Good treasure stories?


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Garimpo,

Those are cool dudes...all my size...lol.

What in heck were you doing during those times...is it unclassified yet?

Flak, I was between Gov. flying contracts. Went there to get rich. Any where you stick a shovel in the ground there you get gold. The streams are loaded. Only one 5" dredge there before me and the locals stole it, tried to work it, sunk it.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is total forest and rivers with a lot of mountains. The trees in most places there are 100'-200' tall.

When you arrive there you have landed in Port Morsby, their Capitol. When they open the door of the plane the smell hits you, welcome to PNG.

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A little more about the life of a PNG woman.

The men mostly hunt for what little meat they can get. Monkey seems to be pretty common, guess it's easy to get them. They also do some of the gardening which is on the very steep mountain sides.

The women of PNG are a tough bunch, they have to be to survive. In one of my pics you can see a red bag hanging around my neck, that's a "billum" bag. Their used to carry everything in. Kids, wood, pigs, fruit, you name it and the women haul it in the billum bag. Usually they have one in front and one in back. the straps go around the head.

One of the curses of PNG is the use of "buai". It starts out as a nut about the size of a tennis ball, green on the outside and a white nut inside. The tree is very tall and the straightest tree you'll every see. No limbs except at the very top where the nut is in clusters. They grind the nut into a powder and then mix it with lime, then they load their lower lips with it, just like grand-ma used to do with her "snuff".

The "buai" then turns the teeth, lips and the entire mouth blood red. Every where you go you'll see them spiting this red stream of spit. Police, judges, air traffic controllers and even kids use it. Makes them laid back and care free, it also kills the hunger pains. It's impossible to walk any where with out stepping in the stuff.

Here's what PNG cook stove looks like.

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Now Flak, you see what a good story that 29prospector had. Close to home with a good outcome.  :P

Unlike me where the politician's kicked my ass out of the country, even had the cops escort me to the door of the air plane. Later another chapter.

Another pic of me and the "inlaws" in front of the "haus man". The guy on my left is Kim, the son of the Big Chief.

Don't know how many wifes the Chief had but Kim had at that time had five, in different villages. Sure is a lot of pigs to pay out for "bride prices".  ;)

Hey Garimpo & Flak,

I know what its like also to get it from the government. The mine that my father & I worked fors years was talen away from me ( my father had passed on ) because of not having the right equipment listed on my MO. Lost the battle in court and had to make it look like we were never there. It hurt alot losing that claim manly because of all the connections there. But, this is not a sad story because we are now working the main wash below the mine and the gold is hard to come by but its pretty when you get it.

Cheers, Bob B)

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the dang guinea cigarettes smell so bad, but when your buds are so after something to smoke, you just have to suffer. the beer aint all that graet neither, and working out in the jungle, aint exactly any 7-11's around or anything else to do when not working. why I worked long hours building a road and a mill for some mining outfit. now the place is civilized, more that when I was there.

One of the natives made a blow gun for monkey, and I got it after he was through with it. 50,60,90 hours just to make the thing for one hunt. I also saw a few natives that had shrunken heads of somebody or something around their neck, which I why I didn't wander too far away from camp. one of those suckkered in deals. The pay was okay but it was hot, humid, rained a lot, and you always had to be on your guard because those people were born with a different brain.

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Posted: Dec 14 2005, 11:05 AM

GOLD! What a wonderful word. Just think of the things that people will do for a little piece of it.

That's what led me back to Papua New Guinea (PNG). The entire country is big mountains and very forested. A lot of streams that are pristine.

A lot of the natives are getting gold from the streams and all of their methods are very crude. I saw some moving big rocks in a river without the help of a winch. They would put cables, that they stole from some where, around the boulders then run the cables out in the water and anchor them to large boards, then tilt the boards up so that the water current would cause a lot of drag on the boulders and at the same time several would be using pry bars to move the boulders so they could pan the material underneath.

Another group had a small motor and pump that they were using for a hydraulic operation on the hill next to the river. They cut a channel down the hill with picks and shovels, then laid 4x6 boards down at the bottom to catch the gold as it flowed across them.

I was staying in the town of Lae and up river from me 100 miles was an even smaller town by the name of Wau, pronounced Wow, that was a wild west type of mining town. The mining there is all done by either panning or hydraulics. Once a week a gold buyer goes there to buy their gold. The miners show up with their gold in their hands, most still with the mercury in a ball.

My first time there, someboby got there 30 minutes ahead of me and the miners thought it was the gold buyer. So some of them stuck the barrel of a 12 ga. in his window and blew him away. He had no money and wasn't the gold buyer.

When I got there 30 minutes later they stopped me and asked if I was the gold buyer. I'm telling you, reverse, full power and a bright yellow streak works wonders.

In the pics below is the town of Wau and the smaller hills are the ones that were completely washed away by hydraulics in a six month period. The rivers were just flowing mud holes.

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If it beeps--dig it!! Garimpo

garimpo Posted: Dec 14 2005, 11:11 AM

Forgot the pic. All three pics show the town of Wau. The lower hills are the ones that got washed away by the miners.

Also 10 miles up that road is where some Australian miners had a large gold operation. That's where I was headed when I took these pics. A scary trip indeed.

