About an hour down the road, we came to a nice little family restaurant in the "crystal area" (Bancroft) and decided to sit down and have some breakfast. We all ordered the same thing, with the exception of Colin (the hairy guy with the beard) who got extra eggs in substitute of bacon. The waitress poured scorching hot coffee on my lap.... So I got my meal free! :)
Colin (hairy guy with beard)
Dave, not lookin' too impressed with the picture taking while he is eating
Me, having a bad hair day and talking about my lap-burning experience.
Eden would have his picture here, but he was the photographer of the restaurant.
After breakfast we headed off in hopes of finding some crystal. We stopped at Tim Horton's for more coffee (I love coffee, and swear I am going to be leather by the time I am 30) and met some older boys who were experienced "rockhounders" and drew us a map to a secret place that only a few knew about... After driving for what seemed like eternity and having to turn around half a billion times we made it. Unfortunately it was on private property and we hadn't heard anything about that from the old boys we talked to... We looked around and saw a trail - and what turned out to be the property owner's driveway. I was a bit nervous going down the path, as every two feet signs were posted saying "Beware of Dog" and "Keep Out" and lets not forget the beloved "Private Property" sign. To tell you the truth I felt like I was in some kind of horror movie but I kept on truckin' down the path.
After a long and somewhat terrifying walk down the bushed-in driveway, we came to two ferocious, snarling, scary.... miniature poodles... The man who owned the property was there as well, not the chainsaw grasping murderer that I was expecting, thank goodness. We talked to him for a long while about the mine he owned and how it was closed down due to it flooding out. He explained that we couldn't go in because we would virtually have to swim through it underwater... We were all very disappointed and I suppose the man could sense it, as he led us to the spot where they dumped all the crystals after they mined them. The man told us that he thought we were a good bunch of kids and since we took the time to ask him for permission, we could take as much as we wanted. We all thanked him continuously as he left back down the driveway with his rabid poodles. We started searching through the field of crystals to find the nicest ones to bring home while Colin laid in the field with a crystal on his forehead doing what he does best... Sleeping.
Eden (left), and Colin....Sleeping.
Dave
We all took a good amount of crystals, except Colin, who is a traveller and can't have many possessions as he is always traveling the globe. He just got back from India in these photos and is headed to Spain as I am writing this story. We were a bit discouraged as we were hoping to find formed crystals, not just large hunks from formed crystals... So we were on the hunt again!
We drove back into Bancroft in hopes of talking to someone who knew where to dig and find growing, formed crystals. We decided to go to a rock shop (Bancroft has many rock shops as it is the gemstone capital of Canada) to see if the owner of the shop could tell us anything. We decided on a little store on the outskirts of town, I was surprised when I went in as his store was full of awesome things and not just rocks. I was looking around and discovered that he had amazing hand crafted runes from all sorts of different rocks, as well as singing bowls, God/dess figures, Celtic jewelry, oils, herbs, Pagan books among many other things. It seemed as though the owner of the shop was Pagan or of the like, and at this point I became much more interested in speaking with them. Shops like this are rare in my area and I was very excited to say the least.
As I continued to look upon the treasures in the shop, a frail old man came out of the back room. I instantly got an amazing vibe from him as he seemed like a genuinely kind human being. He came up to me and welcomed me to his store with a rich Irish accent. We got talking about rocks and gems and how we were on the search for formed growing crystals. He told us where to go and how it was a construction dig and everything in the area will be crushed and paved. The guys were overjoyed and started making plans on what tools to use and what safety measures we should take.
The man had noticed my pentacle necklace and became very thrilled. He started talking to me about our common path and spirituality. He told me stories from when he was a lad in Ireland and his experiences being a Pagan. He told me that he was happy to see another person who shared his beliefs, as he has been seeing less and less of them lately. We talked for a good 45 minutes about life and spirituality, like we had known each other for years and years. The guys came to get me and I was sad to leave, as I was having a really great conversation and seemed to have made a new friend. I said goodbye to the little old man (who I became quite fond of ) and he handed me a little wrapped up piece of brown paper. He told me to open it when we were on our way and gave me his best wishes. I told him I would come and speak with him again sometime and we headed out the door...
On our way I opened the brown paper to see a silver ring with a pentacle on the front. A tear came to my eyes as I put it on. It fit perfectly.
After a ten minute drive we came to the construction dig. WOW! What a mess! They completely destroyed about five acres of land with a huge hole/s. We started digging in the closest spot to the Jeep and instantly started pulling out formed crystals... YAY! We found some beautiful smokey quartz crystal beds as well as some excellent geodes. It was a really great trip.
Nice trees and a big mess
Digging near the Jeep
Eden digging... Strangely looking like Indiana Jones
The guys discussing crystals.
Colin
Dave looking upon the rocks
Colin, VERY happy with the trip.
JUST A FEW CRYSTALS WE FOUND:
