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Tuesday 12 November 2013

THE BLOCKUP, YARROW CREEK NEAR GLEN INNES NSW AUSTRALIA

In the Blog on “Sue’s Favourite Spot”, I included an image showing the long “straight”, in Yarrow Creek, which finishes where the creek makes a right angle bend into the Blockup. This is an area of granite where the water flows through a narrow (30-40 cm) channel and continues under granite boulders before emptying into a long pool. This pool finishes at the spot we know as “The Bottom End”.

Much of the creek bed above the Blockup consists of submerged rocky areas and lengthy reedy sections. It looks uninviting and so we have generally left it alone. Those few places where we have fossicked have been the most accessible ones and they have basically had a flat granite bottom (sometimes entirely weathered) with few cracks or holes. I don’t think we left much behind in these spots.

Nevertheless, there is a long section of unprospected creek waiting for a dry season to lower the water level. It can drop more than a metre, so there must be other channels in the Blockup for the water to escape through.

 The finds have been the same as elsewhere, that is, sapphire, zircon and garnet in amongst heaps of black spinel with an occasional piece of topaz. Waterworn clear and smoky quartz turns up frequently. There must be heaps more of these amongst the rocks and beneath the reeds. My You Tube gem hunting playlist is here . I have three other playlists on Glen Innes, the Blue Mountains and New Zealand.   https://johnsbluemountainsblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/links-to-all-blog-entries-and-relevant.html All Blue Mountains blogs and videos

Check out my video of fossicking at the Blockup here .

6 carat "jelly bean" sapphire from the Blockup

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