Devil's Dice

In my previous post I had some photos of Devil's Dice that we found. Glenn wasn't around so I looked on the internet to find out what they actually were but as they obviously had nothing to do with pop groups, had no luck. So today I asked him and he gave me an answer....

"The existence of a mineral with a crystal form of another species. Pseudomorphism may occur by substitution, encrustation, or alteration. For example, limonite pseudomorphs after pyrite can be formed by leaching away the sulfur. It this case, the limonite preserves the cubic structure of pyrite.

Pyrite, also known as fool’s gold because it has tricked many into believing it was the real thing, is iron sulfide, an iron ore. Under the proper conditions, though, pyrite can become iron hydroxide, or limonite. Its external appearance remains essentially the same, but the composition has been altered. Pyrite cubes have become limonite cubes"

When he gives me an answer like this I just nod, intelligently, and thank him. He also gave me a link, here.

Trip to the Pilbara

Thursday afternoon we set off for one of Glenn's mining leases in the Pilbara region of Western Australia . He needed to collect some samples for analysis. It is about 12 hours drive north of where we live.
Once again, it is going to be a quick trip so we throw the few important things into the Land Cruiser; food, water, dog and get going. Glenn's important things are maps, compass, GPS, satellite phone, book to record findings, geopick, etc. My important thing was my fly net!!

I usually sleep so soundly in my swag and the first night I certainly did just that. The second night, however, I was sharing my swag with some dear little ants who wanted to get cosy with me. By about 2am I'd woken a third or fourth time (lost count) and must have disturbed Glenn as he asked me what was wrong. He passed me the personal insect spray and I said, "What? Spray my whole body??" He replied with the obvious answer which escaped me that time of the morning, "No, just the edge of your swag." tut.
By Friday mid-morning we are almost at our destination and we turn off the highway. Then begins the slow and arduous drive across rough terrain, clonking and bumping over loose rocks at 3kph. Even though the tyres are built for this type of environment we still have to avoid spikes of dead trees. When a bushfire goes through areas like this and trees and shrubs are burnt, after a while all that is left are stakes sticking out of the ground. Drive over one of these at the right angle and ptshhhhhhh!

We had two and a half punctures in all. Glenn said that many a time after crossing some rough country he's woken up in the morning to find a couple of tyres have gone down overnight with slow punctures. Needless to say, he always carries spares and tools.

Here is Glenn in his element.

Lots and lots of nothingness, for miles and miles and miles.

When I was young and used to walk my dog across the fields and through the local woods for hours on end I used to try to find places where I thought no one had ever set foot before. In Surrey? In England? I don't think so. But it was fun to imagine that I had found that very untouched place. Here, however, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I have placed my feet where no man or woman has ever stepped before, ever. You can do that alot in Australia. It's so vast.

These were interesting. Not placed there by man but by nature.



No flies on Helen !!

I have never seen so many flies in all my life.

And just for the record - neither had Glenn and he's been coming to the outback for years!


This is Glenn making a phone call with the satellite phone.


We see some magnificent skies out here.
Wildlife trails
Even though we'd driven a long way towards the lease, we had to do a fair bit of hiking to get to the locations where Glenn wanted to take samples. It was impossible by vehicle. One of the easiest ways to walk in these areas is to follow the wildlife tracks. They are so defined you would think they were manmade for tourists but they're not. The animals, mainly kangaroos here, all stick to the same route and over time the loose rocks get knocked out of the way leaving just a dusty track which is easier for all to use, including us.

A passing kangaroo took this photo for us.

It will always amaze me how anything survives out here - animal or vegetable. It is all so arid and hostile. I came across these lovely lavender-coloured bells.

Bird's nest
We don't see any parrots out here, probably because there isn't anything for them to eat, I suppose. But there are quite a few little insect-eating birds here and I can guarantee there's plenty of that sort of food to keep them going!

At another location we came across an area of Devil's Dice. Above you can see how they can be lodged within rock. Below are some we collected that had broken away.

Miles and miles of nothing. And the sky goes on for ever and ever.

On returning to Perth a weather trough produced a spectacular sky, a storm we could watch in the distance complete with fork lightning and this rainbow.

Beautiful rock

Have you ever seen anything as beautiful as this?

This is a slab of Mookaite.

Can you believe this is natural rock, out of the very ground we walk on? Well, from a creek bed near Gascoyne Junction in Western Australia.

This afternoon I was washing the polishing powder off all the polished faces and slabs that Glenn has been working on and came across this one. Just look at the colours! The patterns! I decided we couldn't part with this one. It stays with us!

Off to the Bush

As you can see there was rain in the air on our first morning.

I'm just glad I forced myself out of my very cosy swag to

grab my camera and capture this sunrise.

