thesmithy
Brian Rourke
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2013
- Messages
- 315
- Reaction score
- 195
Sluice - goose and myself decided to go to cols bridge for 2 days last week Thurs - Friday.
Arrived at 8 am set up camp and proceeded to find a location for high banker.
Found a preciously worked area that looked real inviting as it had only just been worked maybe a few days earlier......some over burden had been removed......exposing some good old river wash high up in the bank with a distinct iron line with light river wash above and heavy wash below.......it seemed the previous crew had to leave to go home or they considered that it was getting a bit dangerous as they were under mining the bank and not removing the over burden.....?
We worked below where they left off......making it safe as we went along...continually pulling the bank down as we went. 1 hrs later we did our first clean out......what a surprise to behold more gold in the pan than the previous 2 trips to Tuena.
3 more cleans outs did not produce as much though.
In hind sight I should have kept the dig to a smaller area as we did not really know where we had started Mitch did a few test pans and only found a few pieces in each pan.
Through out the dig I noticed that there was a constant stream of fine river wash trickling down from the centre of the previous crews excavation and landing where i was removing the old wash......there is a possibility that is where the first clean out gold was coming from.
Finished first day totally worn out.....went back to camp poured two stiff drinks started the camp fire.... had a fantastic dinner of rump steak corn peas potato and gravy.
The day was quite warm.....the night was very mild not cold at all.
The next day was much the same at the dig sight. About the same amount of gold from each clean out.
Decided to pack up around 12.30pm and go crevicing..... We did quite well there as well just in a small crevice on bed rock. A few pieces in each pan.
Crossed the Turon found a natural Riffle then a small crevice just in front of it only 300mm long 1 piece of gold but a nice picker.
Decided to head home around 6.10 pm arrived home at 10.pm on the dot totally happy.
First time there and I must say it sure has some great camping spots as well as plenty of places to set up sluices as well as great river bars to crevice.
Only down side was the burs - cactus - Nagura burs - wait a while burs...... not a friendly place for young kids or dogs I suspect....
Bring your own fire wood as it is scarce as hens teeth. There are no facilities ther only Council Rubbish bins.
We have a few pics Mitch will up load them on a later post I would guess when he reads this.
Cheers Thesmithy (Brian)
Arrived at 8 am set up camp and proceeded to find a location for high banker.
Found a preciously worked area that looked real inviting as it had only just been worked maybe a few days earlier......some over burden had been removed......exposing some good old river wash high up in the bank with a distinct iron line with light river wash above and heavy wash below.......it seemed the previous crew had to leave to go home or they considered that it was getting a bit dangerous as they were under mining the bank and not removing the over burden.....?
We worked below where they left off......making it safe as we went along...continually pulling the bank down as we went. 1 hrs later we did our first clean out......what a surprise to behold more gold in the pan than the previous 2 trips to Tuena.
3 more cleans outs did not produce as much though.
In hind sight I should have kept the dig to a smaller area as we did not really know where we had started Mitch did a few test pans and only found a few pieces in each pan.
Through out the dig I noticed that there was a constant stream of fine river wash trickling down from the centre of the previous crews excavation and landing where i was removing the old wash......there is a possibility that is where the first clean out gold was coming from.
Finished first day totally worn out.....went back to camp poured two stiff drinks started the camp fire.... had a fantastic dinner of rump steak corn peas potato and gravy.
The day was quite warm.....the night was very mild not cold at all.
The next day was much the same at the dig sight. About the same amount of gold from each clean out.
Decided to pack up around 12.30pm and go crevicing..... We did quite well there as well just in a small crevice on bed rock. A few pieces in each pan.
Crossed the Turon found a natural Riffle then a small crevice just in front of it only 300mm long 1 piece of gold but a nice picker.
Decided to head home around 6.10 pm arrived home at 10.pm on the dot totally happy.
First time there and I must say it sure has some great camping spots as well as plenty of places to set up sluices as well as great river bars to crevice.
Only down side was the burs - cactus - Nagura burs - wait a while burs...... not a friendly place for young kids or dogs I suspect....
Bring your own fire wood as it is scarce as hens teeth. There are no facilities ther only Council Rubbish bins.
We have a few pics Mitch will up load them on a later post I would guess when he reads this.
Cheers Thesmithy (Brian)