Condor

Oh yeah, I forgot, today is my birthday. Officially a senior citizen with Medicare and all the trimmings.

Week 3 started off a little slow. It rained for 2 days, then a day of sun, then a 3rd day of rain. You just can't drive the Aussie tracks when they're wet. The camp held up well in the rain, no significant leaks. Fortunately, I brought audio books and a Kindle so we kept entertained. All the clouds put our power grid to the test. We had to use Paul's generator a couple times to top off the battery. I'm including a photo of our power grid, looks like a soup sandwich. We're running about 200 watts of flexible solar panels into a 100amp hr Li-Ion battery. With full sun running only the outback refrigerator, our battery stays fully charged. At night with charging our equipment we drop about 1/4 of battery capacity. We should have thought more about charging compatibility, as it stands we need 110AC for the laptop and 2way radios, cigarette lighter plugs for lights and USB for phones and GPS. What a mess trying to keep it all functioning. I had to rewire our cigarette lighter outlet bank, the wires fried somewhere along the line. I'm ordering a backup tonight. We took the time to go into town and do laundry and take hot showers at the Caravan Park. I ran my clothes through twice, I think the Aussie red dirt may be permanent on some of my stuff. We've been out doing real prospecting looking for new patches along the "line of strike". We've been off the beaten path and as a precaution punch in the GPS coordinates of the truck. Like Daniel Boone, I've never been lost, though a might bewildered a few times. Just when I think I'm in unexplored territory, I find and old timer's campsite or dry-blower tailngs where he sampled the same zone. Our only luck has been a few crumbs off old dry-blower zones. Modern mechanized prospectors have often run a dozer over the old timer's tailings and scraped things to bedrock. If there is some of original caprock left, we have a better chance of finding something. Paul has been off on a frolic of his own. We don't expect to see him for another week, in the meantime Trent sold the caravan Paul was using. Paul is homeless, I hope he doesn't repo his pop-up trailer that we're using. Trent is thinking about moving our half of Camp Yank about 60k to the south to detect a new area said to have good gold. It will be a challenge dividing up the campsite necessities and we'll miss nightly entertainment of Paul's crazy stories. Sunset from Downunder. That's all for now.

Tough sledding out here in WA. We've put in a lot of miles exploring along the "line of strike" gold producing zone. We generally start from old Drill Site roads or old pushes and do a 1/4 mile up and back grid along the likely areas. The few we're finding are where weathering has exposed deeper ground on the old pushes, plus the Z 7000 can find tiny gold the original detectors missed. They didn't miss much based on our return so far. Our hearts were thumping yesterday when I got a deep low tone way down in the caprock. Luckily Nurse Paul was nearby and brought over the jackhammer. Paul put in a yeoman's effort on the hammer, Dennis and I traded off digging out the hole. We waved over the hole with everything we had, GPX, GPZ and 2300, and with the exception of the 2300 it all sounded good, but it just never improved even after we were down over a foot. Finally even the 2300 was giving us a signal and we gave up for the evening. Paul went back this morning and finally pulled out some kind of hot rock, the story is much more detailed, but that's the jist. No doubt Paul has his version of events. The weather has turned nasty, threatening rain and gusty winds. Camp Yank took some damage from the wind, turned over the prep table for cooking. Pots, pans, plates and everything associated got dumped into the dirt. Paul cleaned it up considerably, but I think he left some soap on my dinner plate, cuz I'm feeling a bit puny this morning. We have the gazebo anchored on each end with an ATV to keep it from blowing away. Dennis gold photo is his cumulative, mine shows this weeks finds only. It's just a matter of time till we hit a big one. Flies continue to be a menace, they just don't quit. They're having a tough time today with these gusty winds, but they'll find a way.

We're still getting dialed in for the WA conditions. In many places we can run the GPZ on High Yield, Difficult, with a Sens between 10 and 15. We've hit some old patches that have been scraped, then trying to venture out around them to see if the patch might continue. These places have been detected pretty well, all have dig holes scattered through them. We've had some minor success, I hit a 3 gram piece right off the go, from there it's been nothing but tiddler scraps. Surprisingly small pieces that Difficult mode sings out on them. All very shallow though. The weather is crazy. Cold mornings needing a hoodie, then warming up to weather more suitable for shorts. We've seen a few 'roos and a couple Emus, other than that it's just flies and more flies. We've tried some cream they use for the horses, seems to last an hour or so then the flies are back with a vengeance. The quit just before sundown and don't come back till it starts to warm up in the morning. Just part of the challenge. Our totals to date. Dennis had a couple day headstart, but I'm trying to catch up.

