Eldorado summary

[Goldtarget]

I'm sorry I didn't take many photos of this outing but I'm sure as other members drift back there will be plenty of other show and tell moments for everyone's enjoyment. So here goes.....After packing up all my gear (and of course leaving things behind) I headed up the highway for destination eldorado. It was a warm day and I could smell the gold in the wind. Stopped in wangaratta for some pump oil, Bushmans, sunscreen, and cloth tape. Then it was on to the bustling metropolis of Eldorado. I've never been down to the dredge so I thought as daylight was on the short side I'd better go and have a look. Called into the general store where a lovely lady handed me fossiking maps and having a conversation where she pointed me in the right direction. It's very easy to support the locals when they are so open and friendly even if prices come with a slight premium.

The dredge was something else a quick search in the meetups section has a great picture and I'm glad I had a look, not too dissimilar to the intrigue that I had whilst visiting the one down at Maldon, the old school engineering is part of our culture, and I stood there in awe thinking of how amazing it must have been traveling up and down processing material (tin and some gold). If you go take ten minutes out to have a look. Amazing.

I headed off toward the designated area following the map provided, arriving at Chinese gardens. Access had been washed out I found out by driving down it. Haha. So halfway down a hill and nowhere to go I began walking down. Here I found another pa member I've met before in bendigo. We chatted and he informed me the campsite had been moved further down. With no phone reception and after catching up I thought I'd head into beechworth to get some phone reception and a bite to eat then go back to find the pa meet.

 

[Goldtarget]

Called Mrs GT to let her know all was safe and well, and proceeded back down woolshed but alas didn't have enough time to go to the falls. The drive wasn't too bad and gave me a chance to have a bit of a scout around past where I had been previously. Beechworth end is known for better gems and gold size (but anywhere is good) and there were many camps along the way. I spotted the pa sign and turned in. It was a good move the access to the campsite was excellent for those with campers and vans. Some of the banks are quite steep along the stretch of the river. Here I was greeted with smiling faces, a pan of black sands, and some familiar pa names. I was shown down the creek to the bankers a beautiful site seeing them all setup. The passion for prospecting was strong and after chatting about gold and the like I took leave to head back to Chinese to setup camp and get some rest. I feel asleep with dreams of digging, gold and aussie mateship. The new swag was quite comfy and after a warm start to the night the temp dropped right away during the night which is typical of Eldorado.

 

[Goldtarget]

The next morning with the sun glaring throughout the swag and the birds and wildlife getting louder I was awake early. The enthusiasm was strong, and being mindful of the people nearby I quietly and quickly grabbed out the prerequisite gear from the ute to start my Eldorado gold adventure. I worked down towards a granite intrusion and started working some crevices that had some larger River rocks straight into a classifier and pan, the gold is tiny flour gold, mixed with a healthy dose of black sands. As soon as I saw the heavy black sands I knew I was in the right spot. Reasonable colors were coming out in every pan a nd I was onto the gold. That said it's the sort of place that you really can't help but get gold, very far removed from my regular type of prospecting locations and gold type. It wasn't long before I was making enough noise to have the attention of the neighboring camper and started talking gold. Over the course of the morning I sampled up and down in a relaxed state dragging more gear out giving the bankers a run and spending some time fine tuning setups in an attempt to capture the fines with mixed success. All in all its a very specialized place and I have discussed some ideas about what would be the best setup for the site.

The day warmed up and so did the enthusiasm so I wandered upstream to join the neighbors in a bit of a dig. Running a walbanker I was interested in the machine having my first opportunity to see one in the flesh. Working on the theory that two shovels was better than one we got into a good dig and the dirt was moving in a steady fashion. I was having a great time chatting relaxing and digging and talking all things prospecting. Suddenly we had an incident, a ring had fallen off a finger and disappeared! Having a look around had turned up nothing. Where had it gone?! Luckily on an after thought I had packed the detector and was confident we would find it. It actually took longer to reassemble the detector than it did to find the ring. ... Note the walbanker will not capture a ring (at least not 100% reliable haha). It was in the tailings pile a couple of inches down, and found much to the delight of the owner. Good deed done for the day. As the banker had been stopped it was decided it was clean up time. The amount of black sands was overwhelming! What sort of gold had been collected?

