No luck in the goldmine but striking it rich in the gem fields

Alice Springs was awash with aged motor cyclists. It was the AGM of the Australian Ulysses Club – a club for bikers over the age of 40 and there was somewhere in the region 4000 of them camped in or around Alice Springs. Contrary to accepted stereotype the bikers, or at least the ones we met, were perfect gentlemen although with a penchant for black leathers, denim, bandanas, tattoos and excessive hair – apart from the bald ones, although they made up for their loss with moustaches, hairy chests and arms. They were in town for up to a week before going back to their day jobs as accountants, bankers and social workers.

The convoy ready to leave Alice Springs

Bikes were the centrepiece of the event and there was an amazing array, particularly of Harley-Davidsons and Honda Goldwings plus an incredible assortment of three-wheelers – some with two wheels at the back and others with two wheels at the front. The trikes seemed to be looked down upon by other bikers who referred to them as only being suitable for geriatrics. Many were towing camper trailers bringing home comforts such as beds and cooking facilities.

Our couple of days in Alice were spent resupplying. Stretch had a puncture fixed and the Landcruiser serviced and I tried to get a warranty refund on my two month old shock absorber which snapped in half – a work in progress which may have to wait until we are back in Sydney. Sandra's re-supplying involved a trip round material and craft shops and buying knitting needles and of course a case of wine – Johann bought two cases!

Then it was off to the East Macdonnell Ranges rather than the more visited West Ranges where Sandra and I had spent a week or so four years ago. We are camped at Trephina Gorge in a very acceptable campsite although the long drop toilet was perhaps not the sweetest smelling we have ever experienced! It was here that we met a lone biker called Dick who had travelled out from Alice Springs for the ride on his big white Yamaha. By an amazing coincidence he turned out to know friends of Johann and Stretch from Sydney – Troy and Lesley who, in an even bigger coincidence, are due to move into our house in Eskbank next week – it's a small world!

The following day was goldmining day. We piled into the Landcruiser and headed for Arltunga which at one point was one of the remotest mining areas in Australia. To get there was a long train journey to the then railhead at Oodnadatta then a 600k camel or horse ride if you could afford it – if not you pushed all your goods and chattels on a wooden wheel barrow the whole 600k – it was a hard life.

The welcome sight of the Arltunga Pub

Mind you, it wasn't easy for us either. Arriving at the pub in Arltunga – it's the only building in the area – we were met with an unwelcome sign “No Beer”. As I said, it's a hard life.

The not so welcome sight!

We drove into the mining area and visited two of the mine sites. The first was a bit underwhelming with only a single, partially restored building and a mine shaft covered over with a metal grill. The only interesting part of the trip was Sandra's compulsion for fossicking took her to the top of slag heap to look for gold – from which she promptly fell off! Johann and I were entertained by the sight of Sandra tumbling down the rock strewn slope whilst trying valiantly to keep the good i.e. expensive, camera above her head – a feat in which she fortunately succeeded. Her own bodily battering, bruising and torn clothing were of course secondary.

Sandra at end of her fall down a slag heap - but camera intact!

"Don't, whatever you do, pull that out"

Disappearing down a side tunnel

The second set of mines were much more interesting and it was possible to descend metal ladders and crawl through underground workings still held up with pit props. One mine was entered by a sloping tunnel rather than a vertical shaft and Sandra was a trifle disconcerted to fall over the remains of a previous visitor – a kangaroo that had obviously become trapped. However, all four of us managed to emerge more-or-less intact.

Down the mine - still with her sunnies on

Troglodyte emerging

Rich beyond dreams - maybe!!

The next day we split up again. Johann and Stretch planned to stay on at Trephina for another night before heqading for the West Macdonnells. As Sandra and I had spent over a week in that area four years previously we decided to give it a miss and start the 1500k trip north to Darwin to see Sandra's younger sister Gill – a trip that is only two days old but already shaping up well incident-wise.

Stopping in a dark, ground floor supermarket car park in Alice Springs to stock up on essentials, I discovered the fridge in the car wasn't working. With the socket covered by luggage and out of sight, in the gloom of the carpark I fiddled blindly with the plug and suddenly the was plenty of light – the bloody thing blew up with blue flash. Not much point in fresh food now so we started on a round of visits to Alice Spring garages and auto-electricians. At our third port of call we hit lucky, although it didn't seem like it at the time. Scorpion Auto-Electrics is a very small, one man outfit in a back street in A.S. and I'm afraid that the small geriatric in dirty dungarees, a dirtier T-shirt and what I suppose had once been a baseball hat did not fill me with confidence. However these were extremely misplaced doubts and, correctly diagnosing a blown fuse somewhere in the vicinity of the secondary battery, he soon had everything ticking over nicely. Surprised that I didn't have a spare fuse he gave me one – then said there would be no charge.

Sandra, quite rightly, insisted that I gave him something so I tracked him down to his workshop and tried to pay him. He came towards me with a smile and said “There's only one thing I'll take from you mate” - as he held out his hand to shake mine. A true Australian gentleman.

Eventually managing to tear ourselves away from Alice Springs we drove north on the Stuart Highway. After about 70k my navigator threw in a surprise right turn onto the Plenty Highway and, after a further 70k we took another right onto a dirt road where, after 9k, I found myself in yet another fossicking area. This time it was for semi-precious stones, particularly zircon – and this time surprise, surprise we have hit it rich and Sanrda is now the proud possessor of a handful of uncut zircon – small, unprepossessing stones which, when held up to the sun, glow expensively.

Our real reason for being here was a free bush campsite which, if truth be told, was not all that attractive and we only planned to stay for one night. No sooner was our tent up than we had a visitor. This was Brian, an 80 year old Englishman but long term Australian resident who, along with his partner Robyn, had been on site for several weeks and asked us over to their camp for a blether. We naturally assumed this meant a drink so went appropriately laden but had to drink it all ourselves as they didn't drink and stuck to tea and blether. Through Brian we met Les, a gem cutter, who explained that in the fossicking area anyone was free to dig for semi-precious stones – and keep any they found. Sandra of course was off like a shot to make her fortune.

We found the fossicking fields quite easily and started prowling round looking for glinty things shining in the sun. After ten minutes I was fed up and retired to the car leaving Sandra, who is made of much sterner stuff than I, “speckling” (a technical term) until she had filled a bag full of precious stones.

Enter Les' wife Pat and her sidekick Vern, experts both, who declared Sandra's hoard to be worthless and then showed us how it should be done. For a start, most of the zircon stones are likely to be about the size of a pea – not the walnut and bigger sized rocks Sandra had been collecting. Working as a team, Pat wielded a pickaxe to loosen the red soil, then Vern shovelled it through the first of three sieves and washed the resulting bucket of stones. These were then expertly (in Pat's case) and not so expertly (in Sandra's) scrutinised for the tell-tale translucent glow. Eventually Sandra, who picks up this sort of thing quickly, was finding her own zircon.