Hey guys, sorry I didn't get a chance to provide and update yesterday, I've had patchy reception for most of the trip and not long arrived home.
Day 2
We ended up doing a little more detecting out in the pine forest, my brother in law picked up a brass badge of an old saw and I found a half penny 1942 (Bombay mint). This site is claimed to be where an old 1800's pub used to be but my suspicion is that our finds were from the loggers some years later. We found old cans and what not but unfortunately this area has had some extensive re-plantation done over the years.
Later in the afternoon we decided to check out a place recommended by the local Police Officer, I believe its known as Zircon Gully?? We spent a couple of hours there until the sun went down but found no gold, we did find some very small gems though.
Day 3
Today we planned to return to the original place in the Peel River where we know a little gold still exists but unfortunately some other guys had the same idea, that put a bit of downer on the morning but we decided to go a little further down the river and try our luck anyway, another (hot) two hours later and a slightly twisted ankle (brother in law) only pulled in a couple of speaks so we made the call to end the trip and return home to our families
Final Thoughts
So no gold this trip but overall we had a great time checking out the historic sites, 4 wheel driving through the bush and meeting some great people along the way.
We camped at Sheba dam and I highly recommend it to anyone, there's plenty of shade and its just a really nice place to stay. A couple of things to note though, it gets really cold during the night, there is a toilet but no shower facilities and because of the size and age of the trees you need to be careful not to camp under any branches that could potentially fall. The dam has a jetty and there's also concrete tables and chairs scattered out through the place as well as a number of fireplaces and campfires.
We also checked out Chaffey Dam, although I've been to Nundle a few times already I hadn't made it up there before (I had the two dams mixed up lol), it's a very open place with not a lot of shade, in my opinion the only benefit of camping at Chaffey would be the shower facilities and ability to use power boats. You can't use powered boats at Sheba Dam.
If anyone is looking at heading to Nundle I would also recommend dropping into the pub, we didn't eat there this trip but they do put on a fantastic feed. There's plenty to see in Nundle so it's worth visiting at least once. Even if you don't find any gold
