Brisbane, QLD - Australia
A few dollars changed hands as I sat down for a cup of tea with my shipping agent a few minutes ago. He makes sure the 55 gallon drums of rough Koroit opal that I toil to collect make it all the way from Australia to my place in the USA. We chatted and laughed a bit. He told me the drums I had sent him on Monday (and was told would be delivered to his office on Wednesday) had not yet arrived (today is Thursday) and after he had made a few phone calls nobody could tell him where they were and one person went so far as to make the rather extreme metaphysical claim that they did not even exist. I really do not want to digress into a discussion of existence, theories of epistemology, certainty and wanderings into the oh-so-attractive quagmire of solipsism, so, please pardon my rather bold claim . . . I know they exist. I'm also rather confident they'll be found in the next day or two and soon will be on a ship heading across the Pacific.
He also mentioned rather politely that based on his limited experience, it seemed to him that "some of the people people involved in opal mining were a bit strange". Of course I laughed and let him know almost everyone involved is at least a bit strange. It is a collection of curious characters and curious adventures and misadventures.
Tomorrow I will be on the plane back to the USA.
My apologies for not posting more entries during this trip. I was busy mining and sorting and had little spare time. Yes, there were some experiences I hope to share with you faithful reader (Are you really there? Is anyone really reading this stuff?) . . . and a few photos I will post once I return to the USA. . . . and maybe some details about my transcendent experience.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
It's Like . . .
Cunnamulla, QLD - Australia
Yes, I'm still finding pretty opal. I'm helping a friend at his mine and another friend is open cutting my mine - he'll soon be at the opal level. When he gets to the level I'll be bouncing back and forth between my place and my friend's place hopefully seeing lots of gorgeous colors and patterns.
Many people ask me "what's it like being an opal miner?" . . . hmmm, can be a bit hard to answer . . . . A few days ago after stopping by the local artesian bore to take a shower in wonderfully warm and very soothing slightly minerally water, I had a chat with a fellow miner. I had been staying at his camp, but was going to be moving to stay at another camp. I told him I was going to stop by his camp to pick up my stuff. He told me to remember to throw some wood on the fire (it is winter here and gets chilly at night). He has a small fireplace (which I built a few years ago out of corrugated iron and about a thousand rivets). The fireplace does keep things comfortable. I stopped by his camp, collected and broke up some firewood as the sun was getting lower. Of course during the process of breaking the firewood I encountered a couple rather large and unhappy to be disturbed spiders and a bush cockroach (looks like a USA cockroach (often referred to as a palmetto bug) with a tribal shield on its back). Once the fire was started in the fireplace I sat back on his small couch for a few minutes to make sure everything was ok, let out one of those sighs that is produced at the end of a day of hard work and watched the flames. The door to his camp was slightly behind me on my right side. I had left it open and the red glow from the setting sun was filtering in as was a slightly cool, but very fresh breeze. As the sun dropped below the horizon, my thoughts halted, I was embraced by that wonderful stillness that occurs in the bush, punctuated only by the delicate and pretty songs from a couple of nearby birds and entranced by the beautiful smell and dancing of the fire in the fireplace. That's what it's like to be an opal miner.
Yes, I'm still finding pretty opal. I'm helping a friend at his mine and another friend is open cutting my mine - he'll soon be at the opal level. When he gets to the level I'll be bouncing back and forth between my place and my friend's place hopefully seeing lots of gorgeous colors and patterns.
Many people ask me "what's it like being an opal miner?" . . . hmmm, can be a bit hard to answer . . . . A few days ago after stopping by the local artesian bore to take a shower in wonderfully warm and very soothing slightly minerally water, I had a chat with a fellow miner. I had been staying at his camp, but was going to be moving to stay at another camp. I told him I was going to stop by his camp to pick up my stuff. He told me to remember to throw some wood on the fire (it is winter here and gets chilly at night). He has a small fireplace (which I built a few years ago out of corrugated iron and about a thousand rivets). The fireplace does keep things comfortable. I stopped by his camp, collected and broke up some firewood as the sun was getting lower. Of course during the process of breaking the firewood I encountered a couple rather large and unhappy to be disturbed spiders and a bush cockroach (looks like a USA cockroach (often referred to as a palmetto bug) with a tribal shield on its back). Once the fire was started in the fireplace I sat back on his small couch for a few minutes to make sure everything was ok, let out one of those sighs that is produced at the end of a day of hard work and watched the flames. The door to his camp was slightly behind me on my right side. I had left it open and the red glow from the setting sun was filtering in as was a slightly cool, but very fresh breeze. As the sun dropped below the horizon, my thoughts halted, I was embraced by that wonderful stillness that occurs in the bush, punctuated only by the delicate and pretty songs from a couple of nearby birds and entranced by the beautiful smell and dancing of the fire in the fireplace. That's what it's like to be an opal miner.
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