Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got!

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Day 107 - Mount Surprise

We woke up this morning wondering if anyone else on the campsite would still be talking to us! The four of us had laughed ourselves silly through a game of rummy last night and, not that it matters, we believe that collectively Kangaroojack got their arses kicked!

There was plenty of time to sit, chat and have breakfast this morning. Andy & Caroline were especially chuffed because it meant they could have marmite on toast since they’d got their own supplies of it!

Once breakfast was done and buttered another challenge was laid, mini golf! Andy & Caroline have been regularly playing mini golf throughout their 9 month trip and Bedrock campsite has its own rocky little course so we thought, why not - bring on the Bedrock Open! The prize for the winner, an ice cream of their choice! We faired well at first, our performance was on par with Kangaroojack, there were a couple of ‘holes in one’ even but at the end of the first round we weren’t the ones in the lead! We needed to put our putters where our mouths were so started the second round with gusto. Things were really looking up until I lost the plot on the third hole and we almost lost count on the amount of shots it took before the obviously not round enough, little white supposedly ball thing went through the ridiculously offset tunnel to finally and thankfully drop down the quite clearly too small a hole! I say all that very much tongue in cheek and it was probably the amount of laughing I was doing that put me off my stroke! Darryl however was on a roll and came up with a hole in one to try and pull us back into the game. Kangaroojack started to slip a bit too but not enough and after we’d all finished the last hole the scores were totted up and the leader board declared. In 4th place came Darryl with 57, in 3rd place came Sarah with 55, in 2nd place with 51 came Andy but the clear winner with a putting brilliant 49 was Caroline! Totally tee-tastic fun!

With plenty of hours left in the day we decided to go and get dirty! There’s Topaz in them there hills and we wanted to claim some for ourselves! To Fossick in Australia you must have a licence so we set off to Mt Surprise Gems just across the road after a slight detour through the free car wash! That’s right, a free car wash! It’s really there to ensure all the dirt and crap that you’ve picked up on your journey isn’t spread to wherever you happen to be going next. We’re in the Kangaroojack Patrol again and it’s not long before we arrive at the Gem store. They’re slogan is actually “Go on, have yourself a dirty weekend. Go Fossicking!” Brilliant! Caroline has her own sieves and we’ve each got shovels so we’re set to go in that respect and $9.05 gets us a months licence for Fossicking anywhere in Queensland. Pam at Mt Surprise Gems explains what we’re looking for, Topaz and it’s a stone you should be able to see your finger through. She gives us a map of the O’Briens Creek area and off we set on the 40 km journey through gravel road to get there. We cross over Elizabeth Creek which is just beautiful and start heading up into the hills where the gravel track turns into rocky track and becomes a whole lot more interesting! Andy handles the Patrol with ease, style and grace and we’re soon heading further along the track. A landcruiser comes heading towards us with a couple of old timers in it that look pretty pleased with themselves, we reckon they’ve struck Topaz! We flag them down and ask how they’ve got on! “Not bad” came their reply, I guess it’s like playing poker as you don’t want to tell people how good your hand really is too early on! They did go on to say that they’d found a blue Topaz which they were pretty pleased with and in fairness they told us roughly where they’d come across it albeit that they said it was somewhere in the creek bed fairly near the top on the side of the downward river! So it really could be anywhere! We were still wondering where to start but just up ahead was somewhere to park the Patrol and a path leading down to the dry creek bed. It was obvious others had been here before us, you could tell the ground had been sieved! We walked further along the creek bed, found a spot and started to dig. It wasn’t long at all before the shout went up from Caroline that she’d found a possible piece. We all crowded round to view the prize and of course so we’d know what we were looking for! We thought the piece was a good example and we got back to digging and sieving straight away hungry for more. The boys shovelled and the girls sieved, we worked as two teams in harmony and as more shouts went up from Caroline we were looking good as the booty would be shared at the end of the day! How nice is that! The sun was beaming down and there was little shade to save us from the scorching. To think that people do this for a living even nowadays makes us keep going for quite some time but the heat makes it really hard work. We stop for a drink and consider moving further down stream to see what else we can find. The advance party of Darryl and Caroline went off together first whilst me and Andy remained to re-sieve in case we’d missed anything. We found some more good spots and after another hour or so we looked at our booty and decided that it was time to get back and find out from the gem store just how many Maserati convertibles or Bentleys or Mustangs or Aston Martins we could buy!

We bounced our way back along the rough track and when we got to the middle of the Elizabeth creek crossing we all piled out of the Patrol to wash our feet off and cool down in the blissful water! With all the doors wide open the map escaped and blew down stream with Darryl splashing after it then another car came down to cross the creek so Andy ran back to start up the Patrol but lost his flip flops as they started to float off! Humour! The rest of the journey was spent singing away to Rolf Harris’s ‘Six White Boomers’ whilst spotting grey kangaroos and cows and funny looking birds! There’s nothing better than ‘wobble boarding’ all the way home!

On arrival at the Mt Surprise gems store, Pam and Peter meet our exclaims of joy with knowing but patient smiles while we proudly get out our booty. Peter holds the sandwich box of rocks and begins to sort the tit from the tat! “That’s quartz, that’s quartz, that’s quartz, that’s quartz, that’s quartz, that’s quartz but that’s Topaz and it’s quite a nice example!” We’d found 3 pieces of Topaz (Caroline two & me one) but only one of the pieces is big enough to be cut. We’re elated, a teeny bit gutted that there wasn’t more and especially as we’d thought Darryl had found a really nice piece but that was declared Quartz too. Peter takes the time to show us how the stones are cut and how the computer assists with ensuring the shaping allows the light to come in and straight back up rather than out through the bottom. It’s all pretty clever and we thank him for taking time out to show us how our stone will be shaped. The boys nick off outside while us girls remain chatting to the ladies about the value of the jewels on display in the shop counter. There are some stunning examples of Amethyst, beautifully cut but they come with a not so beautiful price tag! The boys by this time are flat on their backs on the grassy banks outside the gem store, both with a bottle of beer in their grubby mitts! Definitely time to go home!

Dinner was again cooked by Kangaroojack, a lamb roast cooked in the camp oven but on the gas rings in our caravan! It was gorgeous, no surprise there and after a hard days digging was a good hearty meal for us all.

We were delighted to get a Skype call from Darryl’s brother Nick and daughter Gabrielle, brilliant to hear from them and so great to actually see them! Not long after that we give Mum and Dad Kettle a shout to see how things are back home, all is good which is great to hear.

The evening pans out with more stories, lots of laughter but the realisation by 10pm that we were all shattered and needed to go to bed! Even the lure of the expected meteor shower happening near to 1am to keep our eyes open!

Thanks for the messages that we’ve been getting, it’s really fantastic to hear from you all so keep them coming and don’t be afraid to leave messages on the blog as we love getting them!

Take care and love to all

Dar and Sar

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Comments

[kangaroojack]

Rock On!
Hi Guys, just to let you know that we miss you already, I wish I could say we are having a quiet day but we have been busy catching up on some chores. Your site was taken by lunchtime, but just to say that before that, this place was crawling with Cassowaries... ;-)... tee hee, but you knew that would happen! We saw the Savannah Lander at the station, it looks like all the school kids are on it today, no wonder there weren't any spaces left! Have a safe trip guys. Kangaroo Jack xx

[kangaroojack]

The Flintstones Song
Flintstones... Meet the Flintstones, They're a modern stoneage family. From the town of Bedrock, They're a page right out of history. Let's ride with the family down the street. Through the courtesy of Fred's two feet. When you're with the Flintstones, have a yabba dabba doo time, a dabba doo time, we'll have a gay old time