There's gold in them thar hills

No, really. There is.

Let me tell you a story.

I was going down to .. somewhere, I can't remember where, when we all stopped at the Ambepussa Rest House. I'm sure you know the one. It's the Rest House. At Ambepussa. On the way to Kandy, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, and many other such Places of Interest.

Of course you stop for a meal, since it is the first food stop at a respectable distance from Colombo - after all there is no reason to stop anywhere close to Colombo for food, not when you're planning on driving for at least a few more hours. So you stop there, have their over-priced short-eats, or get in on the breakfast buffet, and you take a walk to stretch your legs before you get back in the vehicle. Many thousands of people have done that, and so have I.

So you stretch your legs by walking around the rest house. Take a look at the pictures on the walls, and maybe at some of the posters. Look around and take a sideways glance at the women in the place - you never know, the love of your life of the week may be getting out of a car. And then you look around some more.

I was doing just that, when on that day, many, many years ago, I noticed the big poster proclaiming the history of the Ambepussa Rest House. And what a history it is. Very interesting reading, if you take the time to read it, and to read between the lines.

Yeah, I'm getting to the gold. Be patient.

Apparently the Ambepussa Rest House was built to provide a place to stay for the British explorers who came down to Sri Lanka and Ambepussa to search for gold. Yes, you heard me. Gold.

But apparently the exploration stopped because they couldn't find enough gold there in commercially viable quantities. Seriously. That's what it says.

Commercially. Viable. Quantities.

Now as any one can tell you, the price of gold, and the technological advances in actually extracting the gold has increased in leaps and bounds. In South Africa, where they strip mine for gold with machinery, and they are happy to get a few ounces per ton of earth.

So what I see is this. There is quite probably gold there in the Ambepussa river. It may even be commercially viable to mine for it now.

Of course I'm not responsible if you decide to get a pie pan and a big had and go panning for gold. Or if you decide to buy up the land in the area and start strip mining the place. As far as I know, there are no rules regarding gold mining in Sri Lanka. They could try to get you on the environmental protection laws.

But then tell people there is gold there and all environmental concerns go out the window. It's gold. Gold! Fuck the environment.

People are strange like that.