We’ve been treated to some Queensland hospitality over the last week or so. We camped on Chris & Mike Rogerson’s front lawn in Townsville for a few nights and then visited Adrian’s cousin Wendy in MacKay. It was good to catch up with old friends, get some local knowledge and experience some gourmet delights in both households. While in Townsville we spent a day on Magnetic Island where we did some Koala spotting. Then it was more fauna at Eungella National Park near MacKay where we saw platypus, goanna and turtles.
Between Townsville & MacKay we spent a night in Bowen where
the Darwin scenes for the film Australia were filmed. We had to see Bowen because Chris loathed the place having been stuck there due to floods during their move to Townsville. We didn’t spend enough time to fully appreciate or loath the place but it did have nice beaches, the best sandwiches we’ve had on our trip and some delectable local tiger prawns.
We then traveled to the gem fields and stayed at Rubyvale. We had heard about the area from other travelers we had met and Wendy showed us a ring with a sapphire she had found there. We had great fun fossicking and from our first bucket we found one sapphire big enough to have cut and set in pendant for Joy. The small towns of Rubyvale and nearby Sapphire are dedicated to the gems and we went to several local businesses set up for fossicking to fossick.
We came away with a small bag of sapphires and zircons that we will send to Asia to have cut. Adrian was almost tempted to stay as in the local supermarket window there was house with 2 mines and all the required mining equipment for sale for $45 000.
We are now in Bundaberg and spent last night at Rockhampton. Tomorrow its rum tasting.
1 comment:
Glad you found a 'gem' or two :) Was great to have you visit. Safe trip for the remainder of your journey
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