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Alright, I even have a video for you this time to go with a few pictures. I have an idea that you will really like seeing how the galamsey wash their gold. But first I will fill you in with where we are at with things:

The other day, the chief went back to his village to find someone at work digging a hole with an excavator. Not good. You don't start doing work like that without permission so the 'claim jumpers' were told to leave and not come back. They were not allowed to process their gravel, so we will sample it when time allows. Yesterday we did go to the village to dig some test holes and try a little detecting around some old diggings. These diggings are coming from a gravel layer that is beneath the overburden. You easily know when you get down to that layer, because all the dirt above it is red and then all of a sudden you are in a grey clay layer with plenty of small quartz rocks. A couple of the locals were brought along to dig, and dig they did. I can only remember back to a time when I could work non-stop like these guys. It was nothing for them to keep digging until they reached that clay layer about seven feet down.

Following are a couple shots of their handiwork. Take note of the traditional digging tool: It is a straight metal blade attached to a wooden shaft (tree branch). They drive this straight down to break up the earth and make it more shovel friendly. One clever thing they do is dig down and then leave a shelf to stand on while they continue digging 'half' of the hole. In the picture on the right, the chief is looking on. But don't think he is willing to just serve as a supervisor... he was down in that hole digging away too.

The next picture is of an okurow. This is the traditional galamsey 'gold pan'. Translated, the word okurow roughly means 'round canoe'. The most similar item I have seen is the batea used in South America, but the okurow is a bit deeper. And best of all: I was able to film a galamsey miner using the okurow to wash some gravels. The part that did not make it onto video is when he took a drink of water right from the place the okurow is floating. (I was told not to touch the water let alone drink it!)

http://youtu.be/HRJ98ooXFQM

To wrap things up, today we go to another chief's village who wanted to show us an area to prospect with the hopes we will help him out as well. The excavator should arrive this evening and be ready for us tomorrow morning ready for action. They do not do any work in this village on Tuesdays for fear something bad will happen, so we delayed the excavator's arrival. That way we can get three uninterrupted days in a row of digging.

I'll leave you with a picture of the bush that was taken from where we were working only about 1 mile in. And one of a turtle that the chief found. He was taking it home with him. I believe the African name for this type of turtle is 'dinner'.