When my wife presented me with a gift certificate for a trip to South Africa I had no idea how much fun it would be to plan and execute. My first phone call went to Frank Hissong, my potential travelling buddy. A brief conversation was all it took to set the wheels in motion. We both knew we HAD to see Desmond Saccos collection, so Frank turned me onto some of his contacts, whom I also had done some minor dealing with. Jan Eklund(Silver Hills Minerals) was engaged to secure a visit with Desmond, and Allan Fraser (Online Minerals) was extremely helpfull with planning. Allan decided to fully extend himself and offered to take a week off from work to "tour us around". We laid out a plan to start in Johannesberg to visit with Allan,Jan, and Bruce Cairncross (and hopefully Desmond) and to then spend a few days in Kuruman to visit Gerdus Bronn. Our intentions were to then fly to Namibia, meet up with Willie Steyn in Tsumeb, and spend a few days in Swakopmund and Windhoek.

As time and planning progressed Jan advised us that Desmond was indeed willing to host a visit. Bruce had some unfortunate water problems at his home and we were unable to secure a visit with his collection. Willie Steyn dissapeared (we later found out he had sold off all of his inventory and was incommunicado), so I reached out to Horst Windisch who graciously filled me in on who to see and where to go on the Namibian segment. As we got closer to booking the tickets we decided that visiting Tsumeb may be a complete waste of time, and we were likely better off seeking out the tables at Uis and the dealers in Windhoek and Swakopmund. We could then allocate a few days to end the trip in Capetown, to visit a friend of mine. With the adventure planned and tickets booked, we set out for JFK airport. As we were passing Astro Gallery of Gems in NYC, my cell phone rang. It was Allan, calling to wish us a safe flight. Having only known Allan through email, this had a profound impact on Frank and I, and was the beginning of a very dear friendship.

The flight was long. I don't mean just long, but really really really long. Ten hours got us halfway. We landed in Dakar for refueling. Now Dakar is about a quarter of the way down the west side of the continent, and yet it would take another TEN hours to get to Johannesberg. This is one very large continent. Finally, after 8 movies, four meals, and no sleep, we arrived. Allan was there to greet us, and his warmth was immediate and comforting. He drove us to our hotel (Norscott Inn-recommended)in Four Ways (a suburb of Johannesburg) and arranged to pick us up the next day. As much as we had planned this trip out, it was still a fantasy to believe we could completely immerse ourselves, day after day,for 18 days, in the discussion,review, and purchasing of minerals. We had chosen not to heed the warning that there was simply no older Namibian material (especially Tsumeb) left in South Africa or Namibia worth buying, and held high hopes for finding the undiscovered treasures Charlie Key had somehow missed.

With no sleep (mind abuzz with unending thoughts of this all comming to fruition), we met Allan at 8am and began our adventure. Allan graciously drove us over to Jan Eklunds for the day. I had never met Jan in person, only through emails, but it felt at once like we were old friends. He warmly welcomed us into his home and, we were shortly on our way to the backyard to enter his mineral room. The door to the room is from a bank vault, which was impressive in itself, and reflective of the type of door we all would wish to have when considering the relative value of our collections. His custom made cabinetry displayed a surprisingly good suite of miniatures (focused on SA and Namibia) with outstanding examples of old and more recent material. His cabinet specimens were strong on Tsumeb as well as Erongo Mountains, and I drooled over many superb calcite combination pieces. His wife, Mei, brought tea, as we edged over to the cabinets containing his sale stock. Now, I had intended on buying a bit on this trip, but could have easily spent my entire budget right then and there. Jans Brandberg amethysts were from the older finds, incredibly bright with either whispy zoning of amethistine and smokey or distinct and sharp phantoms. Many were elestial and had anhydros. Needless to say we set aside quite a few, with Frank grabbing a three incher out of my hands and proclaiming it his for his cabinet (a tactic he uses to this day,as collection pieces trump sale inventory in his play book). We moved on to superb Erongo aquas, which I was foolish enough to leave behind, and on to varieties of Tsumeb and KMF material. Needless to say, both Frank and I spent nearly our entire budget on our first day, with 16 more ahead of us and more than a few inventories to peruse.

