Rock Hunting in the Sahara Desert-Libya

Back in the 60s, we were drilling for oil in the Sahara.  The days were long and hot, the nights were very cool.  We would hunt semiprecious stones, petrified sand dollars, look for diamonds, sand glass, opal, or whatever caught our eye including petrified logs, alligator heads, geodes and endless other items.  Almost everything in the desert appeared to be petrified.  We drove in our Land Rovers over the desert by compass from rig to rig and then back to our camp for food and rest.  While the desert is a beautiful place, there are plenty of ways to get killed, by a horned viper, a cobra, or an 8-inch long black and ugly scorpion.

World War II battles were fought near where we were drilling and many land mines were in place as well as trip wires, 88-millimeter German shells that were still live, and an occasional aerial bomb.  We searched German helmets, guns and rifles.  The aircraft ‘Lady Be Good’ which belly landed on the sea of sand, the crew believing it to be the water was one of our stop and look places.

We found a 2-ton Ford Truck manufactured in Canada with the engine blown off, and we pried off the name tag from the engine wall, and left it for later when we could safely turn it over with a truck due to possible booby traps.

One trip to a rig, we took a geologist to a rig, but on the way he shouted “Stop! We are in a field of opal!”  We loaded our open-top 55-gallon barrel with the rocks, and on to the rig.  We later sent the rocks to our villa in Tripoli.

After my tour of 3-years of work, I sent quite a few rocks back to Houston, and after 40-years I am putting one of the rocks which I believe not to be opal as I know it, for sale on eBay, plus some desert glass.  I hope the high bidder will enjoy having the rocks as much as I did.

This is a true blog.