Willows- Gemfields

It is difficult to realise that we have been here for three weeks already. Believe me when I say that we are busy while here. Digging and fossicking for sapphires is usually a morning thing, right? Yep, right. Off we go out to the diggings that in themselves can change incredibly from place to place. We have dug at the area known as "Steptoe" and have given it ago at the "Duffer" and more recently we have dug out the back of '"Bonanza" which is a commercial mine.
Afternoon, the shadows and therefore, the light changes, so not many dig, sieve and/or wash after 2.00pm. This change in light changes the circumstances to the point that sapphires are more easily seen in morning light.
So, return to camp, covered in dust, get showered changed and a leisurely afternoon until the fire is lit. Around the fire at happy hour, mixed reports come to light, generally this year, not a lot being found. Go figure???
 Sapphires are the product of a volcanic explosion millions of years ago and are actually, the cooled down sparks. The time it took to cool gives them their various colours. At the willows, the traditional (major) colour is green, but you can still find blue sapphire or yellow or brown (star) or pink or it seems even Australian diamonds here. YES DIAMONDS!! WOW.
Camp ground activity is not restricted to fire pit conversations at all, indeed  Tuesday afternoon, ladies craft and at night there is darts for those who would like to participate, no experience necessary. Friday arvo for ladies craft, Saturday mornings a forge is lit for pick sharpening and Saturday evening, the local rec club have an evening cook up with raffles and a singer. Pork on a spit, Christmas in July (7 courses) and tomorrow its a stockmans feed (3 dinner courses, pea & ham soup, corned beef and veg and bread and butter pudding) sounds pretty good. Problem we have had so far is the massive size of the serves. Park owners put on free pancakes each Sunday morning before we head off into town.Sunday market is on at Sapphire about 30klms away with lunch at Rubyvale, another 8klms and home for fish and chips from the rec club. The guys leave the fire to go, have a beer while waiting for the order to be cooked, return and eat around the fire.. All very nice and reasonably priced.
We also allow ourselves a longer trip for more general shopping to the largest of the nearby towns Emerald which is a good hours drive from here, with all the National supermarkets represented there.. Lunches have been very good at the local Irish Tavern.
Emerald is still a major service town to the mining industry and I expect that this will continue. As such, it is difficult getting into a caravan park here and mining vehicles are the major types of vehicles on the streets and in the supermarket car parks.

Fraser Island and Rainbow Beach

Its been a while since we stayed at Rainbow Beach, about 30 years as a matter of fact. Rainbow has lost none of its beauty, seascapes or wonderful sand dunes including the coloured sands.Now there is quite an up-market shopping centre that caters for all needs. Not your grand Stockland or anything like that, this IS Rainbow Beach after all. We had a great meal at the local pub on one of  "My turn to cook" nights but the rest of the time we self catered. Any shopping requirements were ably met by visiting the local IGA. We also had a few pre-dinner drinks at the local Bowling club and that was fine. The highlight of our stay though was undoubtedly our trip to Fraser Island. Stay tuned for more details on that one.
We met a lovely couple from Port melbourne, Bill and leigh, their site was diagonally opposite ours and we hit it off well. Bill and I went pumping yabbies together out at Inskip Point and later fished together at that same beach. We had a few happy hours with them and they left the day before we did. On that day, we went out to Inskip on  our own and had a go at the deep sand to get into, but not on, the beach. The Khumo tyres worked a treat. This was really deep sand and i didn't even have to engage low range to get through. the Landcruiser and the Khumos make a formidable team. Our next time there I engaged low range, as well as using the diff locker and it was even easier. The furrows in the sand were about 30cm deep and we had no trouble at all.
We have moved on and have left the coast behind as we left Yeppoon, Rockhampton and Emerald travelling West. A couple of nights at Sapphire/ Rubyvale and on to The Willows gemfields where we have met up with Ivan and Sally once again.The first day after set up/ arrival yesterday for us both and we are out on the diggings searching for those elusive sapphires. Nothing to report on that front at the moment but wait for it, it will happen.....

Rockhampton

Today we take the run into the Big smoke. Yesterday a little bit of exploring. We went to yeppoon for a little shopping after going to the causeway market in the morning. Instead of the Scenic highway, we took the inland route to Emu beach. Not an emu in sight. But there is a beautiful sculpture on top of the hill in town called the singing ship.

Up the Coast

Finally got a spare day to let people know whats been going on. I think the last report we were still at Stockton beach, Newcastle. Well a lot has changed since then and we have crossed the border into Queensland.