Same Procedure as Last Year...

Last year, my birthday started with a huge English breakfast, followed by goldpanning and sushi in the evening - you can read up on all of that here. This year? It was exactly the same... and I loved it!! (Look, this time, I had orange juice as well!)

We ended up going to my local canyon. The water was pretty low, but I had brought my fancy waders. I've had them for quite a while, but never tried them out. They worked great though, and I could access places I hadn't been able to pan otherwise.

Frankly, I did sit in the sun a lot (going out the night before, tired), but I did pan - pump's still great - and found some little bits. Biggest ones yet from this area, actually, which was nice.

Something for the Ladies...

Got your own mad gold-digging (literally!) lady at home? Well, then you might want to check out this cute little pendant here. Alas, 51$ is not really a steal, but I know I would like one under my Christmas tree...

On a different note: what I actually want for Christmas is a proper pump (like the ones I was allowed to borrow from my Scottish goldpanning buddies ;). Should work out, fingers crossed - dad has bought stuff and is working on it. With that, I can then take my winter panning to a whole new level, haha. No snow here anyway, so I might as well...

The Fun Continues (PART 2)

Some days later, I had the chance to meet up with even more fellow panners: Andrew, Dave and Tony! They had also agreed to take me panning and after a rainy, somewhat unsuccessful week on my own, I was really looking forward to company.

Same as Hamish, they also travelled quite far to the meetup, and also them and I instantly clicked and got along great. Contrary to me, they specify in sniping the gold off the bedrock, which means they have to wear dry-suits and snorkelling-gear. At first, it was quite an unusual sight for me to see three grown men lying face down in a shallow river, but I soon saw the fun of it and all the advantages one has with this strategy. Who knows, maybe, I'll try it myself next year!



We panned two days in a row. Sure enough, I also picked up many great tips from the three of them. Dave taught me speedpanning and its benefits. I haven't quite mastered it yet, but I'm working on it. Andrew and Tony (lending me his waders) had an impressive amount of geological knowledge and gold in general. And all three had an eye for the right spots of where to find stuff. And so I struck it lucky, too!



Again, I am very thankful for meeting all of you lovely people. It was a blast and I hope it wasn't the last time we panned together!

Back in Tyndrum - My Second Goldpanning Holidays! (PART 1)

Oh my. This post comes terribly late and long overdue. Let's blame it on uni, shall we? This semester is a bitch, but luckily, I spent some great holidays in Scotland, which I can now feed upon with all the fond memories... So finally, here they are:

Again, we stayed at the Wigwam site - around the same time as last year, mid to end of August. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't half as good this time. On most days, it was overcast and rainy, but then again, last year, we really struck it lucky with sunshine for 7+ days. This year, I discovered a different side of the Highlands: wilder, somewhat colder, and certainly more wet. On some days, the rivers were so flooded that a tiny creek would turn into a raging river and made panning virtually impossible.

However, this time, I was not alone. Several panners took it upon themselves to travel all the way to Tyndrum to meet up with me and show me the ropes. First was Hamish:

He travelled a ridiculously long distance and brought along a shitload of equipment for me, as I hadn't been able to transport mine. Priceless! Being such a sweetheart, he invited, my boyfriend and me to some yummy burgers and beer at Paddy's, and we discussed our strategy. Such a treat, after we had been told at the Wigwam site that our booking had been lost and all the wigwams were full. Luckily, after a night in the tent, we did still get proper accomodation and it was all good. Early the next day, Hamish and I hit the river close to the campsite to look for the yellow stuff:



It was so so nice to finally pan with someone who shares my passion! Hamish showed me lots of valuable tips and I learned how great a good pump can be! Also, it was my first time trying out a proper sluice. Hamish had made his own (one small one and then, there's the legendary Big Bertha) and showed me what makes all the differences. I'll be sure to adapt my own homemade one and improve it with his suggestions!



I'll be honest - I didn't find all that much that day, but it was a ton of fun, I took so much valuable experience from it! Unfortunately, Hamish couldn't stay another day, but he did leave half of his equipment with me for another week, which I was so thankful for. Especially the pump and his wellies made work so much easier!
So thank you very, very much for a lovely day and this generous gesture, Hamish. I really hope to go panning with you again sometime!

A Prospector's Birthday...

Right, this is really late, but i forgot to share these with you: On the first of April, it was my birthday. My wish for it was to spend a day goldpanning with my boyfriend and one of my best friends. Although neither of them is a panner, they agreed and it was a wonderful day! Starting with a proper breakfast, of course (everyone knows that a real golddigger needs baked beans to function properly)...

