It has been weeks since our last update; to use an old cliché ‘time flies when you are having fun’!

We have been busy with our tunnelling machine as well as digging for opal in the old shaft and drives. As usual not everything has gone to plan or expectations. We got the tunnelling machine about 10 metres in from the start of the wall when we noticed an issue with the ‘blower’ running out of ‘suck’. Simply the length of pipes was getting too long for the vacuum being generated by the machine and the pipes started to clog up. Initially the issue was only at the bends where the soft sticky clay and sandstone mix started to build up on the outside of the bend. A regular hammering of the bends along with reaming out of the clay mix cleared the blockages initially BUT the stops became more and more frequent and the blockage more difficult to clear out. We decided that shifting the blower and reducing the number of the pipes should solve the problem. This involved shifting the entire dump in front of the entrance that was put there by the excavator when making the ramp as well as shifting all of the sand and clay mix brought up by the blower and dumped in a nice neat little mountain. On and of a week’s worth of driving the front end loader around cleared up both areas and prepared the area for us to move the blower truck across the front face of the ramp wall, theoretically saving us about 15 meters of pipe work.

In order not to waste too much mining and cutting time we interspersed the spoil shifting with working underground. (See: Goingdown.) We were very lucky to find a spot that showed some interesting colour and decided to follow it for a bit. A week later and a number of buckets of rough on the surface showed that what we thought was just a bit of ‘colour’ was a patch of some very nice mixed sandstone boulder and ironstone nut opal including some good crystal with cutting potential. The buckets of material have kept Barbara busy chipping, cracking and pre-cutting! (See: CuttingOpal.) She has been working on separating the opal from the waste that comes with it. We do not want to take large quantities of material home with us. Barbara is sorting out what we will cut ourselves and what we will sell as parcels to other cutters.

Meanwhile my job was to get the blower truck started and shifted to its new spot. Unfortunately yet another starter motor had failed. So it had to come out and the chase for a replacement was on! Some ten days and nearly a 1000 dollars later the new one was ready to be picked up from Cunnamulla, our nearest service town, where it had been sent from Roma (another 466 km away). Should have been a piece of cake to put the new one in and start the truck! No such luck! For some reason I managed to damage the switch on the back of the solenoid. Probably got knocked when pushing it in between the engine and the chassis rail, working blind is not much fun, or got over tightened when I put the battery cable on. No matter what the cause, the result was the same! It wasn’t going to work irrespective of how I tried to achieve a temporary repair. Araldite just didn’t get the job done, to be fair I most likely managed to gum up the internals with it. Back in contact with the Auto Electrician and order a new switch or so I thought. Because the new starter was an upgraded brand new model the manufacturers hadn’t as yet seen the need to sell spares for it! The hunt is on for one that had to come in for warrantee work and has a working back end.

A ‘no running truck’ was going to severely impact on our mining for the last few weeks here. The only solution was to get ‘John Deere’ to act as a tow & push truck. Fortunately the distance was only small and we had plenty of time to shift the blower into place. A couple of minor mishaps only!

There is a piece of wood sticking out of one of the rear tyres (hasn’t gone flat yet!) and pushing on the front bumper bar broke both headlights (no problem we don’t drive in the dark!) The blower was put in place three days ago and Barbara has been on her tunnelling machine working on a cutting out a ‘ball room’ (It’s not actually for dancing) but is needed so that we can turn the tunnelling machine through 90 degrees. We will be driving towards the fault line we have established is nearby. Hopefully the fault will be associated with good opal formation. Opal forms in pooling areas associated with a fault or slide As such we try to read the ground above and then drill exploration holes to see if there are shows of colour. At this stage we are about 15 meters in from the wall and getting close to 27 foot down from the surface. (Our shaft is close to 58 feet down. This is the bottom opal level. We hope that on the way down we get to at least one or two shallower levels. Going straight down to 60 feet without finding any opal along the way would not only be very frustrating but very, very expensive. Diesel out here is expensive and on a good day we can use up 100 litres.) The current face we are cutting into is showing quite large sandstone boulders, so far no colour in them however. This slows us down as we have to get out and check the wall for any signs of opal, it must however be done, as smashing it up with the cutters can happen all too easily. By the end of this week we should have a large enough turning area and should be heading East rather than South.

The weather has gone very quickly from almost freezing in the mornings to balmy afternoons to very hot in a matter of days. This sudden change is taking a bit of a toll on us as we have not had the chance to acclimatise as yet. Our rain water tanks have had to be topped up with bore water to keep us going. Since early August we have only had one night of rain and that was just enough to supply as with drinking water. Everything else is now done with bore water. Our nesting birds have fledged and the area where we have or breakfast has gone very quiet lately. We kind of miss our little friends. Mum and dad have been kept busy for weeks bringing insects to their babies. They seem to be gluttons for punishment however as it looks like they are rebuilding their nest to start again! Lizards are a common sight now along with the occasional baby snake. Even as babies they are very fast and seem short tempered. So far we have not encountered any adults. Given the reputation the inland Taipans have we don’t actually want to meet any!

We are staying here for three weeks to show the mining to some friends of ours from Germany and then will pack up and return home. With a bit of luck we will have a few good Saturdays at the Esplanade Markets.

Catch up soon!