Good news, Dennis bag from Qantas will arrive today. I haven't detected yet, Dennis is using my 7000, while I've been sorting out the camp. Power supply for the Waeco Fridges is an issue. We're using one of Paul's dodgy 12volt deep cycle batteries hooked up to about 200 watts of solar panels. It's been cloudy the past 2 days, minor sprinkle of rain. We can keep up just barely if we unplug the fridge at night. The inside temp drops 2 or 3 degrees overnight, don't want the beer to get warm. The battery in our '85 Toyota Ute went south yesterday, so another trip to town for a new battery. My new $800 Li ion 100 amp hr battery arrives today, so I think our power issues will get sorted out. It's easy to forget all the power needs, phones, GPS, detector battery etc.. Dennis has found 9 crumbs of gold, maybe 2 grams total. As far as the ground conditions as compared to AZ, it's a lot tougher here. Dennis is running HY, Difficult, at about 10 Sens. Running the Semi-Ground Balance and the Patch Search updates. He's finding some tiny stuff, all pretty shallow. The cap rock is a bugger. Paul has a generator and a jackhammer in the back of his Ute, and it gets drug out pretty often. As a matter of fact, I hear the jackhammer now in the distance. Paul must be on one. Once we get the other detector and start getting serious I'll update with a new heading for our weekly results. Cheers/Tally Ho

Yeah BB, You've got some pull. Qantas got your memo and gave $120.00 each for our troubles. Thanks for the help.

As I recall, Paul and his GPZ arrived missing some critical brain parts.

We started our journey on Sunday from PHX to SFO. First leg was no problem. At SFO things deteriorated. After arrival the airline departure board showed 1 Sydney departure logically in the international terminal 2 hrs hence. We made our way to the international terminal and settled in for a wait. I checked the departure board several times, only one Sydney departure showing a minor delay. At boarding time our boarding passes were rejected, wrong flight. They really couldn't help us with why there was only one Sydney flight and we weren't on it. We scurried back up to the main terminal, one Sydney flight now boarding, but upon closer examination a different flight number. There was no help desk to be seen so in desperation I Googled our flight number. Google said terminal A, and we were in terminal G. Again checked the departure board, one Sydney flight showing, not ours. We discovered that terminal A was a long way from here, after a mad dash we discovered that not only was terminal A way over there, it required leaving the secured terminal and going through security again. Yep, the security queue was clogged with the unwashed masses and the chances of us making the flight dwindled to nil. Oh no. So we went to look for the Qantas desk to try and fix our problem. No luck, Qantas has windows open from 6:00pm to 10:00pm. So I called Qantas and got an English as a Second Language(ESL) clerk, barely intelligible given airport noise and accent. Basically she told me I was F'd and that our entire ticket would be cancelled, no refund. I knew better than to argue at this point and called our booking agent Orbitz. Again, ESL but a sincere effort to help. After some long hold time we discovered that Qantas was closed for the night, but that they would work on it. I booked a $300.00 hotel room for the night and went out to catch the shuttle. The hotel clerk assured me the shuttle would pick us up at 12:52. At 1:25 I surrendered, the hotel said they would reimburse me for a cab. Next day, Orbitz came through and re-booked our flight for the same time, same terminal A. I asked about our baggage, "can't help you there", take it up with the Qantas counter at 6:00pm. First in line at Qantas 6:00pm they told me that our baggage was downstairs and would be re-tagged and put on the flight. Are you sure? Indeed, when you get to the gate you can check with them. Of course the gate assured us that naturally our baggage was on the flight. NOT. Well we caught the flight and I found that economy seats are, well economical. I had a middle seat for a 15 hr flight. My row mates were tolerable, but the aisle seat went to sleep and I hated to be an ugly American and wake him up just to stretch my legs. At about the 10 hr mark, I couldn't resist and woke him up. He was pleasant enough about the whole thing. Curiously, the young lady next me boarded very last and arrived in sweaty dither. She later told me that the Departure board showed only one Sydney flight, the same one I encountered the day before, and that she discovered the mistake in time to sprint through the terminal and security was very kind to move her to the head of the line, just in time to make final boarding. She was much younger, fitter and prettier than me, so she pulled it off in time. We arrived Sydney and went to claim our baggage to clear customs for our continuation flight to Perth. Surprise, no baggage. We went to the claims desk to make all the necessary notifications and almost missed our connection to Perth sans baggage. To make a long story tolerable, we're in Perth with 3 of 4 bags. 3 arrived at the hotel last night, the 4th won't arrived until after we make our flight to Meekatharra. Qantas assures us the 4th bag will get couriered out to us verily. Naturally, that bag has Dennis's detector in it. I guess he can dig targets for me and Paul in the meantime. So, the journey begins... Stay tuned for our misadventures in the Summer of OZ. I'm typing at 5:00 am local, suffering from jet lag. Hopefully Steve will edit as necessary.

