Inverell April 2014

April 1^st,We finished packing up and did the 1 hour drive to Inverell. We passed a lot more roadside cows but Val was a bit slow with the camera and only took one photo. We booked into Fossickers Rest Tourist Park, for a week. After setting up, we went into Town, for a look around, and checked out the Visitors Centre.

April 2^nd, I went into town this morning to put my paperwork into Centrelink, then joined up at the Inverell Library, as a visiting member.

April 4^th, I was back in town this morning to pick up a few things from the Supermarket, so took the opportunity to take a few photos of some of the historic buildings. I also came upon the Tennis Centre and had seen an advertisement for a big tournament this week-end, so went in to find out a bit more. On the way home, I spotted a monument in a local park and went to investigate. It was a dedication to the families and inhabitants of this area that were part of the development of his area, leading up to the Federation of NSW. We rang Annaliese this afternoon to wish her a Very Happy 10^th Birthday.

April 5^th, I went down to the Heritage Centre this morning only to find that it was closed to the Public. The Inverell Motorcycle Restoration Club were hosting a Motor Cycle event in the grounds of the Heritage Centre. For a donation of $2 I was let in to look around the bikes. There must have been around 200 bikes of all ages and types. As an old motorcyclist myself, I found it very interesting. I stayed to watch the very organized way they all left the grounds. It was all over in around 15minutes. I then went down to the Tennis Centre and watched a mens singles and a girls doubles. That kept me interested until it was time to go for lunch. In the afternoon I decided to throw a line into the lake, that was at the end of our street, to see what was biting. Guess what! Not a bite, so went home for a Chardy.

April 7^th, Inverell is known as The Sapphire City so we had to have a go at fossicking while we were here.  We took the advice of some neighbouring caravaners who recommended Billabong Blue as the best and packed up some lunch and did the 20 minute drive out to Sapphire. For a cost of $20 each we were provided with all the necessary equipment and shown how to Fossick. Sapphire Blue has a working mine and they gather up a pile of wash from the creek and deposit it at the Fossicking Area. The process for us was to shovel the wash through a large sieve into a bucket. The next process is to pass the contents of your bucket through a fine shaker sieve, to get rid of the dirt. The third process is to sloosh a sieve full of stones in a tank of water to clean them, then flip the washed stones onto a bag on top of a 44gallon drum. Finally, with a pair of tweezers, gently look through the washed stones for Sapphires. We did this, with Val and myself working as a team, until closing time at 4pm. It was a backbreaking task for us both but we enjoyed our day and came home with 26 pieces of sapphire. Our biggest piece was about one cm long but nothing of great value. I did a bit of packing up this morning, before we left for sapphire, as we leave for Moree tomorrow