· Diamonds for AfricaKimberley, South Africa · 26th Jun 2008 · Posted by Sanjay
Wednesday night was an early start as we left PE at 5am. We had close to 800km to travel to Kimberly. Because you are travelling from sea level up to the highveld (altitude), there is a fair bit of uphill/mountains/passes to travel through. The road is fairly typical veld, very dry and you have to travel through the karoo which is semi desert.
It was very cold leaving at 5am, but by mid morning it is boiling hot! We were pretty happy to make it to Kimberly by about 2.30pm.
After a quick freshening up we made our way to the big hole. For those who don’t know, Kimberly was founded on the diamond mining industry, and a consequence of this is the big hole. The big hole is the largest man made hole in the world, as many people came to Kimberly to seek their fortune and dug through the ground. They stopped mining in 1914 when WW 1 came about and not long after it was deemed too unsafe as many lost their lives looking for that elusive diamond to keep their wife happy (just kidding, they did it for the money!). They have closed the mine down even though there are obviously diamonds there, and now it is just a tourist attration/museum.
We were taken underground, only 5m or so, to see what a real life mine would have been like. (We have been into a gold mine before, and I have been to the Cullinan diamond mine). It was a simulation of what the diamond mine was like, compete with fake dynamite blast…that was cool!
Then we went through a museum and diamond manufacturing was explained, before going into the vault! No recording equipment was allowed, as there were precious diamonds on display
Finally we saw the big hole. It was a hole in the ground...
Actually it was very impressive, very large. Amazing to think it was dug by hand. It is filled with natural underground water, something that made mining again impossible.
After that we through the old town...a look at what life was like in the diamond rush era.
We did make it too DeBeers mine some 5km away, to see a mine in action today, that is mined with modern equipment.
For dinner we went out to Spur, the official restaurant of the South African family…and the best restaurant in the world. No one can leave spur disappointed! I can’t believe it has taken us 2 weeks to get there!
I had some nice snails as an entrée, whilst Rheanna had nachos. Whilst we didn’t need mains, I had chicken enchiladas whilst Rheanna had Steak and Shrimp.
The temperature in Kimberly was hot, hot, hot in the day; but it was cold like you couldn’t believe at night. Thank goodness we had electric blankets! Meanwhile I found my Father in laws secret stash of chocolate he had bought (I have a no chocolate rule until I run comrades…that includes all parties touring with us!), so I secretly disposed of that…
It was very cold leaving at 5am, but by mid morning it is boiling hot! We were pretty happy to make it to Kimberly by about 2.30pm.
After a quick freshening up we made our way to the big hole. For those who don’t know, Kimberly was founded on the diamond mining industry, and a consequence of this is the big hole. The big hole is the largest man made hole in the world, as many people came to Kimberly to seek their fortune and dug through the ground. They stopped mining in 1914 when WW 1 came about and not long after it was deemed too unsafe as many lost their lives looking for that elusive diamond to keep their wife happy (just kidding, they did it for the money!). They have closed the mine down even though there are obviously diamonds there, and now it is just a tourist attration/museum.
We were taken underground, only 5m or so, to see what a real life mine would have been like. (We have been into a gold mine before, and I have been to the Cullinan diamond mine). It was a simulation of what the diamond mine was like, compete with fake dynamite blast…that was cool!
Then we went through a museum and diamond manufacturing was explained, before going into the vault! No recording equipment was allowed, as there were precious diamonds on display
Finally we saw the big hole. It was a hole in the ground...
Actually it was very impressive, very large. Amazing to think it was dug by hand. It is filled with natural underground water, something that made mining again impossible.
After that we through the old town...a look at what life was like in the diamond rush era.
We did make it too DeBeers mine some 5km away, to see a mine in action today, that is mined with modern equipment.
For dinner we went out to Spur, the official restaurant of the South African family…and the best restaurant in the world. No one can leave spur disappointed! I can’t believe it has taken us 2 weeks to get there!
I had some nice snails as an entrée, whilst Rheanna had nachos. Whilst we didn’t need mains, I had chicken enchiladas whilst Rheanna had Steak and Shrimp.
The temperature in Kimberly was hot, hot, hot in the day; but it was cold like you couldn’t believe at night. Thank goodness we had electric blankets! Meanwhile I found my Father in laws secret stash of chocolate he had bought (I have a no chocolate rule until I run comrades…that includes all parties touring with us!), so I secretly disposed of that…
