Emerald collection in Habachtal

Immediately came to mind a real estate ad: close to the motorway, yet in a quiet environment with nice views, a house for sale. Only winter transport can be cumbersome.
There was something to look at on the other side of the highway. There is a castle standing there, halfway up.

It was a strange sight as on the hill next to the castle ascended the dawn fog.

Along the way, we made a couple of photos of the mountains we've seen.

It was near Habachtal.

We started to reach the morning's first emerald bus (7:45). This bus has to be booked for days ahead of time. One hour before departure we were in Habachal, in the parking lot.

By getting to the village's roundabout, an emerald crystal made of green glass around two meters indicates that we are in the right place. A parking lot for tourists is at the entrance of the valley, a pay parking lot, but not a very high parking fee. While we were waiting for the bus, we looked at the announcements.

By getting to the village's roundabout, an emerald crystal made of green glass around two meters indicates that we are in the right place. A parking lot for tourists is at the entrance of the valley, a pay parking lot, but not a very high parking fee. While we were waiting for the bus, we looked at announcement.

The first scary rule:
Leave the minerals and crystals in place, do not get together. Then we got a little hesitant and the tools were hidden.
We also saw a picture of someone not understanding the rule: a hand extending towards a crystal, red crossed. Of course the crystal is not green, so it probably does not apply to emeralds.

Meanwhile the bus has arrived. It was a minibus, whose trunk was almost full of our equipment. We watched worriedly whether there will be a place for everyone, but eventually everyone was get on the bus.

The bus takes about 8-9 km of road up to hill in the valley. It is on a beautiful road, it can be more beautiful on foot. A well-designed hiking trail leads up, with resting and mormota observation places. With less stuff it is worth starting on foot.
We made some photos of the bus window, but we mostly watched the mountains. There were many waterfalls along the way.

Then we arrived at AlpenRose tourist house. The photo shows the tourist house and the minibus that brought us. And our packages, leaning against the rock.

For today we put unnecessary stuff into our room.
According to our map two roads lead to emerald mines. One is a thin black dashed line along the valley leading straight to the mines. The other is a hiking trail marked with a continuous line, long meandering up the hillside. 
At first sight it is several kilometers longer than the dotted line.
The plan was, to go up to the emeralds in the valley and on the way, we would break all the relevant suspicious stones. At the beginning of the road I took the 5 kg hammer and the top beers. Saying that I get tired, then other people would carry the heavy tools.
There was also a nice view of the tourist house.

The valley of a small stream next to the tourist house includes emeralds. Already near the house, built into the stream, emerald washing sieves can be seen. The debris has been washed so much times, that it is only with great luck to find small emeralds. Therefore we started to go upwards.
Looking back, from the opposite mountain, thin-looking waterfalls drift into the deep.

In our team,  no one else was fanatic mineral collector, just me. My other two companions rather because of the adventure, came with me. Therefore, they mostly photographed the landscape and the flora.

We saw this also:

Meanwhile, our tourist storey house seemed to be smaller in the valley.

My companions had been worried that others would not come on this road, but us. We often photographed the mountains on the other side of Habach Valley.

In the meantime, they wondered if we were going in the right direction? In today's common journey, this was the last picture I made of me. Then they came slower and we met again at emerald mines.

That is why the history of our tour runs on two threads now.
Since I did not make a lot of photos, let's start with my story.
The others came very slowly, so I went ahead with the equipment to the Emerald Mines. At times I stopped to rest or to wait for the others. Of course in vain. Meanwhile I made one or two photos.

 The terrain has become more and more difficult. Then I just came under a waterfall.

I had a problem here: both sides of the waterfall were steep.

Finally, I decided to go on this side.

At this point, I felt very heavy the 5 kg hammer and the many stuff I carried. Soon after the waterfall, there were new waterfalls.

Besides these, the rock wall has become even more steep. The vegetation near the waterfall is very watery, so if I hang on them, I'm getting really wet too.

But there is no other way. The water comes from above, and I have to go further. I could not climb back anyway.

Between a double waterfall I was in great trouble: the rock wall was so steep that I did not dare to climb the wall with lots of stuff. So I crossed the other side of the stream. Which is also not easy because the water is so fast and wide, that it could not be crossed by dry boots. So barefoot tried to get through in the cca: + 3-4 degrees Celsius cold stream. I've been successful. From here I made a photo, looking back at the way I did so far.

But on this side, a translucent little green emerald crystal glittered on the ground. About a mile from it, there was an abandoned rusty emerald screen. I thought it was a heavenly sign to be washed here.
I put the debris on the rusty sieve and washed it in the brook. I did this for half an hour, but I did not find any more emeralds. Well, I have to go further. But how?
There is no path here anymore. I can hang in big, large-leaved vegetation on, getting very wet, can only walk around the waterfall.

Then, unexpected sight came to me.
  People in the valley. Well, they certainly did not come on this way, where I was. And all of them washed emerald. With different techniques: there are those who lead the water to the area they want to wash through. Another one scraped the debris under the big rocks and bringed it to the brook.

But my friends and emerald mines are still nowhere. That's why I went upwards. From here, I saw 40-50 collectors of emeralds, until all Sanyi met again. (All of us has the same name: Sanyi) The other two Sanyi went on a little different way, let's see where they went:

They turned back and find the tourist path. They walked on a smooth path, steadily uphill. They often photographed the mountains opposite.

And since one of Sanyi's is ornamental gardener, so he took a lot of photos of flowers too.

They admired the landscape or the flowers too.

They walked up and up. Then the tourist road just entered the emerald valley. Here you can find emerge anywhere. The plant world is also very diverse in this part.

The huge debris mountain on the top can contain a variety of minerals. For example: quartz (mountain crystal, smoke quartz) 0.2-1 cm piritcubes, green serpentine, greenish talk, green actinolite, it is not so easy to find green emeralds among many green minerals.

In the valley between tons of stones, sometimes even solid quartz rocks of similar size. On the hillside every little part covered with soil, 20 to 30 meters tall pine trees grew.

Yes, they could have been at about 1,900 meters above sea level.

The landscape and the view here are wonderful. The stream is still abounding in water.

And a variety of flowers are still visible.

But not just flowers represent the wildlife of the mountain. On climbing the rocky slope, Sanyi P. was about to catch up when the other Sanyi warned: watch out, a viper next to your hand and blow it!

At this point, you see your life rushing from the beginning to the end in one second.

Because if you let go of the rock, you can fall down.
If you do not let go of the rock, the snake will bite.

Fortunately none of the versions happened. But this couple of seconds will surely be a lifelong experience. From the sunny alpine viper, they made two photos and then went on.

Then they prefer the landscape,