That night Jan, Frank and I went to a local seafood restaurant for some beer swilling, futbol viewing and prawn chomping. We ordered our large plates of prawns and were waiting for delivery when a waiter came up with a colorfull 10lb lobster and asked if we were interested, as it was a day old and had to be sold. The price was rediculously cheap so we added it to our order. Needless to say, I cannot imagine a better environment over which to review a days purchase of minerals and to build comraderie!

The following day we took a walk down to the local mall to stock up on some supplies. On the walk back we saw a double rainbow, which is a sign of good fortune in many cultures. This good fortune would be the next stop, a visit to Desmond Saccos home. With much anticipation we pulled into the drive of the Saccos picturesque mansion and wound our way to the end of the drive. Desmond greeted us there, and we felt welcomed and immediately at ease. Jan and Mei Eklund were already there, and we were thrilled to find Bruce Cairncross had also been included in this visit. Frank and I presented Desmond with specimens from the homeland as we sipped tea and chatted with Desmonds equally gracious wife Angela. We then were led downstairs, through the wine cellar and into his dust controlled custom fitted mineral room. Now, I have the book on Desmonds collection, and have likely reviewed each page at least 30 times, so thought I was prepared for the experience. Not! Knowing time would be limited there were many conflicting decisions. Stand and chat with Desmond, stand and chat with Bruce, follow Bruce around and listen to him mumble how he didn't remember THAT specimen (after seeing it all 50 times or so and photographing most), or simply immerse myself in a rapid scan of the cabinets in the hopes that I could see all the specimens I wanted to see in the time allotted. I'm afraid I wound up with a combination of all of the above. I'd be overwhelmed by the bookend sized deep amber anglesites when I'd hear Bruce speaking about a particular specimen and its history and be distracted. Gazing at the gleaming sea of red rhodos I was compelled to ask Desmond about the find and the "true" story behind it. Needless to say the three hours spent went by in a milisecond, and I missed one case in entirety and maybe truely saw 50% of the rest. One of the most striking pieces I saw, which tickles me, was a huge plate of sphalerite with maybe a dozen 2-3" DT twinned absolutely gem quality calcites from Elmwood. I had to come to South Africa to see the best Elmwood specimen ever! I asked Desmond how the flow of specimens from the mine to him occurred. I had assumed that , being the owner of the company that works the mines, he would simply have instructions for all specimens to be passed through him first. He explained that the looting of specimens from the mines was discouraged, and that he could not possibly request them to stop work upon striking a pocket. The natural order would occur where the specimens were smuggled out and bought by a first tier dealer. It would be the dealer who would then have a direct line to Desmond.

After the visit Allan graciously had a dinner prepared by his stunningly attractive wife Ornella. Naturally, upon arrival, we immediately migrated to Allans study for a tour of his collection. Allan has focused on South African localities, with Palaborwa as his main focus. His cases were crammed with specimens, and review time was limited, as we could not allow the food to get cold! After an exquisite meal we scampered back to the study and conversed, traded and digested.We then were off to a meeting of the Witwatersrand Gem and Mineral Club at the University of Johannesburg.. We arrived slightly early, as Frank had prepared a dissertation on American collecting, and we had a slide show to organize. Bruce was there when we arrived and we then spent the next hour playing with the carousel that was giving us fits. During this time I brought out a box of USA specimens I had brought with me to swap and sell. Those in attendance swarmed upon the box like zombies to a large intestine. I managed several trades for decent Tsumeb specimens and made alot of locals happy with nominally costly Elmwood specimens. Horst Windisch presented me with a dusty 7cm chunk of hematite coated lenticulated calcites, which later, after ultrasonic cleaning, turned out to be a rather fine specimen.. Frank began his slide show to much interest and was captivating for at least 70 odd minutes as I mangled the slide show and tried to stay with him. As the temperature dropped and people began nodding off I coughed loudly and began skipping slides. Frank eventually succumbed to the hints and finished up to much applause.