It's been a good week all around. Dennis really got on the gold today, 15 nuggets total including a 3.4 gram piece. I'm going to rest up tomorrow, our flight leaves out of PHX on Sunday afternoon. We'll arrive in Perth on Tue, then meet up with Paul and Trent on Friday. We're just hoping our good luck hasn't run out. Tally Ho!

Leave gold to find gold, that's what I always say. The daytime temps here in sunny Yuma will be approaching low 100s all next week, then get steadily worse in June. Yuma is no place to be in the Summer. Dennis had a good run of gold this morning, I'll post the week's tally later.

I briefly mentioned my problem with the GPZ 7000 14" stock coil. The problem was I dragged it behind the Rokon completely unaware of doing so and wore through the plastic cover exposing the copper windings inside. I contacted Friendly Minelab Dealer "Rege in PA" about getting a replacement. He put in the order but as time was drawing near for the OZ trip, there was no sign of a replacement coil in the pipeline. Rege was able do some gently encouragement and the Minelab Repair Center stepped up and found me a coil. I got it last week and have been using it all this week for my practice sessions for the Summer of OZ trip departing this Sunday. It seems they sent me the "super" coil because I'm having some incredible good luck this week on the local Yuma gold. Minelab, you have saved me from my self-inflicted misadventure. Gold photos of the last 2 mornings of detecting. I've been detecting some heavily hunted areas and finding gold around old dig holes. I'm using pretty standard settings, HY, Normal with Sens 15. I've gone back to the high dollar Etymotic in-ear monitors (earbuds). The Ety 4S model has much higher inpedance compared to typical earbuds.

Hey Dave, Thanks for putting all that together for me. That 17" coil seems like the ticket for sure. My storage bill at Trent's is escalating rapidly. I sure hope I soldered the coil adapter correctly. If Trent has to fix my mistakes my "cartons owed" column is going to be downright scary.

The Minelab GPZ 7000. We have a backup GPX 5000 just in case.

We've been out every morning for a few hours since Sunday practicing for the summer of Aussie Gold. Today was my day on the big gold. I was detecting a desert wash bench zone, and got what the Aussies call a Zed Warble. Down here in Sunny Yuma the Zed Warble usually means an old rusty bent nail. A bit of digging down to the hard pack maybe 15 or 16 inches. I switched detector down to Sens 1 to try and pinpoint, bit it was still overloading with the warble tone. Dennis and I took turns breaking up the hardpack and scooping out the hole till this nugget rolled on out. The small stuff I found over the past 2 mornings, I think I'm going to throw them back for seed on the big ones.

These came from Eric's zone just past Sugarloaf. We've still got 5 days to practice down here in sunny Yuma by the Sea. Maybe 3 or 4 hrs detecting time in the mornings. Yuma summer arrives early.

My Baja detecting partner Dennis and I went out this AM for a little practice before we hit the Aussie Shores next week. I found one little rice grain sized nugget, Dennis went hog wild on me. I hope he doesn't use up all his luck before we get to OZ.

I'll just nod my head and use the slack jawed vacant stare. I find it discourages pointless conversations on such things as politics, religion and my (fill in brand) coil/detector is better than yours.

Paul sez the grammar is no different that he larnt in Tennessee public school, they just have a funny way of sayin thangs.

Contemplating such an adventure without local Aussie support would have been far too ambitious, even for me. Paul's experiences having been helped along by Norvic, the GoldHounds and now Trent have given us a path and a certain confidence that if everything goes to "sheet", we have distant forum friends to turn for help and guidance. Finding gold is really just the catalyst and an arbitrary goal to justify this pioneer spirit and lust for adventure. My sincere thanks in advance to all our Aussie friends from this forum and especially to Trent for helping make this adventure of a lifetime possible. Also an acknowledgement to our Moderator for making and keeping this forum a place of knowledge, friendship and civil discourse. OK, dry your eyes and harden up out there. I got 19 days to kill before wheels up. Paul leaves in less than a week but he got the sniffles and thinks he dying of pneumonia. I think he allowed his blood alcohol level to drop too low and the germs found a foothold.

