SA9 Soweto, Very Old Mrs Ples, a 2 Billion year old Asteroid Crater, Kimberly Diamonds
Wednesday, 23 March 2016 12:55 am
Mandela's House where he lived out his final days.
We elected to do a tour of Johannesburg rather than drive ourselves. For 4 reasons Human Rights day commemorating what we are about to see, we really wanted to learn about everything, safety and where to go ??
A mix of mega wealthy and extremely poor. 50%+ of cars were high end Mercedes, BMW, Audi with the largest Porsche showroom globally.
The Constitutional Court the highest in the land - Note the 4 eminent judges sitting that day !
The Apartheid Museum is a MUST !
It explains step by step the lead up to the uprising and the shocking things that happened during that time.
It was inevitable that the government would change and South Africa was very fortunate that Mandela (and De Clerk the white leader) were there to handle the process responsibly.
Soweto means South West town.
It was built by the Apartheid Government to house the slum inhabitants.
Small housing was supplied - very basic and without electricity - crazy. This resulted in many charcoal fires and leading to health issues.
We lunched in Soweto at a very upmarket place with well dressed clientele both black and white.
I never would have expected to see in Soweto a Lamborghini, top range BMW etc then a Bentley drives by. All black owners.
The Hector Peterson memorial. He was 12 years old and shot by white policemen on the 16th June 1976.
20,000 thousand students marched in protest against the white government when they changed the education system whereby all teaching was to be done in Africaan ( Dutch ) and not the local language or english as previously.
Some weeks later this ruling was reversed but it started the entire revolutionary process.
If only Sth Africa now had a president such as Mandela.
It has well been reported that the current President Zuma is corrupt in so many ways.
Some of his cabinet simply stupid. SA is suffering severe drought and the water minister states:
“The dams are half full because the whites built them too big!”
Tuesday 22nd March 2016.
The Cradle of Humankind.
Just outside Johannesburg is a world heritage site where some of the oldest hominid fossils have been found.
The Sterkfontein Cave is where the 2.3 Million old ‘Mrs Ples’ was found by Dr Bloom in 1947.
This find and many others dating back as far as 3.5 million years makes it most significant in the research of human evolution.
The museum here is exceptional.
Heading south to the Vredefort Asteroid Crater we were fortunate to find the local farmer pigeon shooting in his Sorghum field and asked if we could camp - no problem thanks !
The farm is 4,700 hectares and 1700 is under sorghum & Sunflower. The pigeons were decimating his crop.
A027: Vredefort Asteroid Impact Crater
Cost; Nil
Altitude: 1446 metres
S 27* 00.032 E 027* 29.215
Today: 253 Kms
Trip Total: 4,693 Kms
Wednesday 23rd March 2016:
This is the largest impact crater on Earth. At more than 300 km across it is a World Heritage site. The 10 km wide asteroid is thought to be one of the largest to ever to have hit earth and occurred in the Paleoproterozic Era around 2.02 Billion years ago.
The impact was twice as big as that which wiped out the Dinosaurs 65 million years ago, and the resulting crater 50 kilometres deep!
The centre Vredefort Dome consists of a partial ring of hills some 70km in diameter ( just seen in the far distance) was created by the rebound of rock below the impact site after the collision - much like a water droplet.
Our friendly farmer Hennie, contacted his neighbour TJ, as on his property is the exact centre of the impact, where a shallow depression is still visible.
We drove to the site about 10kms away. It does not appear much but it is my last impressive impression of such a catastrophic event in Earths history.
This is a google earth shot and we are at the near dry lake - dead centre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vredefort_crater
A028: Kimberly Diamond Mine - Big Hole Camp
Cost: R150
Altitude: 1219 metres
S 28* 44.390 E 024* 45.121
Today: 467 Kms - of easy Highway driving
Trip Total: 5,106 Kms
Meerkats around the camp
The biggest man dug hole follows the diamond bearing pipe.
215m deep and 22 million tons of rock gave up 2,722Kg or 14,504,566 Carats of Diamonds before the diggings went underground.
An old Diamond Buyer !
Just outside Kimberly is a millennia old Bushman’s rock art site.
The 15minute introduction video highlighted the plight of the !Xun and Khwe San peoples who were relocated from Angola in 1990.
They now own this area.
A029: Pump House Pub - Barkley West
Cost: Nil
Altitude: 1094 metres
S 28* 32.950 E 024* 32.191
Today: 39Km
Trip Total: 5,199 Kms
Great meal in the pub followed by an even bigger drinking session !
4 Beers, then 5 Jagermeister, 2 Cookies & Cream, Top Deck-chocolate and ??, Night Music- Amarillo & Mint , then something else called Potency ! then BLURRRR
A great evening with the locals, diamond miners, teachers etc.
Friday 25th March 2016
The country has been getting drier ever since we left Kimberly.
The Finch Diamond Mine one of the biggest in the world.
Just a drive by this time.
Weaver Birds nests in the telegraph poles.
They are a colony of small birds.
A030: The Ranch
Cost: R150/site
Altitude: 1094 metres
S 27* 54.697 E 022* 51.763
Today: 256Km
Trip Total: 5,455 Kms
Tomorrow we head into the Kgalagadi Desert to trace the Molopo River - One of Africa's ancient rivers.
Then south to the Augradies Falls.