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[Pierre Joubert]

Some time ago, I was approached by a student, that read this thread 'Quartz collecting outings in South Africa', about joining me on an outing. We planned a trip and a few months ago we visited one of our collecting sites. With him, he had 2 fellow students/friends, none of which had previously collected quartz. They camped on the farm and the first available afternoon we walked to a quartz reef where I showed them how to find crystals and, if lucky, a pocket. After a while of searching and everyone finding the od crystal, I took one of them and went to a spot where Riana and I had previously removed a nice pocket, some with chlorite phantoms. After digging for a while, we found a few small specimens, nothing to get too excited about. I got up to fetch my bag at another spot and when I came back, the young man said to me he found a scorpion and some crystals. We found a number of scorpions that day. After a while he said: 'the crystals are still coming out!' I said, well, remove them. The short of the long is that this Theological student found a massive pocket on his first time out. Wow! Eventually he had his 2 friends help him and the next day 2 ladies who came with them. They removed a number of bags of crystals, most of them very nice. The organizer of this party, Nicholas, cleaned all the specimes and they distributed it amongst themselves. Here are a few photos.

[Mike Wood]

Hi Pierre, thanks for the report on your field trip, your students were really lucky finding such a big pocket on their first day out hunting for crystals! The quartzes are very nice too, pretty large and very clear with good phantoms. Have these guys asked to go on another trip with you or do they go collecting on their own now?
Best regards,
Mike

[Martin Rich]

Thank you Pierre for this nice report. This are very nice samples of quartz! I remember on one of my first collecting trips for searching quartz in the Austrian part of the Bohemian massive and I found.....nothing. That's life!

Martin

[Pierre Joubert]

Thanks Mike. There is always a risk when taking people on an outing like this. This area is not one of our prime collecting areas and it is difficult to find crystals there. Permission can only be obtained through the farmer and he does not allow just anybody there. These students were a delight to have around and I fully trust them. One of them stays with a friend. We are planning a future dig, hopefully when it is cooler. Best regards.

Hi Martin. Thank you. I imagine finding a pocket in that areas you mentioned, is no easy task. Perhaps many have been there before you too! I have been on many outings looking for quartz and returned with only a few pieces, worthy only to be placed around a potted plant. Try again and again. The big pockets are waiting for you!!! Regards.

[Reinhardt van Vuuren]

Hi, you have clearly mastered the skill of finding these quartz crystals and it has been amazing to see your adventures. would you be willing to share your knowledge as to how you go about finding these crystals, what are tell tale signs where to dig ect? this is would be most interesting as i live in Port Elizabeth and would be keen to apply those same steps locally to see what one can come up with.

Kind regards

[Pierre Joubert]

[Jordi Fabre]

[Pierre Joubert]

[Pierre Joubert]

I planned a trip up a gorge just 6km from our home on Thursday, to attempt to catch brown trout and at the same time look for crystals. A large cold front changed my plans and I rather opted to drive out to a farm to look for quartz crystals. It was a good choice as I found some interesting specimens. I first visited a place where we removed a lot of crystals in the past. I found just a few small crystals at first but fortunately found an extension of a vein with quartz crystals in a manganese and hematite mix (I have an idea that more minerals are involved, but I need to send some samples of this away to be tested). After a few hours of removing zillions of small crystals, not much bigger than 25 mm, I decided to give my stiff legs a bit of exercise. I walked for about 30 meters from where I was digging and suddenly saw a rock that looked just a little promising. I started digging and immediately was into a lovely pocket. Unfortunately I damaged the first crystal I found. It was bitterly cold, but I had a most enjoyable day. Some of the crystals are in acid at the moment and I hope to show some photos once they are clean. Meanwhile, here are a few pictures from my day. I must stress that we have been on a number of outings since my last entry and pockets like these are NOT encountered on every trip. The cold front has produced very cold and wet weather here, with some snow on the mountains. It has been very dry and we welcome the rain.

[Mike Wood]

Hi Pierre, thanks for taking the time to take photographs in the wild of your finds, especially with it being very cold. Those quartz crystal groups look very good, I can see why your day was enjoyable!

Best wishes, Mike

[GneissWare]

Hi Pierre. As always, an enjoyable read of your collecting adventures. I look forward to seeing the cleaned specimens.

[Pierre Joubert]

Hi Mike and Bob. Your comments makes the experiences of finding and sharing even more enjoyable! Thank you!

[Pierre Joubert]

Here are a few of the cleaned specimens. I hope to show just a few of the larger specimens later. They are still in the acid.

[chris]

Hello Pierre,

Great report. Looking forward the next ones.

Christophe

[James Catmur]

Pierre

Wonderful, as usual. Also good to see more specimens from your Ceres.

James