I hate to distract us from the spirited discussion of ZED aftermarket coils and new gold detectors, but I've been working on a plan to spend a few months downunder detecting WA. I sold some gold to finance the operation and convinced my Baja detecting partner we need to get us some Aussie gold. Just so you know I'm not a idiot and going off half cocked here, I purchased the premium edition of Nurse Paul's primer "Yank's guide to plundering Aussie Gold". Some very helpful information..."when handling sharp digging tools, always wear flip flops". Or the timeless, "When drinking a few cold ones with the locals, the acceptable ratio is 3 to 1. Buy 1, drink 3, it makes them feel superior." What could possible go wrong with that kind of wisdom at my disposal? Yeah I know, $16,000 worth of detectors got stolen while he slept on watch, but that could have happened to anyone. He's matured alot since then. Seriously though, we leave May 19 and don't expect to return until my 90 day visa expires. Paul has in fact helped me get a handle on the geography, Ute selection and basic gear requirements. We'll be boondocking it, living on road kill and brown snakes with a case of Vegimite for emergencies. I've already purchased one of the new X-coils 17" for the Zed which will be waiting for me when I arrive. I had a sacrificial coil cable for the jumper connection since I destroyed the original 14" stock coil, long story, but apparently you're not supposed to drag that coil behind the Rokon at cruising speed down desert dirt roads for a couple miles. Who knew they were so fragile? Wore right through the plastic housing and exposed the copper windings, bummer. But, I've got me a $900.00 Minelab chipped coil cable so the glass is half full. Nevertheless, an adventure is at hand. I'll post updates and photos as opportunities present.

Hey Jasong, good to see you back with your observations as well. The reset helped some, but as the day wore on they continued to get worse. The problem seemed to be a particular type of desert weed, not all of them. I also used General and it was better, but I didn't find any gold. The noise is a short sharp spike above the threshold. They are not at all like a true good target tone, perhaps more like a surface piece of bird shot. A few times I thought there might be a target tone in amongst a gaggle of those weeds so I pulled them all out and not a peep left in the ground. I guess it's something to endure until they dry out and get blown away in the March winds. The Nox 800 was able to run right through them with only an occasional bleep on the weeds.

I just did the factory reset and on my way out to check to see if it helps. Fingers crossed.

Here in the Desert Southwest the local plants respond more to rain than to growing seasons. It's still winter and the last 2 late season rains have caused the Desert to really green up. Areas that are normally barren have ft tall weeds sprouting up and it's giving my GPZ fits. For some reason the GPZ is really sparky when swinging through the fresh green growth. It's not just the first swing it's all swings until I scrape them down to the ground. They're spiking the threshold loud enough that it's near impossible to distinguish a target whisper in there. In the past the GPZ has given off something akin to a single static spark in fresh dead weeds on the first swing then dying off in further swings, but this is consistent, constant and downright annoying. It's only in the weeds, on open ground it's fine. No particular bump sensitivity, just those fresh green stalks. Is anybody else experiencing this, or is my machine acting up? Solutions? I sprayed some static guard on the coil cover, didn't help at all.

In my past Adventures in Baja posts, I generally give a cautionary note about the uncertainty of Mexican rules, customs and laws. I have been traveling in Mexico for most of my life. I used to be proficient in the language now I can get through the basics with enough nouns and verbs to get by. Algodones is a small Mexican town just 12 miles from Yuma. The border crossing closes at midnight and opens again at 0600. It has become the Dental Mecca for tens of thousands of Americans. There are over 150 dentists practicing in Algodones. There are companies that organize bus trips from San Diego and Palm Springs for dental services. I have had 3 dental implants done down there and I couldn't be happier with the professionalism and price. Many non-narcotic prescriptions can be filled for about one quarter of the price in the US and transported back to the states without a tax or duty. Right now is Winter Visitor time in AZ, and about 3 thousand people a day cross the border for dental work and prescription drugs. Mexico is not as lawless and corrupt as some people might think. Nevertheless, there are those moments and for many people the risk is just not worth it. One of my high school teachers lives in San Quintin on the Pacific coast of Baja. I spoke to him recently and he is working on finding us a placer gold guide down there. Adventures continue.

If I only had a good Tennessee guide all things are possible.