing 747.

All in all we have had a great first week on the road and are looking forward to many more to come!

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Comments

[lynda]

brissie bloggers
great first blog davey and farrah and roxy, keep them coming please, love Mum