Made it back out to the private property today.
No luck on the nuggets, I spent more time scouting and looking at the different gulleys and digging test holes looking for the gravel I like to see.
It seems to be unlike any ground I'm familiar with, heaps and heaps of gravel on the top near the reef, then it seems to just dissapear once the top soil appears. If it does have a gravel layer its very, very thin. Does this perhaps mean its deeper down, or that there just isnt much alluvial gold?
I explored a bit more of the property, found another hill with another reef that had been mined, but the weather was turning and making the GPZ misbehave a bit, so I didn't detect it.
While I didn't have any luck on the nuggets, I decided to do a bit of sampling in the creek with the pan. The very first spot I picked was in and around a log that had been there for a while. To my absolute pleasure, I got 3 of the biggest little pickers I've ever had in a pan... In the very first pan!
I sampled up and down the creek a bit, but didnt find another hole as good as this first spot. a couple more pans and I had almost enough gold to make a baby nugget, 0.07 grams.
I might try and fit in 1/2 a day of panning there, and this time bring the shovel and classifying gear! If it keeps on giving I might get a highbanker when I return from London.
All I need now is to figure out where the nice detectable nuggets are hiding and I'll have my own private prospecting paradise
And in case anyone is wondering, the deal I have with the landowner is that he gets the second Kilogram of gold I find