Gem fields

We were really looking forward to the gem fields near Emerald and decided to stay in a park in Anakie. It turned it to be a lovely park with its own lagoon and gem fossicking facilities. 

Ben and I bought 2 $10 buckets of dirt and spent quite a few hours pottering about searching through our sieves and finding heaps of small sapphires. We felt pretty happy with our efforts. 

The real challenge though was to find a good sapphire on the fields, so we all headed off on a tag along tour, where all the equipment was supplied, in a productive area, with an expert there to explain and, as it happened, supply an endless stream of sarcastic banter ridiculing us new chums. Keith was certainly a character. 

It was hard work.  We dug off the topsoil,

 

shoveled up the 'wash' layer into buckets,

  carted the buckets to the rotary sieve, sieved off the dirt, carted the buckets to the Willoughby, washed and vibrated the wash, 

flipped the sieve out as a pancake,

 and picked out the sapphires. 

Or not, as was mostly the case. But you can see the iron stone in the centre, which is where the sapphires would be, if there were any.  By 2pm it was 32 degrees, and we all stopped looking! 

Turns out the buckets you buy in parks are salted with extra sapphires so you enjoy yourself and don't feel ripped off. You might find something good that was in the original wash, but most wash doesn't have them by itself. 

But we did get a few cutable sapphires, including a star sapphire I'm proud of because I shoveled it out myself. We left a few to be cut with Keith's much less cynical brother, Dave, who had a shop full of lovely gems. Where a very lovely ring was bought :-).

Can't wait to see how our sapphires turn out!