Attached Image

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If it beeps--dig it!! Garimpo

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Garimpo, the natives were hydraulicking, or was it outsiders. If it was the natives, how were they doing that part? They sound innovative (and quick on the trigger).

Interesting looking country...just a touch too wild west though.

Flak not wild just slightly untamed. ;)

All the mining that I saw was by locals. They would somehow get a very small motor and pump, put it close to the river, get about 100' of 2" hose and they were in business. I couldn't speak their language (715 different ones) but probably they would have enough money in 4-6 months to buy a much larger set-up and then they really washed the place away.

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While with the Chimbo's every where I went they provided me with a 6-8 man body guard. Also one of the little things that I never really understood was at times they would have me wear a little wreath made from local flowers. The idea was that other villagers would instantly recognize me as a friend of the Chief. Sounded like a damn good idea to me.

In this pic I'm sitting on a very large rock that has fallen and been wedged in the walls of the stream below. Kim, my host said that one stream alone would make me rich. To small for a dredge but just idea for a high banker.

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After the large rock episode we made our way down stream. We had to cross the stream three times, the stream was about waist deep and very swift. Being my protectors they wouldn't let me cross the stream on my own, I had to ride the back of Elvis as he would carry me across.

Here we are using a Chimbo foot bridge to cross on and that's Elvis down below in case I fell in. Just getting out that far required one man holding me from behind and another in front that I had to hold on to.

Another interesting note is that normally when these men left their village they would shed the "town clothes" at the edge of the village and make a belt out of the center of banana leaves and then cut some of the plants that had leaves about 3-4 inches wide and then loop the leaves over and under the belt. Then the leaves would hang down about 6-8 inches, this was their traveling clothes in the jungle. They had a very appropriate name for the jungle clothes, it was called "ass grass".

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Guess not SGT, I was pretty skinny back then. A lot of walking and very very little to eat.

Hardly every lunch, maybe some coconut milk and coconut meat. At night usually a tomato with a piece of meat cooked in the coals in the floor.

In the town of Lae, Kim the Chiefs son had a brother that was an important political figure and also a judge. I don't remember now what the occasion was but one night they had a big celebration and the dancers were Chimbo's.

You can probably guess who the dancer is on the far right, huh FlakMagnet?

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The fortunate part is that you fell into grace with these people and they watched out for you in ways you'll never know about.

The unfortunate part is that the government sends people out to monitor any sort of unauthorized digging, and the penalty for such action is death, and straight out execution- ask questions later, if at all. Nobody has any rights. rights are an american propagandistic idea that doesn't exist in the rest of the world.

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The dancer on the far right? Why that would be your loner wife, yes?

ok, do I get two guesses?

my second guess would be Spiro Agnew spying on the village.

Oh man it's been a long day.

Flak, you guessed it and if you can visualize Spiro Agnew in "ass grass", chewing "buai" and trying to hog out SGT for a tit then partner you need a loooooong rest.

what4supper, the good thing about the Chief of the Chimbo's was that he had been a "capo", bad spelling, a Australian police man for over twenty years there in that part of the country. They had their own security system that was pretty effective. Sentinel that lived on the road in and would challenge anybody and then the drums would start. The main village would know your where abouts at least two hours before you got there.

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..."if you can visualize Spiro Agnew in "ass grass", chewing "buai" and trying to hog out SGT for a tit then partner you need a loooooong rest."

Ok, I got some rest last night...

I never said Agnew was trying to hog out the good SGT...lol.

Garimpo, when does the rainy season (in Brazil), end?

I'm going back to bed for awhile....

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..."if you can visualize Spiro Agnew in "ass grass", chewing "buai" and trying to hog out SGT for a tit then partner you need a loooooong rest."

Ok, I got some rest last night...

I never said Agnew was trying to hog out the good SGT...lol.

Garimpo, when does the rainy season (in Brazil), end?

I'm going back to bed for awhile....

It'll still be raining when you wake up unless your name is "Rip FlakMagnet Winkle". :lol: Usually lets up around Feb. and quits in March. A long damn wait. Where's that *^&%^$#@ editor? Kidding for sure!

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It's raining here too Garimpo.

I was up in the El Paso mtn's yesterday, colder 'n heck, rain up there too today.

I was skunked, but the equipment was working great.

I am running about what Grubstake is: Platypus coil, DetACC amp and speaker, Pocket Rocket system and DOC's swingy-thingy which I love.

A great day in the desert.

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It's raining here too Garimpo.

I was up in the El Paso mtn's yesterday, colder 'n heck, rain up there too today.

I was skunked, but the equipment was working great.

I am running about what Grubstake is: Platypus coil, DetACC amp and speaker, Pocket Rocket system and DOC's swingy-thingy which I love.

A great day in the desert.

Getting skunked just goes with the game, then when you hit a nugget you appreciate it even more.

Did you see where AZMichelle got some gold?

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Something to think about for a few days Flak and all. Papua New Guinea (PNG) is very mountainous and is really beautiful.

Kim of the Chimbo tribe said if I would get him a pistol he would give me a mountain full of gold. :o

Here's the mountain he was talking about. It's very hard to see but the village is at the end of the stream of water. It's around 7,000-8,000 feet of elevation and cold at night. Brrrr-snuggle-snuggle.

The pics on the big rock and crossing the foot bridge were about 1/2-1 mile above the village in that valley.

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