One full week of digging has gone for most of the group. To date the finds have been fairly poor. There have been some cutting size sapphires found but they are not large. I think Ross currently has the largest stone found at just on 7 carats.
The group has fossicked 2 large gullies and although chips have been found regularly, larger stones have been very hard to come by. Ross, Ray, Graham, Colin, Milton and Marie have all worked "Duffers Gully" - a shallow gully that has seen extensive digging but failed to yield much in the way of decent stone. I bagged a 3.48ct green on the first day, but after 3 more days of very little pulled up my willoughby and moved to the top of the ridge behind our camp.
Jane and Joel have lead a breakaway of insurgents to The Willows - firstly fossicking on the side of the road about 3kms from The Willows, where really good gem wash was found, but no sapphires. Yesterday Joel returned to camp with 3 cutters and about 30 small sapphires. Today Ray2 and Toni, Ray1,Ross and Wanda, Graham and Pam also followed Joel to the promised lands. Not a lot of success was had, but Joel probably did best again. Garry announced he had taken 40cts of saphire today from a new location - "Marie's Gully" - where Mariespecked a verey nice stone on Saturday.
On Sunday 14 of our group ventured to the Sapphire markets where we were joined by Warren andJudy. Not a lot of rough stone was on sale at the markets and some of the cut stones for sale were fairly ordinary. 12 of the party enjoyed lunch at the Rubyvale Hotel.
Carol has been kept busy today tending to injuries. Milton has been dispatched to Emerald Hospital with Barry and Dawn to have an infected foot attended to. There was speculation that Milton might be kept to have anintravenous drip with antibiotics but he was home in time for happy hour with some tablets. Warren had a fall yesterday on his initial inspection of the dig sites and has been laid up today with a stiff and sore shoulder.
Our group now number 21 and we have taken up a fairly large camping area. Parking space is at a premium. The circle of chairs at happy hour is now difficult to fit between the vans.
Tomorrow promises more great weather of cool mormings (8 degrees) warm days (22 degrees) and cloudless blue skies.
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