Opal Digging Diary 01 - Black Flag
A whole new hole to chase opal
Digging by hand
Crazy? Possibly! Good workout? Definitely!
In a town that produces 80% of the world's opal and most opal miners have some combination of drill, dozer, excavator, loader and noodling machine, I may be a bit odd to dig with hand tools, but that's OK. Coober Pedy's a place full of unique characters and great freedom to do what you want! After spending most of my life sat at a chair, coding away or doing techy things, these last couple of years playing in the dirt in Coober Pedy have been a great change!
This morning was nice and cool, great digging weather compared to our hot desert summers. I decided it was a good time to start a new hole on my claim at Black Flag. In a couple of hours, I'd raked, picked, hoed and shoveled my way through the soft stuff at the top and hit something harder below. I was still tossing up between round shaft or trench while driving in. First, I looked for where I wanted to dig. There was a wide area with a bunch of prospector holes drilled around some of the perimiter, but not all the way around and nothing near the middle. That seemed like a good enough spot for an adventure to see what's underneath! I started cleaning up with the rake, one thing led to another and looks like I'm going to to dig a trench! This should be fun and give me a nice wall face to chase the opal on.
To start, I pushed the dirt up on 2 opposing sides, leaving the other sides clear to extend the trench. I'll see how that goes and likely adjust things as I go deeper, keeping safety in mind.
While raking, I chucked any bigger jasper rocks off to the side, thinking they'd be handy for something.
And handy those rocks were! Perfect to help keep my pegs upright before the next big winds or rain comes!
Opalised dinosaur shoes? Unfortunately not, but it's interesting to think of the journey anything you dig out of the ground took. My claim is right next to the famous Coober Pedy blower, where plenty of tourists park their cars for a photo with the blower and Opal City sign. Truckers also park there on their routes between Adelaide and Alice or Darwin. Why were both shoes still together? Did someone walk in the mud after rain and they got stuck? Bad luck shoes thrown out the car window after a breakup? We may never know!
Next up
I'll break into the harder material and see what we've got and possibly lengthen the trench!
