Special offer Goldpanning
Learn all the little tricks of gold panning, the old craft of the inhabitants of Rye Island. At the end of our programme a valuable prize awaits the gold panners. While it is a pleasant feeling to wear gold, panning for gold yourself and finding that gold nugget makes for a memory that lasts a lifetime!
Available for teambuildings. Price upon request.
GOLD PANNERS ARE ALWAYS RAGGED
The last known gold panner was Vince Berec in Szapon. He carried on his trade in the mid-‘60’s. His utensils and instruments are kept in a museum. A gold panner told the story of the discovery of gold in Csallóköz. A miller lad came from Duna Aranyos to Ács to see a beautiful girl. One night on his way back a terrific storm came up on the Danube, overturning his boat and blowing his hat into the water. As he caught the cap and washed it, a yellow glitter at the bottom of the pan caught his eye. That was how he discovered that there was gold in the Danube’s water.” The trade of panning for gold survives in the Csallóköz. (Though not only with us, in Czechy there are gold panning competitions with a washboard.) A young man from Keszölcés – we can see him in the photo – recently got a permit to pan for gold. On summer mornings now too we can hear the sound of the suction pumps working; young gold panners are at work in Szigetköz. It is as difficult to get them to open up as the gold-panners in Tündérkert of old; after all, the father keeps the best places exclusively for his son.
HOW DID GOLD GET INTO THE DANUBE?
The men of Csallóköz always told tales of amazing beings: garabonciás diák (wizard disguised as a travelling student) who thinks his parent is a witch, fiery people (the flickering light must have been caused by the combustion of marsh gases), and bewitching fairies who in brushing their golden hair made gold dust fall into the Danube. Reality is of course more prosaic. The gold dust gets into the Danube in the same way as pebbles and sand--stones weather and disintegrate. Gold comes from the catchment areas of the Danube highlands, mainly from the High-Tauern mountains of Austria. The streams that run down the mountains pulverise the streaks of ore containing gold. The further gold is from its source, the smaller the particles that are found in the sand on the shore. Right next to the gold veins, nuggets the size of a centimetre, can be found, while in the Csallóköz they pan for gold scales or GOLD DUST, generally 0.3 mm in size.
Price 10 € / person.
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