Our W.A.trip for 2014.

Hi there Jen, M & M,

The pics are spectacular as is the content of course.   

Hope you got to see the big moon last week together with the predicted meteor showers while you were around the camp fire.

Keep up the good work. Long may the run continue.

Regards  ,

Bernie
Determined1 

GoldenGus wrote:Ahhhhhh......now that was worth logging in for !
Great work Mike & Jen   
Keep them coming and stay safe out there.

Yerp couldn't agree more, nice to see there some gold still around and a bit of bush tucker as well.
Cheers

freshwater wrote:

GoldenGus wrote:Ahhhhhh......now that was worth logging in for !
Great work Mike & Jen   
Keep them coming and stay safe out there.

Yerp couldn't agree more, nice to see there some gold still around and a bit of bush tucker as well.
Cheers

Yuk freshwater, you almost put me off my chocolate coated stir fried termites!  

is it crawling with people over there? start to warm up soon...

Wow, Jen & Mike, nice finds!!  Well done - and thanks for the pics.

 

Annie

Hi all

Goldenchild.. Now we mustn't get greedy.  Half that amount would do nicely..    

Thankyou Davesgold.. We are still trying to find more. 

Yes Shiraz, we certainly are lucky sods! Just to be over here doing this, and not a day goes by that we don't appreciate being able to be over here..

Hehe .. Sorry Goldenhero.. We don't mind the spiders, but this one ended up coming after anyone that was near by.. He got very upset.. Don't blame it..

Thanks CostasDee..    yep. Bigger Gold nuggets! are certainly much better.. They make the gold weight tally up much quicker

Helloooooo Barkley48... I thought you might enjoy the camp fire   
You presume incorrect... Too cold back there.. So nope... You won't see us next week..

Thankyou GoldenGus. We will try to keep them coming..
Glad you liked it enough to log on..  

Hi Nightjar
Season isn't over yet.. You never know there is still time..
Thanks for your well wishes for when we head home..


Hey Bernie.
No     we didn't see the meteor showers, didn't know anything about them..

Thanks freshwater... Think I will pass on the bush tucker though..  

Hi Tracker1.. Welcome to the forum..
Ummm not anybody where we are..  Yep the weather is to die for.. Walk around in jeans and tee shirts.. No thick jumpers and jackets, but in saying that, it does get cold at night.. Campfire keeps us toasty   

Thankyou Annie.. You are most welcome..

cold down here in melbourne,

Top effort Jen, Mike and Mike, good solid lumps there is bound to be a few deep surprises hiding about.

Hi Jen,
You might find one of these little fellas crawl out of your fire wood. Tarantula - Selenotholus foelschei, can have a span of 120mm or more.
Quite rare do not kill.
Photo of "Mr T" a tarantula I studied for a period of time before taking him back to the goldfields and releasing him.
Steve Nunn has an interesting site;

http://www.thedailylink.com/australiantarantulas/id/idindex.html



https://2img.net/h/i151.photobucket.com/albums/s122/nightjar3/Archivepotos632.jpg

In the mean time get back to finding a bucket load on your new patch.

Cheers
Peter

do they bite<

G'day Mike and Jen,

I'm a bit disappointed that you aren't leaving your "patch" to attend the meeting. Something to do with priorities I think..   

Your apology will be noted... unless of course you reconsider..!

Enjoy..!!

Andrew.

Hi Mike and Jen and co, some great eye candy there crew   you guys are living the dream that many members only dream of   will get over that way one day, well done to see some serious nuggets   keep them coming crew.

Well done gang. Hope there's lots more to come.

Cheers John

Hi all
Thanks for all your comments ...

Well we moved camp this morning..
We are now on a private mining tenement.. ( yes we have full permission )  And yay!!!! The reception out here is sooo much better

Not a lot of gold has been coming out of the ground, although we have covered our costs, also our trip for coming back next year..  

We shall See how we go in this next spot.. We aren't ready to head back just yet..

When we were at the old camp ground, we were heading back into camp from a day out detecting..and due to all the rubbish laying about.. (Not from us). We spotted this poor thing with a can on his head..


The boys went to work to help him out of his predicament..


YAY!!! A happy ending..



Also we were sharing the old camp site with this fella..
I wasn't game enough to ask for it to smile for the camera    it is still there.. Seems to be its home. We left it alone, and it left us alone..
Can anyone tell me what type of snake it is????  



Oh.. Can you all see what we see?????




P.s Nightjar.. No we didn't kill the spider, there is No need to kill anything.. Thought it looked different to the huntsman spiders back in Vic..

a pebble dragon .

Oh the snake looks like a stimson's python .

G'day Jen

Thanks for the update, nice pics, and good to see the goanna get set free, bet he was a happy chappy, thats a nice looking Python as well, and the little lizard in your "can you see what we see?????"

He does blend in well


cheers dave

Great stuff Mike and Jen!

Hey shiraz, well spotted, they do blend in, now they are easy to see when circled.

cheers dave

Thanks smokeyj, always wondered what type of little lizards they were..

A python... Hmmmm I guess they are harmless? Still I wasn't game enough to find out..
We just left it in peace..


yes! They are easy to spot now, with the circles around them..  

Yep I think the goanna was very happy to have that can removed of its head.. It was stuck good..
At first he wasn't.. Scratching us, but once it seemed to realize we were trying to help him, it calmed right down.. Then once free, it climbed up under one of our cars and was sitting on the front diff.. So we waited and waited for it to come out, adventually it did.. I should have taken more pictures of it, but didn't want to upset it any more, as we watched it head back....  I guess to it's home, it's tail was curled up and it walked like a scorpion.. Gee with the way it had the tail curled up, it sure did look like one.. Must be thier way of camouflage from the predators..

