gold hunting

[garimpo]

Hi Rob and all you folks. Thanks for the invite Rob. I see some familiar names here already.

Leaving at 0500 tomorrow, maybe be back Fri. or Sat. depends on the rain.

Here in Brazil we've just started the first of about four months of rain.

See ya towards the weekend.

[nuggethunting]

Hello Garimpo,

Thanks for joining the forums. Followed your thread over on Bill's forum for some time. I think that is the longest forum post in history! Really enjoyed all the pictures and history behind it. Would love to see some of that information over here if you get a chance.

I'm hoping I can take Lamar from Bolivia's offer and visit South America someday with a detector. I can care less about finding gold, I would just love to see the country and some of the old diggings.

Wishing you the best of luck on your hunt and hope to hear more soon.

Take care,

Rob Allison

[FlakMagnet]

Cool,

Garimpo's here...

[garimpo]

Cool,

Garimpo's here...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi FlakMagnet, good to hear from you.

Left this morning at 0600 to go beeping but didn't quit make it there. A full size Toyota with no steering is the "pits" for sure.

A $100.00 wrecker ride and another $40.00 had me going again.

[FlakMagnet]

Ah yes Garimpo,

I read of it on Bill's forum and winced.

I used to drive open-wheel race cars and remember well the problems with leaving the road at high speed...

glad you're able to joke about it

[Jim P.]

Good to see you here Garimpo, I've enjoyed your thread over at Bill's. Lamar also posts here. Hope your automotive adventures are over for a long while Later...Jim P.

[nuggethunting]

Hello Garimpo,

I can tell you one thing, those Toyota's are reliable! I owned three of them, two being 4x4 trucks and I ran them both over 250k and they were still running strong.

Sorry to hear about the trouble you had. Was hoping you would get over some more gold.

Would love to hear more about your adventures in South America.

Talk with you soon,

Rob Allison

[garimpo]

Hello Garimpo,

  I can tell you one thing, those Toyota's are reliable!  I owned three of them, two being 4x4 trucks and I ran them both over 250k and they were still running strong. 

Sorry to hear about the trouble you had.  Was hoping you would get over some more gold. 

Would love to hear more about your adventures in South America. 

Talk with you soon,

Rob Allison

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Rob, hi FlakMagnet, hi Jim P., tried to post some pics but couldn't figure it out. The one of the P/U was just an accident. Don't know how I got it there!

[Lamar]

Dear garimpo;

Yessir, having a catastrophic steering failure in a Toyota 4X4 while going down the road can cause the ol' excite-o-meter to peg all of the way to right very quickly. I've learned to change ALL of the steering wear parts every 24 months, and I mean everything. Tie rod ends, drag link ends, the whole enchilada gets swapped out every 2 years. And I also give everything an healthy shot of grease every 30 days too. Between the water, mud and the dust, steering wear parts can go bad very quickly. About 4 years ago I had a left side tie rod end separate on an FJ-70 that I was driving and it ended up laying in the drivers door in a ditch. Fortunately I was driving slowly and I hit the ditch at less than 25 klicks an hour. A couple of weeks in the body shop and it was as good as new. Well, almost as good as new. There hasn't been much news from Bolivia pertaining to gold. I am still picking up a dink here and there, but they aren't anything to write home about. I just bought a used White's Goldmaster from Rob Allison and when it gets here I am going to start hitting those high trash areas with a vengence. It has some neat-o features that I feel can really assist a prospector, such as usable iron ID and a mineralization function, and if used in conjunction with a Minelab PI a detectorist will have some very powerful detecting tools at his/her disposal. The next South American mother lode is within sight, I can feel it.

Your friend;

LAMAR

[garimpo]

Damn good advise amigo Lamar, swapping out those parts can sure reduce the ole pucker factor.

Glad to hear that your expanding your arsenal, I'll just bet your just within a few steps of hitting it big.

If you need any help hauling all that gold just let me know and I'll head that way with all new drive linkages.

[garimpo]

For those of you who have never seen or got to enjoy a push, here's what one looks like. The area is actually much larger than what you see here.

Me and other people had taken out deep nuggets in the past but no longer could reach possible deeper ones.

With this dozer getting deeper was easy. Just to the right in this pic I got one 182 grammar and then just about 8 feet farther his little brother at 180 grams. When standing in the holes the edges were even with my hip pockets.

Good GP Extreme and CT 12x24 UFO coil.

[nuggethunting]

Hello Garimpo,

Damn, must be nice to have a dozer! Curious how deep you pushed from the original surface? Do you think you could of found those 180+ Grammers with a larger searhcoil scanning the surface slowly, or did you need the dozer?

Would love to hear more.

