THE GEMFIELDS

---

We Want To Be Gem Fossickers! Maybe only for a couple of weeks just for the experience. Will try to make it back here sometime so that Peter can dig me up a nice yellow sapphire or 2. (It's the only way I'll probably ever get one) Anyway we came very close to catching "fossicking fever" but fought it and only stayed a couple of days. The hundreds of little mining claims just past Rubyvale are like a scene from the movie Mad Max. A real shanty town feel to it with heaps of people out there trying their luck...retirees, young families and quite a few shady looking characters.
Paid the highest fees here to camp in a caravan park. Not very good facilities but I suppose they have to make up for the 4 or so months of the year that they close down during summer when it is too hot. We had some very friendly rainbow lorikeets visit us for breakfast.
On our way out of here we stopped at Emerald to do our shopping and were supprised by how big and how busy it was. Full of mining families. We enjoyed our first takeaway coffee since we left on this trip while we were here. Absence does make the heart grow fonder :-)

---

Photos

The Gemfields
Lots of old inventive hand-made mining contraptions are still out on the mining claims.
We loved driving around here. What an eye-opener!