The excitement was quickly tempered by the task at hand, so after a brief stint helping out with the panning I made a strategic exit to attend to more "pressing" matters like ice and getting in contact with Mrs GT and the outside world haha. Luckily I did as I had some important voice mails to return call. Any one heading there must take into account there is Zero phone and Internet reception until your on wangaratta side of Eldorado or close to beechworth. I returned to camp to see the results and to feel sorry for those left with task of panning a ridiculous amount of black sands. The gold was there and included a nice happy snap that later would be taken up stream to the other pa members for comparison. I had a bit of a play where I was in the morning and as the afternoon was getting late I headed down to see how everyone was doing upstream.

 

[Goldtarget]

Calling in the group had grown with more vehicles and camp setups. More friendly faces and after the hand shaking and introductions the day was getting late and after a nice warm day the cold was beginning to creep in. I really enjoy sharing watching and communication via the forum but really nothing is the same as being face to face with people and having a chat. Obviously we are prospecting related people gathered here but in an outer meet you really get to know people, imparting knowledge and comparisons, swapping stories and sharing a laugh, understanding interests and getting an overall view, what people do for a living, family life, their past present and outlook for the future, in essence what makes them who they are. Unfortunately I didn't get to far into the campsite and slowly the chairs came out and as well happen the conversation flowed with plenty of retelling of tales, debate and passing on of knowledge and general good humor and sharing. Before I knew it the afternoon had become late and with midnight in sight before I turned into a pumpkin I returned downstream to retire.

Unfortunately the good at eldorado wasn't to last, I took a bit of a turn for the worse and couldn't blame the couple of beers I'd had. I crawled out the swag a couple of times during the night being crook and by the time mid morning came I was feeling like death warmed up. The rain had come in and feeling sickly I thought getting going might right the ship but alas even a quick face wash led to nought. Thanks to the compassion of the neighbors my gear was put under cover from the ensuing rain and water offered. I retreated again with thoughts that I might not come good and have to get Mrs GT on the phone on a rescue mission. Thankfully getting a bit of fluids in me and some rest I did eventually surface and the gold fever kicked in again. Later I got to have a bit of a sluice and even that was a bit of a stretch. I had hoped to watch and participate in the dry washer but I was too far from 100%. I willed myself to keep going waiting to feel better but I found I really couldn't kick it up a gear, I didn't want in my heart to pack up but home takes a hold when not firing on all cylinders. I hauled everything up the bank and wished the neighbor well.

The closer home got the better I felt. I really enjoyed the wash in the warm shower and Mrs GTs culinary expertise. Back in my bed was nice. So on reflection a great couple of days, I'll purpose build something to take for any future trips, I did bring home some gold and a bigger sluice to use courtesy of a generous swap, the swag was tried and tested, I got some experience on the downstream side of the river, and will have some reading to do after seeing some gems come to light by various parties over the time. Thanks goes out to everyone, especially outboard for keeping an eye on me and my gear at times. Now I'll have to pan out the cons whilst dreaming of the next trip. Cheers.

 

[Goldtarget]

Clean up from the walbanker. This from almost literally a super sluice pan full of mostly black sands cons. I'm sure the owner of this gold won't mind me posting up. Eldorado gold is hard work.

 

[Twapster]

Great adventure just sucks when you feel crook. Nothing beats the show an tell and swap of info at a PA meet!

 

[WalnLiz]

Sounds like a great little camping trip there, and that flour gold is certainly a challenge. I bet if you had squashed that ring into a small lump with a hammer the banker would have caught it. Maybe your mate would have hit you over the head as well so I'm glad you didn't do that.

Good luck on your next trip mate, and I hope you're feeling better. I'm sure the rain didn't dampen the spirits of the guys too much.

Cheers Wal.

 

[MJB]

Great report on the trip GT, definitely sounds like an adventure that would have been good to experience. Hope your on the mend and can get out digging soon.

 

[Goldtarget]

Thanks for the comments. I'm up and about and had a nice day relaxing just a bit tired. My gold adventures will have to come to a halt for a few weeks whilst I complete a few things I've been putting off. My nephew is super keen after giving him some cons to pan out and a retelling of the tales of Eldorado, so I might do a quick day trip (leave early have a few hours digging and return home) as it's really not that far from home. It was a great meet up anyone attending had the attention of some of the most passionate and knowledgeable people I myself learnt more in a few hours than weeks on my own. I'm looking forward to hearing the others review their adventures.