Some of the places where we dig can be accessed by motorcar on farm land. We are eternally grateful to generous farm owners, who grant permission to dig for crystals.
About 9 months ago we moved to Ceres, a town situated in the mountains, about 120 km drive from Cape Town. Ceres is surrounded by mountains and farms and we regularly walk in the mountains, trout fishing or looking for crystals.
When searching for crystals, we firstly search for quartz veins, that are usually snow white. Once such veins are found, we look for tell-tale sighns of quartz crystals. More than often there is none, but with persistence, some nice pockets of crystals are discovered. One such pocket recently yielded about 15 kg of crystals, but most pockets are much smaller and only a small percentage of the crystals are of good quality. One of the best pockets that we found, was about the size of a man's head, and of very high quality.
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| My nephew and I digging for crystals on a farm |
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| I found a nice pocket in mid-winter |
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| Riana removes smoky quartz crystals just beneath the surface |
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| Some lovely smokies exposed |
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| A lovely find of (unwashed) crystals from the above pocket |
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| Riana found a lovely smoky |
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| Digging's the name of the game! |
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| Lovely scenery near the place we found crystals |
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| We found a good pocket high up in the mountains |
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| Lovely crystals |
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| A pretty quartz cluster |
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| Digging for crystals in a remote area |
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| Lovely female quartz crystal |
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| Part of our scenic climb to get to the crystals |
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| Pretty semi-sceptre |
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| A gemmy little crystal group |
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| Pretty crystal on quartz matrix |
11 comments:
Do you know where there is a erea in ceres where i can find quarts that is public and not a farm
Do you know where i can find quarts in a public erea in ceres by the way i love your blogs they are really fun to read
On what farms can you search in those places without their permision
Nowhere! If you want to search on a farm, you need the owner's permission.
I'm quite sure that I'd answered the first 2 questions when they came up a few years ago, but my reply seem to have disappeared. So I'll do it again: Wherever there are sandstone mountains, you should be able to find crystals (that includes some Ceres mountains). To help you with searching, you can read my two posts below:
Quartz collecting in Southern Africa:
http://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?t=2520
How to find a pocket:
http://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=44505#44505
I found a big, gem in Western Cape Wellington and i hope you can help me with the Id, it has six sides? Weighs 4kg and is about 20cm long.
Please visit our website https://www.namibianbrandbergcrystals.com and contact us via our 'Contact Us' page (in the links bar) with your detail, then we'll give you an e-mail address to which you can send a photograph, so we can see if we can recognize the mineral.
Hello,me and my friend want to go crystal hunting,but we don't know where to start except starting in Ceres.We live in Worcester,and we don't mind walking long distances.Can you help us by pointing places out that are more specific.
We would appreciate your help,thank you.
I would just like to know if in Imfolozi, you pick up a rock on the sand road ... is it legal to take home or not?
If it is in a reserve, no. If on private property, you'll need permission from the owner. If it's public property, it should be okay - there is no law against collecting quartz.
Who can help me find people who can give me more ifo on my quarts that i pic up and price
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