Prospecting always appealed to me....but I have never made/had the time. This sounds like a really fun, exciting and very different adventure. I do hope you manage to get the time off work. Who knows what you will find....and after all, it will be a really healthy kind of holiday...fresh air...rummaging around in the dirt....meeting interesting people, bound to put some zing in your world
. Maybe a bed and breakfast kind of place may be a good place to stay.