The Gem Fields

We left Capella and headed for the gem fields with towns such as Emerald and Rubyvale- although we were told that Rubyvale was actually named after someone’s daughter, there aren’t any ruby gemstones there.

We visited an old mine and went on a very interesting tour. I’m not sure that I would have had the nerve to mine as they did. Again, we were given another experience of being plunged into absolute darkness to reinforce the challenges they had ... along with cave-ins etc.

There were a number of colonies of micro bats (rather than giant bats such as flying foxes and fruit bats), with a number being on their lonesome. We were told that they may be “lookouts”; if they were, they weren’t doing much good.

The temperature had recently exceeded 40c in the area, so we were pleased it had gone down to a more reasonable mid-30s, but still felt hot. We could imagine the guides fighting one another to get back down the mine where the temperature remains a good bit cooler.Read more