Nugget01

Wonderful world

Timeframe: 1967 - 16 years old

Place Zimbabwe bush about 50 km north of Beit Bridge

Lying snug-warm drowsy in a sleeping bag close to the fire  after a long tiring day tramping through the bush, Dad hung the transistor radio on a tree. In the canopy of stars a shooting star traced across the sky and as we softly exclaimed about it, Louis Armstrong sang "What a Wonderful World" 

Dad was not a talker but there was no need to say anything..

Prospecting in Zimbabwe

My dad was a part-time prospector in the wonderfully rich land of Zimbabwe. He and his brother began searching in their youth for that elusive pipe mine - gold and emeralds were the ultimate dream. But there were many other treasures in the ground.

Dad paid for a prospecting license which allowed him to enter any farmland and look for minerals. There was a protocol in that you had to inform the farmer of your intentions and ask his permission which could not be unreasonably refused. If you dug into the ground and then left you had to fill in the trenches. If you found any one of the hundreds of possible treasures you had to stake your claim by precisely indicating exactly where it was with a metal plate embossed with the claim name. Those posts had to be 100 yards apart and the certificate had to be displayed anywhere in the claim.

Dad was very proficient with mapwork aided by his trusty army compass and land survey map. Then the claim had to be registered on returning to the city and renewed with a fee every year. 

I accompanied Dad on many trips. We would set off into the depths of Zimbabwe. We explored all over into very remote places like Buhera and Tel El Kibr. My poor mother stayed at home and worried.  There were no cell phones! The trips I remember were from the age of 11 in 1962 until about 1969 when I was 18. My dad would develop that gleam in his eyes every month  and we would prepare for the next trip.    

Dad spoke very fluent Shona and Ndebele and he was often informed of treasures in the bush. On at least one occasion he suspected that the samples he was shown were planted - seeded 

unakite

Semi-precious

Dad's persistence paid off when he started mining Avnturine which is a green quartzite (the light green in the picture. 

 

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