So yesterday (Saturday) I made my way down to Reedy Creek, Eldorado, in the hope of finding enough water to use my highbanker for the first time.
I had a couple of places in mind, one was not far from Woolshed Falls and the other was a km or two back down stream from the first area. Anyway, on my way to check out my original locations, I noticed a little pull off from the main road and thought I'd stop and have a look at the water situation.
My first thoughts were, this looks like a good little camping area (as my plans were to camp the night also) before I made my way around some trees and bushes so I could get down into the creek. Made my way down into what was a very dry creek, look up and there was a massive pool of water just beyond a ridge of boulders.
Happy with the amount of water and surrounding terrain, I went back to the car and grabbed my pan, then made my way down into the creek, pulled out a shovel of gravel from deep behind and under the boulders. I only panned a quarter of the shovel load and found 5 small specks of gold.
Sorted, I found my spot.
On the Saturday arvo once I arrived and got sorted, I got in about 2 hours of feeding the beast, which also included playing around with angles and water flow. The sun was going down, so I did a clean up and put all of the material from the highbanker into my spare esky, then went about setting up camp.
I didn't pan anything, but noticed a lot of black sand, which made me think on was on the right track while I settled down in front of the warm fire and a cold beer.
After not getting much sleep from being so cold and not having enough room in the back of my car, I was up before the sun came up. With two coffees and an egg and bacon sandwich finished, I was ready to do it all again.
I did a few more test pans in different areas which all produced gold, so I started shovelling. Everything seemed to be running fine, but because this was my first time out, I did another clean up after about 4 hours. This time I panned about half a platic scoop of black sand from the expanded mesh area and was very surprised with the amount of gold in the pan.
After removing the material from the highbanker to my spare esky, I started feeding the beast from another different area again. This time I only fed it for just over an hour as one of the locals came over for a chat and I had to pack up and start my 3 hour drive home.
All in all, I had an awesome time and could spend weeks on end down there. I was pretty satisfied with the highbanker, but will probably make a couple of modifications to it in time.
When I pan (hopefully sometime this week) all of the material I brought home, I'll post a photo of my takings.
One thing I did notice though, is there's a shit load of red and orange tiny little stones amongst the black sand and gold. I'll see if I can get of photo of some of the as well.
I had a couple of places in mind, one was not far from Woolshed Falls and the other was a km or two back down stream from the first area. Anyway, on my way to check out my original locations, I noticed a little pull off from the main road and thought I'd stop and have a look at the water situation.
My first thoughts were, this looks like a good little camping area (as my plans were to camp the night also) before I made my way around some trees and bushes so I could get down into the creek. Made my way down into what was a very dry creek, look up and there was a massive pool of water just beyond a ridge of boulders.
Happy with the amount of water and surrounding terrain, I went back to the car and grabbed my pan, then made my way down into the creek, pulled out a shovel of gravel from deep behind and under the boulders. I only panned a quarter of the shovel load and found 5 small specks of gold.
Sorted, I found my spot.
On the Saturday arvo once I arrived and got sorted, I got in about 2 hours of feeding the beast, which also included playing around with angles and water flow. The sun was going down, so I did a clean up and put all of the material from the highbanker into my spare esky, then went about setting up camp.
I didn't pan anything, but noticed a lot of black sand, which made me think on was on the right track while I settled down in front of the warm fire and a cold beer.
After not getting much sleep from being so cold and not having enough room in the back of my car, I was up before the sun came up. With two coffees and an egg and bacon sandwich finished, I was ready to do it all again.
I did a few more test pans in different areas which all produced gold, so I started shovelling. Everything seemed to be running fine, but because this was my first time out, I did another clean up after about 4 hours. This time I panned about half a platic scoop of black sand from the expanded mesh area and was very surprised with the amount of gold in the pan.
After removing the material from the highbanker to my spare esky, I started feeding the beast from another different area again. This time I only fed it for just over an hour as one of the locals came over for a chat and I had to pack up and start my 3 hour drive home.
All in all, I had an awesome time and could spend weeks on end down there. I was pretty satisfied with the highbanker, but will probably make a couple of modifications to it in time.
When I pan (hopefully sometime this week) all of the material I brought home, I'll post a photo of my takings.
One thing I did notice though, is there's a shit load of red and orange tiny little stones amongst the black sand and gold. I'll see if I can get of photo of some of the as well.
