too hot now for goldy , how you pro boys deal with it?

too hot now , how do ya deal with it .

Night detecting

get in a air con tractor to load the dry blower and hopefully still find a bit of color.

And yes brought a solar powered cap from bunnings so will give that a go shortly one evening..

regards
oneday

harr hrr 4/ 5 years iv done it on gold straight ,but summer it hurts ... iv even come across ol Jonathon porter in meeka one year or 2 in summer doin it tuff ..he was there , family n all , they managed,,,,, summer for the tector is a bugger if your not a patch, its bits n bits hard goin, albo.

I'm definitely not a pro but I have been out in some stinking heat a few times not counting my years in the Pilbarra and NT.
Ya can't detect all day long, a few hours in the early morning and then later in the afternoon.  I don't night detect.
What do I do for the rest of the day ?? keep in the shade and make sure I'm well liquidated with fluids coz the heat is a killer.
stay off the booze during the heat as it will make things worse      As if I will follow my own advice    
Alcohol will dehydrate the human body.
And next morning, you will know what it's like to be hit in the head with a hammer  
But what would I know, I love a coldie or 3 when I do get out        

If ya gunna drink booze drink a lot of water as well, and I'm not kiddin ya   

I don't gold detect in the summer heat anymore and just use the time to have a breather to get things fixed up and ready for next season, but I still have a go at hunting old coins and have a bit of a go on the beach when the urge to detect takes me and I need a fix.  

I used to detect all year round and did so for many years, but as I have become old and soft and don't have the drive (hunger) that I once had, as we all know the older the body gets the longer it takes to recover, and getting geographically embarrassed earlier in the year was a wake up call for me and had I been in the same situation in 45/50 degree heat I might have karked it.  

There are many problems associated with summer time detecting that don't immediately come to mind, there are of course the obvious things like the heat, and the increased danger of not surviving if you get lost, the hotter it gets the less time you have to get either back to camp or to get found, in the very high forties you can find yourself in real trouble within a few short hours if you have no water, and even with water on you its still going to be tough.  

Another thing, the only times when you can get out to detect is during the early hours of the morning, late afternoon, and during the night which can put you at risk of injury, and now with the real added danger of dog attack might be fool hardy to do this in some areas, remember also that the hotter it gets the dogs will hole up during the day and get about more in the night.  

On one trip when the temperatures got to 47.8 and stayed that way for some three or four days, the fridges didn't like it and only kept things Kimberley cool and still sucked the batteries inside out, the heat was stifling and with the added discomfort of a constant hot wind day and night made it hard to detect and also hard to get any sleep, then during the night we could smell smoke so there's another real danger of getting caught in the line of a bush fire as well.  

You can also find your camp bombarded with hostile and thirsty insect as well, millions of angry ants, swarms of bee's, (I got swarmed and stung three or four times on the back of the neck) and also cranky wasps that dive bomb you when you take a swing at them, and oh yeah there the bloody flies as well all trying to get into your face at the same time, having to blow out to get them off the face net so you can see where your going, and get this the little sh#ts are about during the night when its really hot and instead of flying about they just tend to walk all over you even when you are asleep.  

Another thing is that you tend to drink too much and can end up feeling washed out, the reason is because the more fluid you drink the more the salts are washed out of your body, so you have to take care to avoid excessive alcohol, light beers best in moderation, hot tea, and cool water, also supplement your drinks with Staminade or a similar electrolyte replacement drink, when you drink excessively and the salts become low in your body studies have shown that it will alter the way your brain functions and this is what causes confusion and disorientation, so if you get lost and your dehydrated then it will make it hard for you to function as you would normally.   


Apart from all that its great fun  

au-fever

Hi All,

I can remember when I was working that we were out prospecting, the heat was that bad that it felt like your shirt was being ironed while you were wearing it, damned hot

We've had Christmas out there as well, put up the fly tent so we could eat without eatint the flies, the fridge was struggling to keep at -5degbut we did it crayfish, prawns the whole lot and of course the traditional Christmas pud and custard and cream

It's what you make of it and I'm sure, damn sure, that I couldn't do it now, to friggin hot!!

I can tell you how hot it gets out there, if you wear a pair of boots out and leave them hanging in a tree and come back next season and check out that pair of boots you left behind they will have shrunk to about 1/4 of there original size, now that is some serious heat...talk about frying your brain!!!

Ron

Summer prospecting is now definitely taken from the calendar.
May to October goldfields, November to April on the coast laying about enjoying the Fremantle Doctor.


Peter

My advice is forget it, you're wasting your time. If you do decide to go out, then take heed of the good advice in the posts above. Take heaps of water and keep drinking it!. Particularly us older fellas. When you dehydrate, your blood thickens. What do you reckon that does for the old ticker?  And lastly, getting lost is simply not an option...

Good luck
Stingray

albo wrote:harr hrr 4/ 5 years iv done it  on gold  straight ,but summer it hurts  ... iv even come across  ol  Jonathon porter in meeka one year or 2  in summer doin it tuff  ..he was there , family n all , they managed,,,,, summer for the tector is a bugger if your not a patch, its bits n bits hard goin, albo.

It's still better than the best day at work!

'Course, here in "Mexico" we only miss about 3 days a year due to heat. Boy, it's hard to take. Bwahahahahahahaha

Robert

I grab the pans and go have a play in the creeks to get a gold fix,

to me gold detecting is all about having a good time, bit hard when your brain is fried in 40+ deg. heat Il give it a miss untill things cool down abit.

we had 2 guys go down at work last week with dehidration, and its knocked me before the dangers are real and to me not worth it.

If you are out there drink water with electrolites 10+ L a day, stay off the piss and definately dont get bushed not my idea of fun

stay off the piss--there goes albo -- heading to the pub  

regards
oneday

yep Ray , cant dispute that one mate , one year around meeka there was sht loads of rain in winter so we all submitted & went to town from out bush  , hit the pub .... one cheeky ol pric , shitcan colenal as he was known , used to run the shtcart truck in the old days round meeka in the early times ... had his bar stool no one was allowed to sit in & all that  anyway he made the remark of .. yep nuthin like a bit of rain to flush the rats outa the mulga .

any how  , as  it turns out  back in the dream time , he was Johnson & Johnson baby kid of the year one time  & they use his kiddy mugshot as their logo on johnson baby powder etc ... the people you meet !

I can personly say he was a good ol bloke , quickly angered if stirred ,had a great appetite for beer till his death bed even ... how kids change , albo.
dinkum yarn , even the publican can back that one up & we all know how honest they are !

Thanks au fever great post , had the bees invade the camp twice , they were only looking for water , frinetic they were around the dish wash bowl , water tank ,i had to get in the car after coming back from the big walk , change to jeans n long shirt , wrap around towel on the head , get out , pack up camp & leave .albo