Walking in a bentonite mine.

Hello Wednesday walkers,

Yes I did, I walked in to a bentonite mine. Ore do you call this a quarry? Mines are underneath the ground, right?
Well I thought it was a very cool trip and I found a lot of nice fossils.

For the people who don't know what Bentonite is, its a very fine clay that has many very good property,s for example, that it could make stuff water tight. It absorbs so much water that is forms a thick sturdy layer that is impenetrable for more water.

In the Netherlands they use it is different kinds of road constructions to keep the water out of the soil, so it will not flush away during all that rain in the Netherlands. And they also use it in the cosmetic industry a lot. it's widely used for its highly absorbent and purifying properties, especially in facial masks to cleanse pores and absorb excess oil in oily skin.

But today it is part of my Wednesday walk. I spend a couple of days with some friends who have a plot of land next to this quarry. They are making a little camp site for camper vans and I stay there to help out a bit. But the weather was very bad and the helping out became more of a drinking and sleeping thing.

It was good that the big rock was there, I could climb the gate a bit better.

Dark clouds came rolling in. It would be a very wet evening out there.

And there it is, a complete view of the quarry. I was already half way down from were I took this picture. I has been out of business for over 20 years already so it was "safe"to enter.

Very good that the quarry is out of business. Now they are growing trees in here. They look like they were planted and first I thought they were olive trees but I don't really know. An image search doesn't help me either. I will ask this weekend. We are visiting there again.

On the top right you see the house that they are refurbishing. It's a nice view from op there.

In side the wall I found one layer of material that contained a lot of shells like this. They told me the layer was about 3000 years old. So cool to hold that in your hand.

The grey layer is the bentonite layer that they were after. And just above that is a think layer of fossil shells, but also big rocks. It felt not really safe to stand underneath it. Next time I am taking my helmet with me.

This old tree looked very cool. It looked dead to me, but it's winter time so maybe it will bloom again in spring. Other wise it is good fire place material.

One of the small flowers that are growing in the quarry. next time I will take my macro lens with me.

And I came across this strange creepy crawler. Image search tells me it's a glowworm larva. how cool is that, I have never saw them before. Hopefully I will see them glow in the dark some day.

And these are some things that I found. Now idea if it is something but they stood out to me. I like the green and red one. And the brown one looks like it is petrified wood.

And then I came across this blue thing. I was so exited because blue means value. My hands were already very cold because of the drizzle rain, but later in the van I showed it to my friends and they said it was plastic... I could'n feel that with my cold hands.

On my way back I saw this sign laying around. That probably needed to warm me when I got in to the place.

Felt like a norther warning. It's a hunting area...

Probably dog poop but you never know. It could be some kind of wild life thing. Image search says it could be a small herbivore but couldn't say what kind of.