Day 41 - The Big Hole - Kempton Park, South Africa
Kempton Park, South Africa
Tuesday 12th November 2013 Woke up at 5.30am. The weirdo next door had his TV on loud. By 8.30 we were starving and headed to McDonalds for sausage McMuffins (with cheese, wrong!) and coffee. We then popped into the shopping mall for Jackie to buy a new scarf, she had left her old one somewhere in Cape Town. I ended up buying a cheap shirt and some beer for that evening. At 9.40am we arrived at The Big Hole in Kimberley. The Big hole is the largest hand dug hole in the world and was a diamond mine from 1866 to the beginning of the 1st World War in August 1914. The hole produced diamonds weighing 2722 kgs and is 215 metres deep. At 10.00am the tour commenced with an excellent 17 minute film that explained how one young boy found a large diamond in the area which subsequently sparked a 'diamond rush'. Lots of characters from all over the globe arrived in Kimberley to seek their fortune, similar to the gold rush in Deadwood, USA. After the film we were given a guided tour of the museum and taken to a vault to see 3,500 real diamonds of varying shapes and colours, that had been mined in Kimberley. There were also replicas of some of the world's biggest diamonds of which 2 form part of the Crown Jewels. Then it was the bit I was dreading - the walkway out over The Big Hole. It turned out to be not too bad because the walkway didn't go out further than the side of the hole. From here we took an elevator down to a mock up of the conditions underground complete with explosions. Finally we walked round the fascinating streets of the old town as it was a 100 years ago, many of the buildings and interiors were originals that had just been relocated. We had an opportunity to buy diamonds, but settled on a fridge magnet! At 11.30pm we returned to the car to embark on the relatively short journey of 470 odd kilometres to Johannesburg our final destination! The N12 took us north all the way to Jo'Burg and we left Kimberley in clear blue skies. Out of Kimberley the road was much busier than the previous day as we passed through the rubbish strewn towns of Christiana and Bloemhof. The scenery was nothing much to write home about, just flat arable fields with the odd sighting of a Springbok or Ostrich to catch the attention. Also one bird out of nowhere flew into the windscreen scaring the living daylights out of us....damn, I don't want a reputation as a bird killer! After refilling at Klerksdorp, we got to Potchefstroom where black clouds started forming and the rain fell making the spray off the roads hazardous. Then the lightning started with great bolts coming down somewhere over Soweto, lighting up the darkened sky. As we reached the southern outskirts of Jo'Burg the traffic got much heavier and we were greeted with signs warning us that we were now in a 'Hi-Jack Hot Spot'. Welcome to Johannesburg! Now on high alert, we followed the 4-5 lane carriageway around Jo'Burg towards the airport and more by luck than judgement arrived at The Waterfront estate at 5.45pm. The Waterfront estate is the home of Val and Kevin our hosts for our final 2 nights in South Africa. Val is Angela's aunt and is a purser for South African Airways and her husband Kevin is a 1st Officer. They have a lovely big house on a private estate looking out over a park and lake that attracts lots of bird life. Val and Kevin were fantastic hosts and made us feel very welcome. I felt slightly embarrassed to have arrived with just 2 bottles of wine and a 6 pack of beer that had all been cooking in the boot of the car. We had a wonderful dinner of fillet steak grilled on the braai, salad and corn cake, followed by milk pudding. This was accompanied by copious amounts of beer and wine, putting the world to rights, before going to bed around 11.00pm. Song of the Day - Down In A Hole by Alice In Chains.