The following day Allan picked us up and drove us the 5 hour drive to Kuruman. Allans knowledge of geology and topography is quite profound, and we were treated the entire way to descriptions of the various formations and occurances along the way. Stopping to see Don Reikert, known as the "poet of the Kalahari" was a must do, so we pulled up to a property with a small rundown shanty of a house surrounded by mounds of boulders strewn with bags of garbage and a small path leading to heaps of boxes on tables. Meeting Don was a treat in itself, as this man, with his long scruffy beard and layers of worn clothing has a most keen intellect and is entirely engageing. Frank (who has more degrees than I have fingers, and whose mastery of US history is almost legendary) could hardly keep pace with the conversation that quickly found its way to early US naval warfare. Completely lost with that conversation, I edged over to the boxes, and began pulling away layers of old newspaper. To my astonishment, specimens lay heaped together, banging against each other. There were sturmanites, ettringites, almandine, calcites, brucite, bultfonteinite, gaudefoyite,rhodochrosite, etc etc, of various size and mostly pretty banged up. Occasionally a decent piece would be found, but it took going through box after box. Apparently, miners who have a relationship with Donald, drop off specimens for him to sell to make a living. A few hours of rummageing, and staying upwind of the bags of garbage, and we were off to meet Gerdus Bronn. Gerdus and his wife received us and we chatted each other up while surveying Gerdus mineral cabinet. He then brought forth inventory to review for purchase. We were a bit cautious with our buying, as we had already nearly tapped outrselves out, but again we were faced with Berg Aukus descloisites, Erongo schorls, Nchwanning calcites with hematite, Namibian coppers et al and we discriminantly purchased several specimens. We then adjourned to the "back rooms" where there were hundreds of flats of material and tons of rough. A memorable find was a fist sized tsumeb specimen of matrix coated in deep sparkling green druise of mottramite over malachite on which a spray of tan calcites were centered.This raised my hopes a bit that perhaps, indeed, there may still be some good Tsumeb material to be discovered On the way to the hotel we stopped at a local mineral shop and I picked out some good Wessels, Gloria Mine, and Nchwanning calcites. The woman proprietor showed us a softball sized specimen of columnar hematites in calcite. The hematites were mirror bright and maybe 10cm long. The specimen needed major trimming, and she was asking ZAR$5K. We passed. It was mid afternoon, and after a round of iced Rooibus tea we were off to meet up with a local collector and ex mine foreman of the NChwanning 2 Mine, Pieter de Bruyn. Apparently Pieter knew Allan and was skeptical of dealers, but upon finding out we were plain old American collectors, he agreed to meet up at his home.

Pieter invited us into his mineral room and explained quite sternly and clearly that we were not to open the cases or handle the specimens. As I oggled what had to be the finest smokey selenite ever to come from the manganese fields Pieter slowly opened the case to bring out the first of many fantastic pieces. Within 5 minutes, after realizing we were somewhat knowledgeable collectors, and with much enthusiasm, he was telling us to pick up and examine whatever we liked! It never ceases to amaze me how the recognition of kindred spirit can so quickly change a persons demeanor. I saw some of the finest small cabinet specimens of KMF material I had ever laid eyes on, which was only a warmup for the miniature and toenail collection he brought out. Unbelievable duplicates of extremely rare n'chwanningite, brucite, manganvesuvianite, sugilite, richterite, lizardite, mozartite, etc etc. Hours passed and we eventually were invited into the garage. Here, shelf upon shelf of material brought fresh from the mine. My eyes immediately went to a cabinet sized calcite cluster comprised of heart twins combined with doubly terminated twinned scalenohedrons partially coated and included by manganese oxide. Frank pounced on a cabinet kutnohorite, and Allan was giddy in the drawers flailing specimens into a flat. Pieter took me aside and showed me a very nice calcite cluster, but told me to hold on while he hooked up his UV light. I had never seen, and likely will never again witness, a calcite that glowed in zones both red and green. Distinct zoning that was not at all evident in the normal incandescent lighting. I can't tell you how immersed we were, but I can tell you we had met Pieter on a warm ,maybe 70 degree day, and we were out in the garage at 10pm in the desert in our shorts and tee shirts and it was maybe 45 degrees, which we did not notice until we got into the car with warm goodbyes and thanks. We also had not eaten, and managed to find a steak house about to close but allowing us to come in, defrost and eat. Needless to say , by the time we arrived at the Red Sands we were whooped. Unfortunately it was so late we had to make a call to awaken the inkeeper to come unlock the gate!

The Red sands Lodge was awesome. nestled in a trough formed from undulating surrounding hills. The setup included a main building which housed reception and the restaurant, and many offshoot small thatched roof buildings that contained two or three units apiece. They were all set in the brush, and the entire compound was fenced in. Native animals roamed, from springbok to kudus and klipspringer, and monkeys were everywhere.

