Daz and Anna-Marie with 'old mate' in the Sapphire mine

16th JANUARY 2007

RUBYVALE – Sapphire Fossicking

Daz, Anna-Marie and I headed off to Rubyvale while Andy was at work to see if we could make a fortune sapphire fossicking. Rubyvale is a good 2.5 hour drive so we got there early afternoon and signed up for the underground mine tour. A very eccentric old lady was our tour guide and gave us an amusing insight into how the Sapphires are formed and how the mines work. After this we got our buckets of gravel and were taught how to fossick and spot the sapphires in amongst many other worthless colourful stones that try and lure you into thinking they are valuable. We ended up each finding several small sapphires, Daz found a good sized one that can be cut and made into jewellery (for Anna-Marie).
That evening was our last night together and Andy made a fantastic meal for us all. The next day we drove into Mackay and dropped Anna-Marie and Daz off at the airport and waved them a teary goodbye, they flew to Sydney and then home the next day.

Our New Years adventure was over and it was back to lots of hard work and saving money ready for the pending wedding.