Adventures end

Jonathan Porter

All good adventures have a beginning and an end, and ‘The West Australian Adventure’ was no exception. Personal reflections made when you’ve had time to sit down and go over your experiences all over again is what truly makes a great adventure and to that end they put this trip right up there with my all-time favourites. As I write this I’ve just received word from Chris Ralph who is waiting for an early flight at an Airport in the US, he’s on his way back home from a whole new adventure with Steve Herschbach poles apart from our trip last year. I’m amazed to find it’s been close on a year since we parted, so I suppose WA was truly a great adventure as it’s taken nearly a year to tell the story!

The West Australian Adventure Video Blog - Part 7

Jonathan Porter

When I look back on the latter part of trip with the benefit of hindsight’s 20-20 vision, I finally realise that what I was now noticing in Chris and Steve’s behaviour was mirrored closely to the freeing up of my own worries and concerns in trying to get them over gold each and every day. This phenomenon is a pretty common occurrence in the gold game, you at first manically try to find crumbs all day every day then towards the end of the trip tend to back off and relax, its then that things generally come into alignment. Chris and Steve now knew the drill; they had confidence in their detectors and felt more in tune with their surrounds which was then subsequently reflected in their gold finds.

Essential items to take detecting

Peter Cragg

1. Some form of communication
2. GPS
3. First aid kit, body protection
4. Spare water, food and fuel
5. Matches or lighter

Let’s investigate this list in more detail.

Communication is an essential item and top of my list of “needs”. The very first requirement is a need to tell someone where you are going and roughly when you expect to be back. I know that we, as detectorists like to be secretive about our spots, but an early alert might just be the difference between coming home with assistance and not coming home at all. We occasionally see some poor blighters perish for whatever reason and no-one is sure of where to start looking for them.

The West Australian Adventure Video Blog - Part 6

Jonathan Porter

Cement as the name suggests is very hard, requiring special methods and tools. In this blog post I wish to discuss the way I set up our GPX 5000s to get maximum performance in the location seen in the video.

Firstly the area was well known to me and as a consequence has seen a lot of attention with all previous models of Minelab detectors dating back to the SD 2000; as such it’s a very good litmus test to the effectiveness of any new Minelab design!

Minelab PRO-FIND 25

Jonathan Porter

Being asked to have a play with the PRO-FIND 25 pinpoint probe lacked excitement for me based on past experiences with similar devices due to a number of factors. Firstly a lack of sensitivity to small nuggets especially in mineralised soils and secondly my GPX 5000 would pick up my previous pinpointer from a long way away even when the thing was turned off!

GPX 5000 Tricks of the Trade – Using Multiple Timings

Chris Ralph

The GPX 5000 has quite an array of Timings and selecting the right Timing to get the most out of this detector requires a little understanding of the ground you are working. Certain Timings work better in certain environments, and understanding the gold bearing ground conditions is an advantage in choosing the best Timing. However sometimes using a pair of Timings can be even more powerful.

The West Australian Adventure Video Blog - Part 5

Jonathan Porter

The day I found the 17 gram nugget turned out to be very exciting, we all had our eyes well and truly opened to the power of the GPX 5000, especially the new Enhance and Fine Gold Timings.

The West Australian Adventure Video Blog - Part 4

Jonathan Porter

The day started crisp, clear and cool. Chris and Steve were now well and truly immersed in the adventure, having perfected their Australian detecting techniques over the previous few weeks to the point they were now naturally targeting productive areas with their GPX 5000s.

The day previously, Steve, Chris and I were working an old scrape taking turns to detect the richest sections of ground where cap rock was exposed (cemented wash with gold enclosed), assisting each other with hammer and chisel to remove the nuggets. Due to the

The West Australian Adventure Video Blog - Part 3

Jonathan Porter

Our third week was inter-mixed with confused emotions about the trip; we were on the home stretch with the days now being measured by how long before hopping a flight home. Both Steve and Chris were feeling the effects of the time away, both from a comfort point of view due to their mattresses being too thin for the hard Aussie ground, but also due to the effects of being away from loved ones and familiar surrounds...

A golden day in California

Chris Ralph

California is famous for its moderate weather, but it isn’t always that way, especially in the high country of the Sierra Nevada Range. In early summer, I tried to take a friend over to a patch where I’ve pulled some nice gold. The weather was unusually cold and we were actually blocked by late season snow on the roads. I never got the chance to return during the rest of the summer, but after my visit to Australia, I was motivated to get back up there.