The next morning we met up with Gerdus and traveled to Black Rock Mine where we were introduced to a fellow wearing a miners helmet and a jumpsuit coated with manganese dust. Paul Balayer had been working the mines, , strictly for specimens,with rights granted by mine management. They had just hit a rhodochrosite pocket and Paul invited us over to his rented cottage to have a look later in the day. We toured around, looking at the gates, headshafts and tailings for the Gloria, Black Rock and N'Chwanning 2 Mines. When we met up with Paul we reviewed his clutch of maybe a dozen toenail to miniature rhodochrosites, which had several forms, some associated with shigaite. There were spherical aggregates of pale pink and one large miniature with reddish amber prismatic sprays associated with shigaite that Allan bought. As we were chatting Paul had a call that a new calcite pocket had been discovered, and he told us to come back tomorrow to view it. That night, Gerdus called us to exclaim he now had possession of said pocket, and to meet up with him in the morning. Somehow, a miner had gained access to the find while Pauls crew was off and absconded with it, selling it to Gerdus. The next morning at 8am, Gerdus met us and showed the 6 pieces that had come out. They were toenail to small cabinet sized, and similar to the Tsumeb specimens in form with stepped rhombohedral faces and various degrees of hematite staining. I bought them all, keeping three for myself, one went to Frank, one to Allan and I saved one to give to Bruce Cairncross. Being Allan had led us to this point I gave it the honorary name of the Fraser pocket. As days end neared we headed back to the Red sands. The three of us met at the lodge for dinner,Allan described his stint as a conscript with the South African military and the changes that have occurred in South Africa since the end of apartheid. Good wine and fellowship ended yet another mineral filled day.

Upon leaving Kuruman Allan and I discussed the possibility of investing in the hematite specimen and haveing it professionally trimmed. We stopped back at the store and asked to see the specimen again, looking at how it could be trimmed and the risks involved. We determined there was a bit too much damage on the display side and the risk in trimming would be too great, so we again passed on the piece. On the way back to Joburg , we stopped along the way at an outcropping of jasper to chip off some souveniers. When we arrived back at Allans we spent a few hours rummageing through his garage for more inventory (you know, as if we might leave some undiscovered treasure). We had decided our best bet would be to have all of the SA purchases shipped to us, as our second half of the trip was to be in Namibia, then to Capetown, and we didn't want to have to deal with customs and the ministries of trade trying to prove we had purchased the minerals in SA. Therefor, we gleefully continued to spend, albeit with some small bit of reserve.

The following day we were off to Pretoria, to visit the Transvaal museum. This car ride differed in that instead of flat low bush savannahs there were greener rolling hills with sparse clusters of trees. The museums mineral rooms were subject to much conversation as we noted mis-labeled specimens, specimens displaying the wrong side or set at odd angles, poor lighting, and a general lack of attention from a knowledgeable curator. I will admit being impressed by the two foot chunk of Tsumeb mimetite, displaying at least 1" long acicular sprays across its entire width. .I could see them distinctly through the foggy display window. I gained a real appreciation for what must go into making a museum display signifigant and attractive.

The next day had us up at 4AM to catch a 6AM flight to Windhoek. Now, I have failed to mention that I had yet to actually sleep for more than 2 hours in a single night, haveing the worst case of insomnia in my 50 short years. Each night I would roil around in my head the previous days discussions, purchases and experiences. Needless to say I was not fully alert as I carried my three suitcases down the dimly lit flagstone hallways. I turned a corner to go down what I believed to be a single stair, and realized too late there were two, losing my grip with mother earth long enough to land with my knee twisted under my luggage. Now my knees are already worse the wear from high school and college soccer, and I often suffered meniscus pains. The fall wrenched my left knee badly, but I was determined to get up and move towards the hotel entry as I awaited Frank. Needless to say it swelled signifigantly and by the time we arrived at the hotel in Swakopmund it was melon sized. Suffice it to say I iced it and swallowed a ton of advils, and soldiered on through the trip. Two years later it is still not right, but hell, my dream of making the olympic squat thrust team was shattered long ago.

