The cold and the mica slate...

So, last weekend, my dad and I went goldwashing together for the first time. We drove to a little river about 40 kilometres away. It was freezing and there was snow! The river itself flows into another river in the area, which is known to have gold, but we couldn't access this other river (only in the middle of a village or down in the valley next to the road), so we chose this one instead.

We worked for over two hours and took home a bucket of fine material to work through, but apart from tons of mica slate and mini garnets, we didn't find a thing. This was demotivating and it surpised me, because although the area lies in the middle of a huge limestone mountain-range, there are many eroded quartz lines - and alas, many, many slate pieces.

So, no success. Again. However, my dad seemed to quite enjoy gold-hunting. He didn't try panning, but he was wandering around with his shovel, digging and getting excited when he thought he found something. It would be nice if he stayed this enthousiastic and we could share this hobby together... He is planning to build a sluice over the winter to make looking for gold a bit easier. He is an excellent craftsman and I am sure it will be fun doing this together.