Horrie it was best we let the cops do their job as these low lifes may have friends in this state. Remember we are prospectors not bloody mercenaries. I wanna live a few years yet so lets keep a low profile from now on. After Horries tinned sausages, tomatoes and potatoes we retired to bed early after an exhausting and frankly, a stressful day ....
Once back at our camp Horrie pulled out his portable gas stove with 4 burners and a gas bottle. Soon we were sitting on folding chairs around a folding card table eating a late dinner. 'Tomorrow' said Horrie 'I'll lead and show you both the secret track I found to get our vehicles up the ridge and into the back hills. In the old days they used donkeys and mules to easily get up. Your old Donkey would've been perfect Rabbit. The drive up the spur will be tricky and slow so try to follow in my wheel tracks. I'm not sure Sadie, but there might be some Lithium up there too.'
The new metal everyone wants. Be something if we found a large deposit. Be made for the rest of our lives. Very tasty supper Horrie. Next morning we set off with Horrie in the lead as we followed him up his secret track and into the back hills where he is confident there is untouched lithium, and some rare earth metals such as Cerium and Thulium....
The drive up the slippery spur into the high hills was slow and tiring but all 3 Four Wheel Drives made it ok. Eventually, about midday, we found a clearing to park and have lunch. It was just above a fast flowing creek after the recent unseasonal heavy rains and now in our normally dry winter, the rains kept pouring. Looking about Horrie mentioned how when he'd walked through here months earlier, how he'd made a camp fire with a ring of stones which had strangely been added to, with several big rocks. Bones of a dead Kangaroo were in the sodden ashes too. Meanwhile Sadie found an old vertical mine shaft that seemed quite deep. Rabbit shone his torch down and threw in a pebble only to hear a faint splash from below. The remnants of an old and rotted wooden ladder looked very unsafe. Walking over Horrie said he hadn't noticed it before and that the recent heavy rains must have uncovered it. 'Dirt covered old rotted thin planks must have just caved in with all the weight of water. Bloody lucky I didn't fall in when last here. It looks about 10 metres deep assuming the water in it is only shallow?' There are heavy rain clouds coming in from the west soon, according to the radar on my tablet, so how about we spend time here and make camp. Then have a good look about. I'd like to go down the shaft and have a sticky beak. I've got a rope ladder, ropes and a winch on the front of my truck. Volunteers? One of us should stay up top tho, much safer.
You think there are fish in that creek Horrie. If so perhaps a nice piece of cod for lunch with canned new spuds. I'll get out my rod and throw in a line before the storm hits us...
'Maybe some Cod Rabbit? I reckon more likely you'd catch some Trout, Bass and even yucky Carp which are full of bones and not as nice to eat as the Trout or a big Bass if you're lucky. You got lures I suppose? I have some for when I take my summer holidays in Geraldton. I mainly like to surf. Anyway, I'm going to check out the shaft. Being a Surveyor Horrie determines the depth of the shaft and the water in it using a marked plumb-line, like the old sailors. The water is only 40cm deep and the shaft 12.3m. Deep for an old mine like this. Driving his 4wd to 3m of the shaft Horrie attaches a strong rope to his winch, sets up a pully on a triangular structure using strong aluminium poles and drops the rope down the shaft with a mesh basket containing equipment, lowered to just above the water level. Next a 15m rope ladder also secured to Horrie's 4wd is lowered and positioned. "Sadie, could you help by keeping watch over me and use my winch to pull up earth samples for yourself to check out for gold or whatever, you're the expert. I'm taking my own metal detector down too and I can still use it in shallow water. Use yours too of course and lets use the radios to keep in touch." With a hard hat and powerful LED light on it Horrie climbs down his rope ladder after the already lowered basket of gear.
So the work proceeds. It's slow going but after a while, we have quite a lot of samples to check out. Horrie, come on up and let's see what we have here. Rabbit, did you have any luck fishing? Have you caught a big'un?
I was thinking of Murray cod. Many's the time I cooked a Murray cod for dinner on an open fire. Well trout tastes good too. Horrie be wary while lowering yourself down that shaft. Many's the time I have slipped doing similar and done myself mischief. I fractured a wrist once. Took me an age to get back to the surface. After that I swore off mine shafts and settled for on land prospecting. Safer tho not as profitable.
Like Horrie said river trout. Yeh I snared a big'n, plenty for three of us. So missus my turn to cook supper. How does trout, new potatoes and peas with tinned peaches for afters sound....
That was a mighty fine supper, Rabbit. I've never eaten better fish. Let's sit around the campfire and talk for a while. It's a bit early to turn in yet. You know any tall tales you can tell? It's so nice tonight that I think I'll take my sleeping bag and curl up by the fire.
I have always slept by a fire under the stars when prospecting as its gets bloody cold in the desert at nite. The fire will keep dingos away.. correct Horrie?
Boy do I have some tales to tell. But I tell em better when I have few strong drinks. Who wants a belt of rye whiskey? Later when Rabbit was well imbibed he told one of many stories he had been heard over many years of prospecting. This one by a central Australian farmer. (farmers and those living on the land are known colloquially as a cocky) Like many 'cockies' this weather beaten, hardened sheep and wheat farmer had seen his share of miserable times on the land. Drought one year, floods the next. Every time he was about to give up he’d muster the strength to keep going for another year. He finally gave up and when questioned about why, he shrugged and muttered, “I could cope with the flamin' floods, the flamin' drought , the flamin' heat even the missus, but when the bloody locusts arrived they were carrying packed lunches – I knew it was hopeless and I had to give up.”
Those floods over east are getting worse every year now Rabbit. That's really hurting a lot of people. I hear the west coast of the US is going the other way with severe droughts. I reckon they need to quickly build Desalination Plants like we have here in Perth. Their big Hover dam is almost empty too. Summer temperatures here are going through the roof with 45C (113F) days day after day. At least it's dry heat but still hard to bear. I need another beer.
Next morning Horrie was up first stoking up the fire and frying up bacon, eggs, tomatoes and baked beans on toast. Hot mugs of strong billy tea too. 'Bloody Stock markets all over the world have crashed' said Horrie. That's good for the price of Gold though so there is a silver lining for us if we find some gold. Yesterday's look at that deep shaft turned up only a few specks of gold worth less than $50 I estimate. Rabbit's trout catch was worth more. The mine did go deeper but was filled with water. So let's head off as soon as we're packed I'd say. The upward sloping landscape ahead is rough and a bit hilly. It also has lots of shafts and open mines.' Best I lead us slowly with Biff up front sniffing for shafts'.