Ever had your feet sucked at by giant monsters underground and then when you finally, with an enormous slooooshhh, get them unstuck one at a time, you find about 10 pounds of mud attached to each foot? Each foot then immediately obeys the law of gravity and heads straight back down into the mud again with a dull spat and the process starts all over again with the only difference being even more mud attached to each foot. Try finding yourself in the middle of a huge mud puddle in this situation – both feet heavily involved and a bucket gaining pounds by the minute….not from what is going into it, but from the mud attaching to the outside of it! Thankfully the bucket was sucked quite firmly into the mud at times too and I could use it as leverage to pull my feet out of the sludgy mess that often poured over the top of my boots.
The area that is open to digging for diamonds is an enormous open piece of plowed sludge with rivers running between the plowed sections. This does not make for easy walking – actually, it does not make for walking at all – you desperately unstick one foot while slowly sinking back into the mud with the other one. If you lean on the bucket to try and stop your one foot from going too deep into the mud, then the bucket does, and so do both feet when you pull the bucket out again. And so it goes on until you find a rock solid enough to keep everything above mud level – until the next step. I kept hearing Lottie words – “Oh, that’s a huge field of mud!” Yes Lottie – it is. It is a soggy, enormous field of mud. And let’s not discount the rain that was still falling, which made the mud’s suckability even stronger by the minute!
But we had to do it. This was a place we had seen on tv almost a year ago, it looked a whole lot prettier on tv and the people looked a whole lot cleaner too and they found diamonds and we did not. We did get to take a goodly amount of mud off the field though and found some really lovely and colorful stones to bring home. I kept thinking that we were going to just walk around and find something lovely and shiny lying right there where I just happened to walk and then I read some of the signs that were planted around there. They tell of beautiful diamonds ‘found on this spot’ and you see hopeful holes all around the signpost. All fine and well, until the date on the sign sinks in and you realize that this ground has been tilled over since 1990 at least!
That’s when I kinda lost my belief and I looked up to see Frank stumbling along, trying to drag his three tons of mud along with him as he searched for the elusive Hope Diamond #2, his arms waving around trying desperately to keep him balanced. My back was already starting to feel like no back should ever feel and by the looks of it, so was Frank’s.
So we sludged ourselves out of there after about 2 hours – it took about three times as long as I thought it would – and hosed ourselves off. The hiking boots had held up tremendously and our socks were still dry. Well, that is until the high pressure water hose got hold of them. I even hosed off my jeans and lost a good two pounds of mud right there. If only losing the weight that really counted was that easy, I would be first in line for a high pressure water hose!
We got back to the rv to a very happy, dry and warm doglet, had a loverly shower, some hot food and a glass of relaxing wine, and nursed our aching muscles. That really was some serious workout we did in that mudpit!
We had left that little place on top of that little hill in the middle of nowhere and arrived here by 10am on Sunday morning. “Here” is at a campground just outside the Crater of Diamonds State Park. They do have internet access here, but it’s limited to just a couple of hours each day. I did twist the owner’s arm to allow me more time for the evenings and he graciously allowed me more than double tim. It feels like having parental controls imposed on me! LOL. It’s also been raining constantly now for two days, which is not really a good thing when one wants to go scratching and digging and hunting for diamonds or walking some trails. Our bicycles have been sitting dejectedly in the back of the bakkie gathering dust. This brings me to another point. Remember when we were leaving Roswell, New Mexico and we towed the bakkie for a little way while she was in reverse gear? Well, when we arrived here, it was the first time we unhooked her since then. And she works!!! What a great relief that was. She goes backwards and forwards at the right times all the time…. Lovely! :-) It would really have hurt to have lost another skilpad this way.
At the main entrance of the campground is a little flowerbed and hanging there was the cutest little container with a Resurrection Fern in it. It’s no longer there! I successfully schmucked it off the lady here for only $5! It’s a really cute little earthernware bowl, with four little cat faces all around it. When I bought some stuff in the shop and she asked if that was all – I replied that no, I wanted that container…. I nearly fell over backwards when she told me to make her an offer. I quickly did, she accepted and I zapped that little thing right out of its home! At first I thought they were lion faces, but……… Very cute.
Frank is nursing his back and aching muscles by lying in bed, I am chewing on biltong (jerky) and enjoying another glass of wine – well the coffee pot ran dry! We had sunshine here for a brief 5 minutes and then the darkness set in for the night. Doglet has a serious case of cabin fever – each time we have taken her out for a walk, I have to blow dry the shivering rat warm and dry again! She found an enormous caterpillar and stuck her little butt up in the air, her eyes popped wide open and she yipped excitedly at this thing squirming around. Then she smelled it and instantly lost interest. Wonder what it smelled like to her?
I have also not taken any photos in two days! Something is going on here…….. so I picked up the camera and took a few of the blue sky through the clouds – right in those five minutes we could see the blue. The photos are nothing spectacular, but geez – I started to worry myself. I even have a folder that is listed for the Diamond Crater photos – it’s empty! Maybe tomorrow.
It’s beautifully quiet here, with just a snip chill in the air. Although there are pine trees, I have not noticed any pine smell at all. Hmmmmm. Thinking about it – there are no birds here either. Actually, I am not going to think about it – I am going to enjoy the glass of wine with no thoughts whatsoever.
On that gentle and slightly achy note – goodnight :-) Tomorrow is Frank’s birthday :-)
Love and light
Annie
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