Our second night camping along the Plenty Highway – we ended up at the Spotted Tiger campground at Harts Range. It was beautiful but quite remote and a very corrugated 8km’s down a track (past the most scenic racecourse in Australia!) to the Spotted Tiger campground. This was once a paid camping spot but has become very run down and is now free/donation. There were long drop toilets (lots of them) so we were happy to have an almost ensuite toilet for the night! We did head into the campground under false pretences thinking this was where my Mum & Dad had fossicked last year but after looking at the map that night we realised we were about 60km’s off!
However – it is probably the most scenic spot we have camped so far! I was a little nervous as it was quite isolated and I was worried their might be some crazy gem fossickers hiding out there but the other campers turned out to be nice people from Jimboomba outside Brisbane! The kids were stoked as the ground was literally littered with shiny stones! They found stacks of Mika and Garnett Bombs to load up the camper with!
It was just an overnight stop but it would definitely be a place to revist with somebody who knew what they doing on the gem fossicking front – apparently there are some amazing crystals hidden in the hills!
Our campsite Spotted Tiger Campground – Harts Range
A walk in the hills behind the campsite
Walking
Happy Fossicker! ‘Take this one home for Grunda’ she says
A bit of specking for Garnett bombs in the hills
Harts Range on a short walk in the hills behind the campground
Jack with one of the many pieces of Mika
Kids very excited to show Trevor – a nice fellow camper – all of their ‘treasures’!
Sunrise at Harts Range
Sun coming up
Sun up – camper at the bottom right!
Very pretty
Us driving out of Harts Range
‘That’s the life….aye’
good to see you all on Emu parade(head down,a-up,specking for gems)and cain’t wait to see the kids collection, hope you find me some good cutters especially Garnet from Harts Range,havn’t got any good stuff although was able to cut a couple that Macca gave us. Bush fires were raging through that area when we were there so we couldn’t bush camp or fossick, spent our time at Mud Tank chasing Zircon (fires had already passed through).Great to see you finding your way into some of these spots think they’re great bits of Aus also the perfect time for the kids to get some basic geology lessons(especially Jack, being a bit older)they can read about it in a book then actually see it for real. Have a Quizz for them 1–What minerals make up the gem stone Garnet, 2– what is a schist 3–describe a pegmatite– a trip to the library or google will find them the answers —and they’re in the best class room they ever will be. So stay safe, weigh the risks carefully, the bush can bite ya—- ps–gotta go google up some answers to those questions—-
Hey Stewie, yeah I was hooked, looking forward to getting back to Harts/Mud Tank/Mt Surprise/Agate Creek one day for more scratching around. By the way, Jack reckons you’ve made up some of those questions… “Pegmatite”?? Sounds a bit like the “Chuck-er-rite” and “leave-er-rite” and “Sheilb-rite” we found a lot of out there!
Hey Matt , have been following your journey and loving it !
Hope you have switched 100% and living the life fantastic !
Switched off from work I mean not switched … Wouldn’t want that ! Oops typo error
Hey Toni-tone good to hear from you! Yeah I thought it would take a while to switch off but about a week into the trip Jess and I could not work out what day it was, not for the life of us (For the record, I thought it was Thursday…..it was a Sunday!)
It was recommended that we get to Harts Range on our trip but we didnt make it unfortunately, looking at your photos though I wish be had as they are fantastic. Am really enjoying reading your blog and sounds like you have all settled into the lifestyle very nicely.
awesome place !