Lamar - Your GMT and Coiltek Li-Ion System will ship UPS Ground Tomorrow. I tossed in a couple of the new GRG Scoops so you can test them out. I wanted to toss in one of the Trinity Gold Pans, but couldn't get the damn think in there without blowing out the box!

Talk with you guys soon,

Rob Allison

[garimpo]

Hi Rob, the area in the pic was the largest of several pushes we did for over a month at this one ranch.

In the past few years prior to our push, I had gone over the area several times with the SD2000 and CT18" mono and wasn't able to get any more signals. At the time I had the only PI in Brazil.

They actually started the push the day I left for the USA by my "buddies", a real nice bunch of back-stabbin-bastards but they only had VLF's.

When I returned a month later with a brand spanking new GP Extreme with a CT 12x24 UFO I kicked some serious "red ass's".

During a push we detect after each push, then when there's no more signals we push and detect a couple of more times just to make sure and then quit.

Overall we pushed down about 8' before no more nuggets. A lot of the local "bandits" had dug holes down about 5' before in several areas.

For two years before the push I kept asking my "amigo" to get us a dozer and he always had some kind of excuse for not being able to get one. Some coincidence huh that he got one the day I left for a month.

The owner of the ranch got 30%, the dozer owner got 50% and the other four of us split 20%. In the time we were there doing the push the total take was around 3 kilo's.

They(my amigo's) are still trying to get me to reveal my GPS spots, I will the day it snow's here. I'm 12° South of the Equator, it's never snowed here yet.

Here's our camp during the push.

[garimpo]

Here's our camp cook. He got paid 1 gram per day by the dozer owner. The other four of us bought the groceries.

[FlakMagnet]

hi Garimpo,

Another great snapshot-description of life down there. It seems to have an interesting 'edge' alot of the time. Amigos who may not be etc.

I find myself wondering if you have ever considered writing a short journal/book that encorporates some of what you live with each day. You write well, take interesting pic's and have an insight that many people could relate to. (something to do during the rainy parts).

Just a thought.

I remain facinated.

[garimpo]

Hi FlakMagnet, if it wasn't for the spell checker nobody would be able to even decipher what I have to say. Grammar is terrible and punctuation is lousy at the best.

These two forums are the most writing I've ever done. Actually it's not writing at all, just telling what I do that most people find interesting.

I think the reason folks find this interesting is it's something everyone dreams of doing but in the end their smart enough to stay home in the air conditioning and recliner with the heated lumbar section and the vibrating foot rest.

Crystals anybody? I come across these things pretty often. These are just bad ones that nobody wanted, their so bad they have no value. There are a few people here that hunt for and dig these things.

[garimpo]

That pic did pretty good, still experimenting with the camera. I've got four of these pics. Slow day.

[garimpo]

The way nature shaped these things in the ground is really fascinating.

[garimpo]

The way that clump is you would think it would be possible to just pry them apart, Noooooo way.

Here's the last one.

[nuggethunting]

Hello Garimpo,

Interesting information about what goes down there.

As for the Quartz crystals, people do search for them and those aren't to shabby from what I seen around here for sale. Large Quartz crystals mean slow cooling, so they can be found in gold bearing areas like where you're at. I found some of the best nugget patches in areas where large quartz crystals were found.

Curious if they ever hit bedrock in those pushes, or is the alluvial gravel too deep?

Talk with you soon,

Rob Allison

[garimpo]

Hi Rob, back from the ranch after being rained out. Just one little one, will post when I get it cleaned up.

In the pushes we know before hand that the gravel is deep and then we quit when no more gold. In a couple of areas me and others have gone down 10-12 feet and still no bedrock. Usually in a push after two or three passes and no more gold is when we quit.

Here's the little guy today, 1.5 grams. He'e in the slow of the scoop.

[garimpo]

Just for those of you who have never crossed a river because there wasn't a bridge.

Answer below.

[garimpo]

Had to wait for the "school bus" to finish hauling the kids, and others across.

[garimpo]

The interesting thing about those little boats are they have a dual purpose. When you buy one with oars you have a boat, if you buy one with a lid you have a coffin.

Finally we're across.

[Lamar]

Dear garimpo;

All right! Boating pics! Do you mind if I post one or two of my own? OK, I will post some.Notice that the Bolivian yachts have much more graceful lines than the Brazillian versions? Even to the untrained eye, you can get a sense of the power, speed and agility that the Bolivian speed boats over the Brazillian ones, as the first pic proves. The next pic shows the spacious passenger accomodations on the Bolivian inland yachts that have been carefully thought out by the engineering staff. And the last pic is of my friendly Bolivian guide just before we went on an excursion down river.

Your friend;

LAMAR