We were cooking a Sunday morning feast of bacon, eggs, hash browns and a real coffee thanks to the pod coffee machine donated by Ace & Anni in the BBQ area of the Karratha caravan park when Steve wandered in and started cooking his breakfast.

He was around 60 years of age with a sad look on his bald head, we got talking and it became clear he’d had more wine last night than he should have due his wife Jenny being away for a bit, Steve was feeling and looking a bit dusty.

Steve was from Southern South Australia and a fisherman who chased the sharks but tossed it in to become a gypsy as he put it, “they call us trailer trash” he added as the first sign of a smile broke on his face. He and his wife packed up and hit the road like most grey nomads before picking up work.

In Karratha after 5 months off Steve was due start work again in a couple of days locally driving a water truck to keep the red dust blowing from the road during works before he heads to Onlsow to do the same thing in a month or so. During Steve’s stay down in Onslow his wife Jenny is heading to The Daly River in NT where their friends have just started managing the local pub.

After trading a few stories on each other travels Steve talked gold, he was the owner of a fine ($6500) Minelab 5000 Gold Detector and he unlike us had found what he was looking for mixed up in all that dirt! “Jenny is into it more then me but its addictive” he said.

He had done his prospecting all over the place but had recently found 17 small pieces in Karratha in an area your car would cover but it was his wife who had found the larger nuggets. I asked him how much he had sold it for knowing what the answer would be “we haven’t sold the gold we wont sell gold” none do, well none of the people we have talked to have sold.

We parted company and were going about our business when Steve appeared out of nowhere with some treasure to feed our disappointment of not finding any gold when hunting for it back in Kalgoorlie.

The 17 small pieces were ok but 1 in particular was a small nugget and had soft but shinny edges, it had the weight of something 4 times it’s size. Then he produced a small clear container full with cotton wool but for the 2 pieces of gold 1 shaped similar to a piece of coral.

These pieces disappeared back into his pocked before Jennys gold appeared, these pieces larger and very impressive as they sparkled in the hot sun. Steve said he’d be in real trouble if Jenny knew he’d touched her gold, I guess that will only happen if she see’s this blog…

Or we tell her when we drop in at the Daly River Hotel on our way past in a few weeks.