We then drove to a little mountain river nearby (goldpanning songs on blasting volume, of course!). Getting to a good spot meant a lot of hiking and crossing a slightly scary looking bridge. Once arrived on the scene though, I realised that the little waterfall was probably keeping a lot of the gold from being moved on by collecting it at the bottom right under the waterfall. We tried to get to an earlier part of the river, but the surrounding valley was so steep and the little walking path so unclear that we basically managed to walk uphill and slightly to the right for one full hour (it was a very hot day, exhausting!) - just to end up in the very same place again. Don't ask me how this is possible. I honestly have no idea.



As a result, we ended up driving to my "home river" still, which turned out to be a great decision. It was sunnier there than in the narrow canyon - and I managed to find gold, too. Don't have any of it photographed, though, since after coming home in the evening, I didn't have much time before we headed out again to grab some food and a beer with my best friends at the pub afterwards...

So, as you can probably tell: I had a lovely, pretty much perfect day! My favourite breakfast, my favourite hobby, my favourite foods and drinks - and most importantly - surrounded by my favourite people... THANKS A LOT! I wish for every fellow goldpanner to have such a cool birthday!

Autumn and winter panning.

Since my trip to Scotland, I haven't been panning much. In autumn, I did however, get to pan my local river with a friend of mine just before winter came. On the left, there's a picture of our finds. Not much... tiny stuff, but her first gold ever. Unfortunately so tiny that when I had taken the photo from under the microscope and put them back in the vial, I lost all of them. Haha. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. That's how it goes.

Yesterday, I explored another river with my cousin. It was pretty cold, but we did find a little something: Again, tiny, but it was his first time panning, so I'm glad we got lucky. It's always fun to introduce people to panning: I'm happy to share it with someone, and they are fascinated by the unusual hobby, and of course the prospect of finding real gold. In the summer, we want to come back and try it again. On a sidenote: Funny how the gold from this river is much rounder than the flakes in the picture above... And yes, even if it's tiny: Gold is just so pretty. Thank God for my microscope, so that I can have a good look at it.

What about you? Have you been panning in these cold autumn- and winter months - or are you impatiently waiting for spring? I personally like panning in the winter: there are less people (hikers) around. And also and most importantly: you can often access places, which you couldn't pan otherwise, when the water is higher. I too, am waiting for spring and summer, though. Panning is much nicer when you don't freeze your butt off and when you can actually enjoy the creek-cooled beer that is waiting for you after a hard day's work, haha!

Panning in Tyndrum, Scotland: Pictures

A few days ago, I returned from my gold-panning holidays near Tyndrum in Scotland. I had seen some youtube videos about Scottish gold, did some research and found out that Tyndrum is one of two areas in Scotland, which is famous for its gold (and bigger stuff than what I had found so far). So that decided it: I would spend 10 days there in search for some gold. Here are some pictures (click to make them bigger):

Tyndrum is a wee led- and gold-mining town. While I was there, they decided whether to re-open the old goldmine. It was decided against it, which many didn't understand.



I spent most days panning the rivers (there were two main ones), though at first without luck, which led to a bit of frustration. Even borrowing a gravel pump from the owner of the campsite didn't quite do the trick, which was, well, a little frustrating.



Unfortunately, none of the Scottish goldpanners had any time to meet up, but they did give me valuable tips and I kept on focussing on crevices, rather than digging gravel holes, because I'm lazy and I didn't wanna keep on borrowing the pump. Also, there was quite a bit of exposed bedrock, which was worth cleaning out. But... what did I finally find? I'm going to leave this question open until the next post.

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.

The first attempt

Today, I finally received my first gold-pan in the mail. am still waiting for some black pans (for finer gold) and some accessories... but even with only one pan, I could finally try prospecting for some gold at the river (I did try it before, but lids and flowerpot-saucers just don't work). It was freezing outside - tonight the first snow fell on the hills and mountains. But the landscape looked beautiful:

I have to take a sief next time, because it was a drag picking out the bigger stones. I don't expect big nuggets anyway, so a sief will really help getting rid of useless gravel. I also did not bring a shovel, which made scraping together material really hard. However, I did end up with some tiny little flitters in the end. I have no idea, if they are real gold or not. I did do research about rivers with gold in the area - and the river where I washed today does have gold, but not really where I tried it, so yeah... But they shimmer in a pretty way and make me wanna try some more promising rivers soon. I just hope, the weather gets a bit warmer still!