The first impression I got when departing the plane in Windhoek and passing through Namibian customs was the incredible cleanliness of the airport. Our rental car agent was a rather pretty girl, but that was the best part of the rental experience. The first car we started to drive off in and noticed the gas guage said empty, so pulled back in. They topped it off only to find the guage was not working. They found us another car, an hour and a half later, and it was a shimmymobile. Anything over 45mph or so and the steering shook like a rockhound in a newly discovered vug of blue cap tourmalines. Our days drive was to take us to the Skeleton Coast where we had arrangements for the night. We had planned on stopping at the tables at Uis along the way.

The drive was incredible. Namibia has 13 climatological zones and we likely went through 5 or 6 in our 4 hour drive. The landscape would change from tall grass savannah to low bush to moderately treed. We passed through many charming towns, and saw a sign for a mineral shop owned by a Russian fellow. We found little of interest there, so continued our journey towards the Erongos and past the Brandburgs. We stopped at a sign welcoming us to the Otavi Highlands and took a photo opportunity next to rather large termite mounds. On we drove, as the landscape became barren, not quite desert, but plains of discolored mud. It looked like another planet. A giant white aquaduct paralleled the road, bringing water to the coast. At least 30 miles of this panarama passed, and we began wondering if we would ever reach the coast. We also realized we had somehow missed the tables, and planned on being more cautious on the return leg. Eventually, we saw dunes in the distance. The dunes became ever larger, and we could see the town of Swakopmund in the distance. We began to wonder just how large these dunes were, for we could see them from at least 20 miles out. We were stone dead tired, and I had yet to get a nights sleep. As we passed the fringes of the Namibian desert and turned into town it was all I could do to stay focused long enough to find the hotel.

Swakopmund is not large, and the hotel was easily found. The town itself is heavily influenced by its Germanic builders, and it felt like we had entered another country. We did manage to check in and walk(hobble for me) around town a bit before retiring to a fine meal and bed.

Another sleepless night, and I am functioning on the bits of adrenaline associated with the possibility of the two local mineral shops actually haveing decent Tsumeb specimens. A classic German breakfast of cold cuts (local game) and cheeses with crusty breads and we were off to the first mineral shop run by two lovely women. Desmond had actually phoned ahead to advise them we were comming, and they were incredibly gratious. Perusing the cases led to much dissapointment, as the odd Tsumeb specimens were of lower quality or damaged. I picked out a decent mimetite, a few small Tsumeb calcites, and moved to the next room that had huge cabinets but not much in them. I stooped to gaze at the contents, moving up to the final shelf. In dissapointment I fully stood, and there, on top of the cabinet, was a huge (21cm) pink cluster of Tsumeb calcites, easily recognizeable, as I had drooled on Desmonds specimen that had quite obviously come from the same pocket (page 165 in the Desmond Sacco Collection book). I was half dead, and rubbed my eyes several times. there it was, right in front of me, the holy grail of the trip. I figured it had to be blown out at the back, so I gingerly picked it up expecting the worst. As good behind as in front. True, one termination on one crystal was cleaved, but I was ready to cough up a grand for this baby in a heartbeat. I found the price sticker and did the conversion. $200? I did it again. $200? Must be brain dead. Took it to Frank, confirmed $200. Now the only question was how the heck to get this 10 pound hunk home! We had already had to pay airfare for a suitcase comming into Namibia (their weight restrictionhs are LOWER than SA, so beware!). After much consultation with the shopkeeper I decided to take the chance to pack it as carefully as possible and post it to myself listed as a stone sculpture. $190 worth of postage stamps (they had no postage meters!) and the package was off with my fingers crossed( it made it safe and sound).

We sat and chatted with the proprietor for a bit. She noted I had the appearance of Cheech Marin on quaaludes, and offered me some mystery pills guaranteed to get me a nights sleep. This was a profoundly kind act, as I had allowed Frank to drive for about 3 minutes until he pulled out onto the wrong side of the street and knew I had to get some sleep or I was doomed as designated driver. An American collector from Virginia happened to stroll into the store and we had introductions and chatted a while longer. We also came to realize that just about every stop we had made we would hear that Charlie Key had just been there. I could only imagine the booty he was carrying, as he stripped away shelves of fine old material in advance of our arrival.

