Toast and Vegemite for breakfast! Rude not to when your in Australia. We left the DAG sheep farm this morning, on route to Bingara, where we would visit a Gold mine and try our luck at panning for some. Off we went saying goodbye to Nundle a beautiful Australian countryside village. With a couple of stops on route we arrived at the gold mine just before our hotel. We met 'Joy the gold digger' who had an incredible passion for her job and living. They talked us through their mine and then showed us some gold and the properties of the element and how they pan for it. Before that we started by searching for minerals, stones and crystals. We each gathered some dirt and put it through water looking for different elements. Coloured copper, green sapphire, and other minerals were found. After a quick barbie as you do in the outback, we got back to it, this time panning for the gold. Gold is very dense so will sink in water. By knowing this the whole process was about shaking the dirt until you had little sediment at the bottom of the pan, which is where you would hope to see glimmers of gold. I started off very unlucky with nothing for 3 attempts :( however Laura cracked it on her 2nd go. Laura's got gold!! Finally I caught up and found a little speck on my fourth time. After a few more pans we racked up 4/5 pieces each. Not worth much but defo an achievement! Some people left with none!! Bye Joy!!! All checked in at our pub hotel we went for a swim before eating dinner and heading to bed. Today we were Gold Diggers!Â
