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60 Days On The Road With A Metal Detector


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"After 51 years in the workforce and eight months into retirement, I left Inverell in NSW on February 1 with caravan in tow. My final destination was Victoria’s Golden Triangle but the route I was taking is not recommended if you want to get there fast."

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Living the dream......:smile:

Enviable, I will have to work till they throw dirt on my face. Because I retired when I was young .... worked a little played a lot.

Granted I only have to work 4 days and about 4 hours a day but it still gets in the way of getting out and doing some detecting or beach mining.

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Two months of solid detecting sounds like a 5 star vacation for sure. Adding up all the costs at the end of the trip however is kind of a spoiler for me. Reason being he did not include his wages lost if he worked during that 60 days. Leave the money out of having fun.

Recently I ran into another fellow gold hunter while out in the field. We were talking detectors. I mentioned how much I liked the SDC  2300  for small nuggets. His reply was "the hell with those tiny nuggets...it will take forever to pay off the machine! My first thought was if I wanted to make money I would just stay home and work. 

strick 

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Kinda how I feel about beach mining.....LOL

So I do work and play when I can.

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7 hours ago, strick said:

Adding up all the costs at the end of the trip however is kind of a spoiler for me. Reason being he did not include his wages lost if he worked during that 60 days.

He didn't lose any money from missing work because he's retired!  :biggrin:

As one who is going to join him in a year, I appreciate the benchmark datapoint showing how much a trip like that costs if you try and go "on the cheap".  Of course I'm in US, not Australia, but I can adjust for that if need be.  Looks like he got excellent fuel economy with his diesel pickup(?).

7 hours ago, strick said:

Recently I ran into another fellow gold hunter while out in the field. We were talking detectors. I mentioned how much I liked the SDC  2300  for small nuggets. His reply was "the hell with those tiny nuggets...it will take forever to pay off the machine! My first thought was if I wanted to make money I would just stay home and work.

On this we agree.  Some people are out there hunting as a business (primary or supplemental) and some of us for the pure joy of the hunt.  Everyone has different standards, goals, and measurements of accomplishment.  One question that particularly annoys me is when I show/tell a $2 find I made after hunting all day and get "...so, how much is that an hour?"  More than if I had been sitting on the couch drinking beer!  (Don't get me wrong -- I like doing that, too.  :rolleyes:)

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I recently took up detecting again to go camping under the stars with my new Russian wife and also pursue an interesting hobby at the same time.We have been travelling around Europe,Russia and Turkey for 3 years and now its time to settle down.She is very handy at campfire cooking,setting up camp,tending the fire and folding the tent and tarpaulin back up ever so neatly,whereas I just screw them up into a ball.She has that inner strength and boundless optimism that ensures any camping expedition a success.She is also a qualified battlefield nurse and can amputate limbs but I sincerely hope that will not be needed.Hey where would we be without them?The best part about rough prospecting is it keeps your body young and keeps you from aging.I felt a lot fitter after camping out and detecting for 10 straight days.Its all about the journey and experiences you get and the places you visit looking for gold and not necessary the bucks at the end of it all.Any gold found would be appreciated to pay for petrol on the long drive to the Western Australian goldfields in 2018.Sounds like that guy was a an amusing typical oldtimer character.Looking forward to meeting some crusty old timer to have a yarn with out on the diggings.We used to have the bush grapevine here and the latest finds were passed on by word of mouth but the latest generation of prospectors are much more secretive.

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