Our next stop was Desert Gems. We had heard that Mike (last name eludes me but it started with a T, was long, and had a Y or two in it.) had an old Tsumeb collection he had been holding for a dealer who had never collected it, so, after introductions, we inquired. Mike assured us he could not show it to us, as this dealer would be by soon. Bummer. We resolved ourselves with looking about and I quickly came to realize that no-one had told Mike that there were no good specimens left in Namibia. The collection of Hans Joachim Birker, ex Chief Justice of Namibia was in the store and I gathered up superb Tsumeb smithsonites (some cadmium and cobaltian), dioptase included calcites, mimetite/cerrusite combos, etc. Now as I went through the process of elimination I had to keep in mind I would be hand carrying whatever I accumulated back to SA, and had to get permits from two ministries to allow the "export" of these specimens. I also had to remember I had already spent my budget and had 5 more days to go. If I could only have bought what I wanted. I still remember a specimen of malachite sprays on bright prismatic mimetites on matrix I left behind, due to its size (sob). There were also scores of Berg Aukus, Onganja, and many other Namibian locality pieces. Frank picked out a killer descloisite and a cuprodescloisite (Berg Aukus) that were outstanding. Giddy with the combined effect of haveing spent yet more unbudgeted dollars along with the euphoria of scoring heavily in much sought after material, I pumped up enough adrenaline to actually do some sightseeing. We visited the Crystal Museum, full of quartz clusters the size of a semi, as well as strolled the streets, marvelling at the German architecture. This is one picturesque little town! We found a quaint restaurant and quaffed a few Windhoek lagers while imbibing in Ubu, yet another member of the antelope family (quite tasty). We strolled a small mall and came across a desert tour stand. After some consultation we decided flying a small plane over the Namibian desert might be a real treat, so signed on for the following day.

That night I took the mystery pills, and was blessed with my first nights sleep. We popped up the next morning, had yet another fine German breakfast, and headed to a nearby town in order to have our car swapped out, as instructed by the office in Windhoek. We drove up the coast and began to realize the absolute enormity of the dunes. These puppies were HUGE. We're talking 300, maybe 400 feet tall. We drove past the compound that Brangelina were staying in (yes, they were there on our trip) and reached our destination. The fellow that was supposed to be there wasn't, so another call to the rental angency and they had us go to a local repair shop. An hour later we were handed a rather large bill. I explained the agency was supposed to be handling it. Well, another hour and a half and we had it all sorted out and we headed back to make our flight to tour the desert.

The flight was incredible. We started off flying over the mud pans, with isolated small mining compounds. which gave way to a deep rutted valley lush from the stream carving its way through the center. The plane swooped in and out rising up to grassland with prancing zebras and back down to the depths of the canyon. Being one susceptable to motion sickness, I was making full use of the small brown back so graciously handed to me at the start of the flight.I was so enthralled as we broached the beginnings of the desert and the transition to rising sculptural wind blown ridges of sand blended with colorfull grasslands I ignored the naseau to take as many pictures as possible. The dunes kept increasing in size, and the only time we could get a perspective of size was when an odd tree or antelope would provide scale. The desert is huge, and constantly moveing, with the dunes being named by their various shapes. The flight finished up by flying over the skeleton coast, passing over a salt farm, with patchwork colors from the various degrees of mineral content in the holding ponds.

The next morning had us heading our way back to Windhoek for a nights stay. We carefully watched for the small road with the miners tables and spotted them with glee. We half expected to be swarmed by the sellers, but they respectfully waited their turns as we inspected their wares. There was alot of schorl, foitite, crude fluorites, small aquamarine combinations with feldspar or tourmalines, colorfull and interesting forms of quartz, nice green demantoids, occasional topaz, etc etc. Most were partials or damaged, but close inspection revealed good specimens. The seller would test us for knowledge and were surpisingly adamant on pricing, which eventually softened a bit as we showed a willingness to move on. Again, we were most conscious of our limited carry-on space and our increasingly overspent budgets, but came away with a few dozen specimens each, some quite good. Frank scored the best piece, a complete 3.5cm blue topaz. I was quite pleased with several schorl/smokey quartz combos, some with fluorites, as well as the varieties of quartz specimens, many doubly terminated and sceptered with unusual inclusions.

