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Swartberg (Black mountain) feldspar mine. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Swartberg (Black mountain) feldspa
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The 2 yellow arrows indicate where the 2 pockets are. The openings are not large enough to explore with your hands. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The 2 yellow arrows indicate where
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The 4x4 road up. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The 4x4 road up.
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The Arch dam - Ceres, Western Cape (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The Arch dam - Ceres, Western Cape
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The area has wonderful sandstone rock formations. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The area has wonderful sandstone r
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The area surrounding the quartz reef. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The area surrounding the quartz re
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The area where I dug. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The area where I dug.
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The area where I found the exposed pockets. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The area where I found the exposed
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The area where I found the quartz with a black mineral. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The area where I found the quartz
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The area where Riana dropped me off. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The area where Riana dropped me of
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The beautiful, rare flowers that resembles a closed hand. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The beautiful, rare flowers that r
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The best specimen I found. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The best specimen I found.
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The border of the Western Cape, some 120 km from our home. The languages on the board are Afrikaans; Xhosa and (off-course) English. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The border of the Western Cape, so
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The camera with adapter Raynox lens. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The camera with adapter Raynox len
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The cavity left by a large (more than a meter long) spondumene crystal that was removed (doubtfully intact) (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The cavity left by a large (more t
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The Ceres valley, way in the back. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The Ceres valley, way in the back.
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The crystals keep on coming! (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The crystals keep on coming!
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The farmer has cleared a good section of the small hill to use the soil for farm roads. Guess what, he has uncovered crystal seams! (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The farmer has cleared a good sect
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The first crystal to come out. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The first crystal to come out.
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The first good lead of fun to come. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The first good lead of fun to come
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The first place where I found many small crystals, often on manganese rich matrix. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The first place where I found many
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The first pool I visited. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The first pool I visited.
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The large pocket. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The large pocket.
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The last stretch; not as easy as it seems. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The last stretch; not as easy as i
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The new pocket area. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The new pocket area.
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The only fish of the day:-( (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The only fish of the day:-(
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The pass towards Ceres. The photo was taken about 2km outside of Ceres. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The pass towards Ceres. The photo
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The place of interest. New, unexplored area. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The place of interest. New, unexp
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The pocket and the direct area around it. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The pocket and the direct area aro
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The pocket area. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The pocket area.
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The pocket area. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The pocket area.
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The pocket extended futher under the rocks but getting better. Next time we will continue where we left off. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The pocket extended futher under t
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The pocket that yielded most of the crystals. I took this photo by flash. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The pocket that yielded most of th
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The pocket underneath a large rock. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The pocket underneath a large rock
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The pockets exposed. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The pockets exposed.
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The road in front of our house facing the mountains closest to our home. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The road in front of our house fac
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The road that leads to one of our ’crystal’ collecting areas, runs through a pear orchard. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The road that leads to one of our
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The rock full of crystals. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The rock full of crystals.
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The same amazing plant. I have only seen this plant (flower) in this area (Ceres) (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The same amazing plant. I have on
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The same as above photo. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The same as above photo.
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The same as above. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The same as above.
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The same as above. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The same as above.
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The same as above. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The same as above.
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The same bulb’s details. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The same bulb’s details.
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The same crystal. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The same crystal.
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The same plant close-up. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The same plant close-up.
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The same pocket with quartz barely visible right at the back. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The same pocket with quartz barely
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The same pocket. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The same pocket.
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The same quarry where gypsum; calsite and some other strange mineral is to be found. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The same quarry where gypsum; cals
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The same reservoir, with a small clear stream running into it. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The same reservoir, with a small c
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The same snake, close up. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The same snake, close up.
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The scene behind us from the pocket. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The scene behind us from the pocke
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The second pocket, about 30 m from the other. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The second pocket, about 30 m from
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The semi-desert had some good rain. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The semi-desert had some good rain
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The small dog has a habit of finding a comfortable place to sleep when we take too long. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The small dog has a habit of findi
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The small dot on the open piece of ground, is my car. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The small dot on the open piece of
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The small valley where I found this pocket with fadens. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The small valley where I found thi
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The smaller pocket that goes straight down. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The smaller pocket that goes strai
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The surroundings after sunset. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The surroundings after sunset.
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The surroundings. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The surroundings.