Hi all,

Wow, you have certainly been amongst the wildlife over there and I agree, that little critter sure would have been happy to be set free. Never really appreciated how long the tail is compared to body size until I saw your picture Jen.

Hope the change to a new camp brings good fortune to you all and enjoy the weather over there. I think you would have seen some showers at least over recent times  but it looks like overnight temps have been good.

Just in case you thought now is a good time to come home, I thought I would share the scene at Maryborough Station yesterday morning. On Thursday I got drowned in Wedderburn by what was nothing more than a passing shower of fine drizzle. Of course in between all of this there has been bursts of sunshine. Sorry about picture quality, but that's about as good as it gets with the phone.

Good luck to you all,


Bernie
Determined1

Hi Bernie

Yep... He/she sure has a long tail... Sharp claws as well.. Ouch!!

Great picture.
That's the view we have when we buy Mac Donald's for lunch and sit in the car to eat it.. Yum yum.

Gee... Here I was thinking it might be time to head back, now you have shown us the light!

Overnight temps are just right here.. No need for electric blankets, or any heavy blankets..
Although The days seem to be getting warmer and warmer..

G'day All and thanks for all the great replies.  Well we have been still pinging the odd bit of colour during the cooler parts of the day. As the Temps over here are starting to warm up a bit each day and the Flies are starting to get very friendly, especially the March flies. (if that is what they are called over here in WA)
We took some pics of our last lot of Nuggies we have found in the last couple of weeks. (Mine & Jens)



PS they still need a bit of cleaning when we get back home.


Cheers.

Mike & The Crew.

Well Done Mike & Jen There is some very nice looking nuggies there guys. How is young Mike going with his telly of nugs.?? The weather back home is starting to improve for the better. But in saying that we had one hell of a wind yesterday come through, branches falling and some rain as well. But fine today with a top temperature of 16c and getting up to 25c by Sunday and still fine. I'm hoping the weather stays fine for the Bash as we are expecting BIG numbers there this year. Still no idea when you are coming back???
Anyway guys and gal stay safe and keep finding those WA nuggets
wombat

PS your property is still OK.

Hi there to your guys,

Been wondering how you are getting on now the weather is beginning to warm up over there. Now that I have seen the picture Mike, I can see that all is good.  

As Wombat said, the weather in Melbourne has also has been on the improve lately, but having said that I seriously thought the roof was coming off the house yesterday, the temperature has dropped severely and the heavy showers continue here this morning.

Keep up the good work . The recent finds look great and hope young Mike is going along OK too. I have no doubt he is.

Regards,
Bernie
Determined1

Enjoying your stories & pics from the West.
Wonderful you were able to save the goanna, this is a timely reminder to everyone not to flick their cans out the window.
Unfortunately this little fella didn't make it.

Jen,
Do a Google search and there is a PDF you can refer too to help with identification of the many Australian Lizards, your lizard is at the top od the page.

Fauna of Australia Family Agamidae - Geoffrey J. Witten



My guess your snake is a Carpet Python.

Hi Bill
Glad to hear the weather is emproving..
Going to get up to 34c here on Thursday, so we might make a detour on the way home, have always wanted to see esperance..
Young Mike is doing ok, I haven't seen his tally yet, he said he has filled one small container, and started on another one.. He is always out there looking.. From sun up to sun down.. Wish I had his energy..

Mike is going to make a couple of phone calls today, and if they don't pan out, beach here we come!
I Hope..

Thanks for keeping an eye out on our place Bill.

that the weekend of the bash is all good weather..  Sounds like it's going to be a very successful event..

_________________________________________________
Hi Bernie..
Yep all is good....  It's time to move slowly home, me thinks.

___________________________________________
Awwwwww   Nightjar.. Poor bloody thing..  That's what we didn't want to see happen to the one we saved. It's a cruel way do die.  

Thanks Peter, will do that.. We have seen all sorts of lizards this year..

It doesn't matter where we traveled to, wether it's on the main tracks or into the deep bush, there is rubbish every where,    and not just from the old timers.. All the old timers junk has rusted down ages ago..

P.s the big bit of gold on the top is a 17 gram speci that mike had to dig over 18 inches for, the ground was very noisy in places.. He said it was a very iffy sound, one swing he thought, there might be something there, next swing nothing.. Just as well he dug some dirt away.. He said it wasn't until he had the coil about 6 inches from it, that he knew for sure it was a defiantly a sound.

Oh we know there is more gold in that ground, just can't reach it with the detectors..

Nightjar wrote:Jen,
Do a Google search and there is a PDF you can refer too to help with identification of the many Australian Lizards, your lizard is at the top od the page.

Fauna of Australia Family Agamidae - Geoffrey J. Witten



My guess your snake is a Carpet Python.

I reckon your dead right! Nightjar
As It was living under an old section of carpet..

___________________

Well I don't get to see Esperance yet!  

Mike made a phone call, and we were offered to go onto another lease.
So we are camped between Kalgoorlie & Coolgardie.
The young fellow came back with these, on his walk abouts with detector.
He said it is the closest thing to the colour gold he could find on his first look of the area.

We wish we had his energy, as we feel like this



Hmmmm looks like it had to be mended a few times..

I reckon they must have belonged to Red Foo as they have no lenses

cheers dave