We arrived back in Windhoek in the afternoon. We walked through town, which was immaculate, and we came upon a small mall. As we were walking by a jewelry store (World of Gems) I saw a few mineral cabinets (this was actually reasonably common, even finding them in apparel stores on occasion!). I popped in and noted some stunning pieces, especially a 15cm calcite coated with mottramite that was deep forest green with pea green zebra stripes. As I was studying the specimens the owner, Johann Viljoen, came up to speak with me. Needless to say, the next thing I knew I was in his office, chatting about his tanzanite mines and such. He asked if I would like to see some of his personal stash of minerals, and I suppose the fire in my eyes was acknowledgement enough, as he started opening drawers in a cabinet next to us. Before I knew it, I had bought a stunning miniature of gemmy dioptase on even gemmier calcites, as well as a killer toenail of lenticulated rhombs on descloisite!I didn't buy the mottramite covered calcite, as, although reasonable at $600, I just was so far over budget and still had more to see. We found our hotel which was quite nice. Tropical gardens with a pool and several sitting areas allowed for kicking back and reflecting. Unfortunately, my knee was screaming , but I blocked it out with massive doses of advils and lots of ice. Funny, thinking back, how I managed to block it out whenever we became absorbed with mineralogical persuits. Perhaps I'm onto some new therapy, or there is something to the powers of crystal healing? We had a fine meal,and planned out our last day in Windhouk before flying on to Cape Town.

We had been hopeing to hook up with Andreas Palfi, but our timing wasn't right, so we ventured into town to visit a mineral shop owned by Herbert Naegele and his son in law Ernst (The House of Gems). Herbert and Ernst were extremely accomodating, and most ineterested in our journey. We chatted while we looked at their offerings. I discussed my finds with Ernst and mentioned the descloisite with calcite. He immediately responded that, to his knowledge, no such combination had been found in Tsumeb. I had it with me, so showed it to him, and he quickly went to the back room to put it under his microscope. He returned asking me how much I wanted for it, as he collects toenails and this was, indeed, descloisite.! I declined to sell. Frank found an outstanding dolomite cast and I picked up some Navachab calcite clusters and some odd pieces. While discussing Tsumeb calcites Herbert mentioned he had a duplicate specimen from a small pocket that was quite unique, excused himself, and returned a while later with a piece from his own collection, which he gifted to me. Sometimes, the kindness and comraderie I encounter in this hobby leave me speachless.

The afternoon was spent scurrying from one end of town to the other. First we required papers from the Ministry of Trade and we then needed additional documents from the Ministry of Mining. They were literally on opposite ends of the city. Nationals are not terribly keen on us tourists taking pieces of their country home with us, and we had to be carefull not to list any precious or semi-precious minerals or subscribe a high value to any (as we were counseled by those in the know). The waits at each ministry were not too bad, but it did consume 4 hours of our time. This did not lessen my nervousness as I had to pass through customs exiting Namibia. My small duffel was absolutely full, weighing about 35 pounds. I also had to pray they wouldn't weigh it, as I knew I'd be over limit once again. At check in, I placed my main bag on the scale. They asked me to place my duffle on the scale as well, and she wasn't looking, so I tilted it back so it would not read the weight and was hidden by my suitcase. I just made weight, and she didn't notice!

We journied on to Capetown,where we were met by an interminable fog and drenching rain. Table mountain was completely obscured. A good friend of mine lives in Capetown, and picked us up at the airport. He got us settled and loaned us his truck for the two nights we were to be in town. Frank had arranged a visit with Reinne Ackermann in Stellenbosch, so the following day we made the 45 minute drive to wine country. Frank had been Reines first customer when he launched Kalahariminerals.com, and had purchased several great pieces from him. Reine had an impressive selection of Brandberg amethysts and a good representation of KMF material. He showed us two incredible specimens. One was a 10cm Brandberg amethyst that had all the attributes, elestial inclusions, amethyst phantoms, smokey phantoms and the pre-requisite anhydro.. I later purchased this specimen for a customer of mine via postal service. The second was a real stunner as well. I had thought the Nchwanning cabinet calcite specimen I had picked up was very good, but the one he brought out knocked my socks off. A good 20cm or so, it consisted solely of ice cube clear rhombohedron. One had to be 10cm on edge. I didn't even want to ask the price, and it wasn't for sale in the end.

Our last day was spent touring the wine country and dining with my friends, visiting their lovely home and their incredibly pretty daughters (and one handsome young son). The sky cleared a bit and the scenery provided a fitting end for such a long, mineral filled journey. The only excitement left to be had was getting home and waiting for our parcels to arrive, so we could spend additional moments gleefully unwrapping and re-discovering what we had purchased. Not once have I regretted not visiting the game parks or seeing the sights. That has been left for another day.

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