Aileron Man

Yep, it's another of those BIG things and this one is very BIG. True to form out here in the "Never Never" everything is larger than life and I can assure you this is one very well endowed man. His appendage is bigger than me and that's on the droop. The local pub has a pet Wedgetail Eagle and the prices for dot paintings in the local gallery were "On application". LOL Everything is big in Aileron.

Eureka

At long last some fossicking has paid off. After two years of hearing about "the couple the other day found .....", "You should have seen the one a girl got yesterday....." etc we have joined the dizzy heights of success. We spent 3 nights at Gem Tree (140klms) north east of Alice, which is but a spec on the map. Day one was spent at the Garnet field where we had mixed luck, one 6mm, several 5.5mm, a couple of 5's and lots of smaller stuff but it was fun, no where near as exhausting as sapphire hunting. Day two we took off for the Zircon field for another day in the sun and 36 degree weather. At first we didn't get much then all of a sudden we found a little pocket where the stones got bigger and clearer. Ron ended up with a beauty. It will cut to 2.5 - 3 carat and measure 9mm x 6mm and it will be a pinkish/champagne in colour. When we returned to the gem cutter there was much excitement as this is the best stone that had been found this season. They even had a fight over whether they would/could cut a stone that big. As we left the park this morning, we were both laughing about the stories the diggers will be hearing today "Yesterday the boys........" LOL LOL

We arrived at Alice and this is the first time we have been out of the tropics in almost 7 months. We decided to spoil ourselves as we have been in the dirt for weeks, so off to the Big 4 with a pool we went. Without knowing we had booked into the same park we stayed at in 1986, not that any of the staff were even alive then. As I type it's 36 outside and blowing a gale with storms and rain forcast for tonight. The tent opposite has given up the ghost and is flat. The first thing we did was check Miss G in for a service and then headed up town to get some groceries. As usual in the NT great excitement builds from about 1pm each day as the countdown to the bottle shop opening begins. You have to time it so you don,t get caught in the stampede each day when the maximum security roller shutters creak open a 2pm.