Fossicking in Sapphire

 Fossicking in Sapphire

We said goodbye to Carnarvon Gorge and headed for Sapphire via Emerald and Rolleston.

At Emerald we found it was the home town of another BIG - the Big Easel! So a photo was captured for Maddie Sip. Emerald is a large rural town within an agricultural area producing wheat, chickpeas, sorghum, cotton and sunflowers, hence the 25m easel holding a replica of Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' still life painting. Van Gogh painted the Sunflower series to represent gratitude. We are feeling very grateful indeed to be able to tour our beautiful country at present.

After a coffee stop in Emerald and a great chat with the local, eccentric café owner, we arrived in Sapphire in time for an afternoon Underground Mine Tour. We marveled at the beauty of the many sapphires on display and learnt that sapphires are the second hardest gem stone, after diamonds, and come in an array of colours including blues, greens and yellows (locally mined) and very rare pinks, purples and colourless (mostly now only found in Sri Lanka and Myanmar).

The  following morning, being Anzac Day, we attended the local march and service at the Sapphire RSL. An intimate gathering attended by 10 local servicemen, the local Anakie Primary School students and staff, an ambulance officer, one policeman, all the locals and a few tourists - we loved it!

After lunch and a few drinks at the Rubyvale Hotel, we headed to Armfest Fossicking to try our luck. It was such fun and we had a great afternoon, joined by a travelling French family and Carol the owner. We walked away with a handful of sapphire and zircon chips (unfortunately we will have to return to work upon our return), but we did witness some of the mine's amazing finds - including a 1.8 carat natural diamond in the rough and  a massive 4.2 carat blue sapphire - just beautiful sparking in the sun.