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The vicinity just above the digging area. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
The vicinity just above the diggin
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There are still many crystals left in the pocket, including this big cluster, which I think will be difficult to remove intact. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
There are still many crystals left
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This area has many smaller pockets that looks promising but does not necessary deliver much. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
This area has many smaller pockets
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This awkward pocket yielded some nice faden quartzes. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
This awkward pocket yielded some n
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This chap drilled one hole to many (my leg). I managed to seriously damage his machinery. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
This chap drilled one hole to many
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This deep pocket extended for more than 2 meters into the rock and required a lot of hard work to clean out. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
This deep pocket extended for more
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This is a famous landmark on the river, called Boulder pool. As can be seen, a large boulder has plunged into the river at some time, probably from an earthquake. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
This is a famous landmark on the r
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This is the place I spent most of my time. The crystals that I removed from the soil, appears to have fallen down a large gap behind a rock, from higher up. It is to dangerous to attempt to remove this rock (Author: Pierre Joubert)
This is the place I spent most of
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This is the total of the crystals I removed from this pocket. Riana removed some more on the following trip. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
This is the total of the crystals
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This is the type bulb I use; a cheap one that was supplied by our energy supplier. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
This is the type bulb I use; a che
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This picture was taken as I was ascending the hill. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
This picture was taken as I was as
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This promising quartz reef yielded nothing. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
This promising quartz reef yielded
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This specie is rather unusual and not often seen. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
This specie is rather unusual and
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Ceres, Warmbokkeveld Valley, Ceres, Valle Warmbokkeveld, Witzenberg, Cape Winelands, Western Cape Province, South Africa
(Author: Pierre Joubert)
This was mostly what Riana removed
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This was the first really good double terminated crystal that popped not long after I started digging. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
This was the first really good dou
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Those smiles tell it all! (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Those smiles tell it all!
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Thousands of the above mentioned flowers. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Thousands of the above mentioned f
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TKP1.JPG (Author: Pierre Joubert)
TKP1.JPG
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Topaz
Spitzkoppe, Erongo region, Namibia
55 x 33 x 22mm (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Topaz
Spitzkoppe, Erongo region, N
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Topaz
Spitzkoppe, Erongo region, Namibia
55 x 33 x 22mm (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Topaz
Spitzkoppe, Erongo region, N
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Two Klipspringer on a rock. These are extremely agile and their name means ’rock jumper’ if freely translated. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Two Klipspringer on a rock. These
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Two rock rabbits (Coneys) welcome the early morning sun on my way up the mountain. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Two rock rabbits (Coneys) welcome
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Two three and a half pounders from a nearby stream. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Two three and a half pounders from
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Typical mountain scenery from this area. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Typical mountain scenery from this
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Typical quartz from last mentioned quartz veins. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Typical quartz from last mentioned
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Typical road in town. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Typical road in town.
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Unknown black mineral. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Unknown black mineral.
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Unknown crystals
Western Cape, South Africa
Largest approx. 3mm long.
Same as above (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Unknown crystals
Western Cape, Sou
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Unknown crystals
Western Cape, South Africa
Largest approx. 3mm long.
My knowledge of mineral specimens is very limited. I will place some of these photos on ’what mineral is it?’ later on. Maybe one of our experts can help identify these crystals. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Unknown crystals
Western Cape, Sou
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Way up in the mountains looking for quartz crystals. Robertson, WC. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Way up in the mountains looking fo
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We call this the quartz valley as everywhere you look are white quartz. The crystals however, are not that easy to find. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
We call this the quartz valley as
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Weathered Quartz veins. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Weathered Quartz veins.
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Welcome drinking water for the wild animals. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Welcome drinking water for the wil
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When I started enlarging the hole, i removed this slab with crystals first. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
When I started enlarging the hole,
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Where the rain washed away softer earth, shale with veins of clear gypsum are exposed. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Where the rain washed away softer
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Where the Wit-els river joins the Breede river in Michells Pass. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Where the Wit-els river joins the
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Which way should we go today? (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Which way should we go today?
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While ascending the steep outcrop, I could not help enjoying all the flowers. This strange plant/flower has always intrigued me. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
While ascending the steep outcrop,
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While banging on a rock to remove it, this small snake, an egg eater came out and I managed to get a nice photo of it. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
While banging on a rock to remove
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While looking for mineral specimens, flowers are always appreciated. Robertson, WC. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
While looking for mineral specimen
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While Riana was digging, I capturerd the moon. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
While Riana was digging, I capture
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Witels Pan 3 nv.JPG (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Witels Pan 3 nv.JPG
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Witels Pan 4 nf.JPG (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Witels Pan 4 nf.JPG
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Women take a little bit more care when removing crystals than men. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Women take a little bit more care
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Yet another from the same pocket. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Yet another from the same pocket.
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Yet another mountain dweller, a Duiker. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Yet another mountain dweller, a Du
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Yet another nice crystal waits to be removed. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
Yet another nice crystal waits to
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You want quartz, you have to dig. Villiersdorp. (Author: Pierre Joubert)
You want quartz, you have to dig.