It was time to get back to the bush. We packed the necessities; food, water, swags, dog, into the Land Cruiser and drove about five or six hours east along the Great Eastern Highway from Perth to Coolgardie. Look here to read the history of this wonderful old mining town.

Coolgardie owes its existence to the discovery of gold at nearby Fly Flat, 120 miles to the east of Southern Cross, back in 1892. The development of the town was typical goldfields hysteria. Within four years the railway had arrived and within six it was the third largest town in Western Australia (after Perth and Fremantle) with a population of 15,000 (with another 10,000 in the area) serviced by three breweries, seven newspapers, and 26 hotels.

The town was laid out and named in 1893 and it became a municipality the following year. The Post Office opened in 1895 and the following year electricity and a swimming pool enhanced the hard life of the miners. By 1897 the level of enthusiasm about the potential of the region was such that over 700 mining companies had been floated in London. The water pipeline arrived in 1903 and that was an engineering feat in itself.

Looking on a map the area would appear to have multiple lakes but these are salt lakes. In 1895 the first plans were prepared for an engineering feat to stagger the world — an attempt to pump water uphill some 500 km, from the hills near Perth (Mundaring Weir) to the goldfields of Coolgardie.

On 24 January 1903, the dream became a reality. Today, water is supplied to over 100,000 people and six million sheep in an area covering 44,000 square kilometres (two thirds the size of Tasmania).

However, we were NOT there looking for gold. No, just looking at rocks. In fact, every inch of these goldfields is 'pegged' so it's hands off!! Unless you own the lease or have permission.

In addition to gold there is a huge amount of nickel in the goldfields and these photos above show an area where they have been testing for deposits.

Great Rock Dog!!

Driving along one of the dirt roads we came across a camel!! As you can see, he scarpered pretty quick. (If you look closely or click on the photo to enlarge you will see in the dead centre of the photo is one camel bum.) It isn't all that surprising to see a camel, however. I don't know the exact statistics, but there are hundreds of wild camels roaming Western Australia. They are leftovers from the days when they fared better than horses across the desert.

Below is a photo of Lake Lefroy and when I first looked across and saw it thought it was a sea, it's so vast! It's over 50 miles long. You can read about the harvesting of salt from this lake here.

Land sailing is very popular, apparently, and this is the perfect place for it. See this.

So where are we off to next, asks the great explorer, Woody?

Back home

We got back from America mid February and after working at the shows "full on" for nearly eight weeks, we take a break. It's only a short break though as Glenn comes back to orders for rock that he must fill. It is only a matter of weeks before we must get away to dig more rock and there's lots to do. Glenn also has rock here to cut, polish and pack in preparation for next year's show.
Moving to this property meant he had a large workshop where he could set up his rock saws and vibrolaps.

These diamond edge saw blades cut rock like the bread knife cuts a loaf.

The vibrolap is a circular vibrating metal plate on which are placed rock slabs and faces in a watery concoction. The circular metal discs you can see are weights glued to the back of rock slabs so as to force the flat side down on to the surface.
After a few hours the sides of the slabs and the faces of the rock have been ground to a perfect flatness. These can now be polished. This is the polishing vibrolap. The rock slabs and faces are again placed down on the vibrating table but this time in a polishing powder.

Once polished the rocks need to have the powder pressure-cleaned off and that's where I come along. This I can do!

If it was really warm and I was standing in the sun I'd be in my bathers. But I'm in the shade and it's ever so slightly cool so I adorn the raincoat and wellies as this is a very wet job. My radio is safely tucked away under the waterproof material and the earphones are in my ears so I can listen to the afternoon show while I work.

Woody, the waterlover, thinks the jet of water is specifically for him, of course, and jumps up at the spray trying to bite it.


By the time he's finished he's sopping wet and dirty. Another photo opportunity.

Where would we be without our little helper??

The Main Show

The highlight, or maybe we should call it the climax of The Rock and Gem Show is The Main Show which is held at the Convention Centre in the city and here you can see the best of the best, the most exquisite specimens of rock, crystals and minerals in the world.

This year the theme was Australian Minerals so the majority of exhibits were Australian. Glenn and I made a hurried visit to the Convention Centre in between packing up our booth ready to leave early the next morning. I took photos of what we thought were the best.

First of all, this marble carving is not Australian, but American, hence the Stars and Stripes behind. It is quite amazing so I thought I should include it. It is a complete piece of marble except for the piano legs.
There were rumours that Sir Elton John was going to fly in to see this, but alas, it did not happen.

I hope that when you click on the photo to enlarge it you will be able to read labels because I can't tell you what half these are! I'm a layman. Or is it 'laywoman'?

This is our Variscite below.

And finally, the miners of the giant Tiger Eye slabs

stand proudly next to their prize piece.

And now it's time to go home!
Phew!!
Woody, here we come. Not long now.