A rockhound's adventures.
PART 2© 2006 Pictures and text Geonord
PART 2© 2006 Pictures and text Geonord
That night was spent in the hostel at Hemavan. There were a lot of nice people staying in the same house as us. The only sad thing was that daddy slept in a bed above mommy. But sleeping in mommy’s sleeping bag made me calm, and all the running around in forests and mountains had made me tired.
The third day started well, with rain. Mommy and daddy told me that we continued our journey towards foreign lands. En route we were searching for a boulder with turmalines in, but we could not find it. But we did find limestone rocks in Kåtaviken, and a bit further on we looked at a striped rock wall by the road. That was the spot where the real fun started for me. All of a sudden I had Marjatta beside me in the back seat. She was soooooo kind to me, and gave me candy and hugs. As a thank you I gave her a proper Bea kiss. After a short journey we were abroad looking for minerals. The place is called Storakersvattnet, and there we could find speudomorphs of tremolite and hornblende that had weathered out of the limestone. It was not so much water in the lake, so we could walk around quite a lot. It was just a shame that it was raining. Rain or no rain, I still wanted to go for a swim and taste Norwegian water. It tasted just like Swedish water.
A little bit further down the road we all ran out to look for cyanite on the huge stone heaps dug out from building the tunnel through the mountain. I don’t think that anyone left without some minerals.
We came to Mo I Rana a bit early, so we started to check in at the camping-motel. Motel and motel. It was a motel room, where you had to go to the camping site’s kitchen to make breakfast and dinner. When everybody had made themselves at home in their rooms, it was time to go to meet the chairman of the Rana mineral society. That is a very nice person called Chris. He invited us all to his home, and there I could taste waffles and Danish pastries.
I could also meet other members of Chris’ flock, his wife Elisabeth, and two other members of the Rana society. One is called Eli and she knows mommy and daddy from earlier.
Chris took us to the talcum mine in Altermark. It was a very nice expedition. Torbjorn had remained on the Swedish side with Hoppsan, Zorro and Rambo, and this meant that I could run around without a leash. Mommy found a chlorapatite crystal, that’s rare, they told us. Otherwise all found talcum, magnesite, magnetite, and actinolite.
Next day started well, but the rain didn’t want to give in, it came and went the entire day. We drove towards Mosjöen. There we walked along Sjögate, Seastreet. It was raining so most of the flock went to a café. I can’t go in there, so mommy, daddy and Marjatta continued to walk with me along the street. It was raining on and off, and after a while we were beginning to feel cold. Mommy and daddy said that they were beginning to feel hungry too, so we went to the car and continued to drive. We stopped at a place called Laxfossen, Salmon rapids, where we had lunch. After that we continued towards Sweden. We stopped at a quarry where they are mining quartzite, daddy told us.
Then we stopped and had a cup of coffee at a nice picnic-area by the lake Rössvattnet. One bay further on we stopped again and everybody went out to look for stones. Here you can find smokey quartz, if your lucky daddy says, who found a nice piece. This was also the place where the rest of the flock caught up with us. We could now continue towards the place where Torbjorn was waiting for us. He was going to show us the place where you can walk like Spiderman. As usual Torbjorn tried to get away from me, but I was not going to let a few rocks and boulders in a scree stop me from reaching my best friend. Mommy was panting and wondering if it was such a great idea to walk right in the middle of the scree, but had my friend Torbjorn passed that way , then I too was going to walk there. Once at the top mommy could try to walk like Spiderman on the weathered olivine rock, and everyone who had managed to get to the top, daddy, mommy, Staffan, Leif, Marjatta and Tore could see how weathered olivine looks like. Samples was also taken, both of weathered and not weathered olivine.
That night we lived at Tärna vilt’s establishment at Boxfjäll. It was a nice den, and I took the opportunity to rub in my scent everywhere I could, even though mommy and daddy only had one room.
Mommy and daddy left me alone that evening. Everybody were going to eat dinner together, since this was the last evening togetherThe fifth, and last morning we were once again up early in the morning. The weather was sunny and nice, with a promise of warmth later on. Mommy and daddy packed the car and then we drove back towards Norway. Daddy wanted some photos of the mountains in sunshine. We caught up with the flock at Tärna where most of us needed to fill up the cars with petrol. Shortly after Tärna, at Gauta mountain, we diverted to the old road. There we could observe garnets in mountain shale. Unfortunately the shale contained too much quartz, which made it very hard, so nobody managed to hack out a garnet or two. It was fun to see the surfaces of the boulders, however, all knobbly because of the garnets.
The journey continued. We took the road towards Nikanäs and Stalon. We found green mylonite at Korpkullen. There were huge blocks, each weighing several tons, lain up where we parked the cars, but it was at the quarry that we could find nice pieces of the mineral to take with us home.
The last stop of our adventure journey was in Lyksele, and I wasn’t allowed to come along. Torbjorn said that there was too high a risk for crushed glass on the ground so I had to remain in the car. All the others went with Torbjorn and watched how a large parable break in the rock, caused by the great land ice, could look like. It took ages for mommy and daddy to return, so I lay down for a good nap. I was right in the middle of a very interesting dream when my parents came back. They had had their dinner, what about mine?
All the rest of the flock had already left towards Umea, so it was high time for us too to leave. On our way home mommy and daddy asked me if I could write down my experiences from my first trip abroad. I hope that you who read this have enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed this adventure, and that those of you who were not on this trip wish that you had been. Next time I WILL catch Torbjorn, mommy can say what she want. He can’t run away like that.
Woff, woff,
BeaIf you want to send mail to me us the address: bea@geonord.org
©2001- GeoNord
