Pilgrims Rest - Part 2

"Alanglade", which used to be the residence of the director of the Transvaal Gold Mining Estate Ltd, furnished with pieces of the 1920s.
The "Drezden Shop" is the town's historic general store. Here one could buy anything, groceries, whisky, tools, household articles and much more.

A lot of old merchandise is exhibited in the store.

The old newspaper printing office and the Royal Hotel are also open to visitors. And at Pilgrim's Creek visitors can still today try their luck at gold washing.

The first site in the history of South African archaeology where gold objects were excavated, was Mapungubwe in Limpopo province, dating to 1,000 - 1,300 AD.

Together with Great Zimbabwe and Thulamela, Mapungubwe formed part of a complex trading culture through which the gold of Africa reached Arabia, India and Phoenicia.

A number of insignificant gold deposits were discovered in the northern parts of South Africa between 1840 and 1870.

But the first gold rush in South Africa took place in 1873 when payable gold was discovered on the farm Geelhoutboom near the town of Sabie (5km from Pilgrim's Rest - as the crow flies).

President Burgers, who visited the site, officially named the area the New Caledonian Gold Fields, but he jokingly referred to it as "MacMac" and the name stuck. Everyone referred to it as the MacMac Diggings.

The ore was transported to the Reduction Works (build in 1897).

As the demand grew for crushing ever-increasing volumes of gold ore, the mine engineers soon realised that what they needed was electricity.

This was generated in small hydro-electric plants until the Belvedere hydro-electric power plant in the Blyde River Canyon was completed in 1911. This 2,000 Kw power station was, at its time, the largest hydro-electric power station in the Southern hemisphere and Pilgrim's Rest was the second town in South Africa (after Kimberly) to be electrified.

Pilgrims Rest - Part 1

Mining in this region of Mpumalanga dates back many centuries, when unknown miners worked quartz reefs in the area for gold.

Proof of these diggings can still be found in this area.
Pilgrim's Rest is a historical gold-mining town. In the year 1873, the digger Alec Patterson was roaming the densely forested hills, all the while pushing a wheelbarrow with his belongings.

At a place later called "Pilgrim's Creek" he got lucky. He saw big lumps of gold shimmering in the clear water. Full of joy he exclaimed "The pilgrim can rest!"

Soon thereafter, the gold rush started. Diggers from all over the world flocked to Pilgrim's Rest and settled along the river. The town developed rapidly.

The gold finds of Pilgrim's Rest turned out to be the richest alluvial gold deposits (surface gold) in southern Africa. In 1895 the Transvaal Gold Mining Estate Ltd was founded and bought successively all the claims of the diggers, most of them only about 50 square meters (1 m = 3 feet) in size.

The company worked profitably until the middle of the 20th century. Eventually, in 1971 the resources were exhausted and the operation was shut down.

In 1972 the former company town of Pilgrim's Rest was bought by the government and declared a National Monument.

The old buildings were meticulously restored, preserving the special character of the place with its tin-roofed cottages.

Visitors can nowadays walk through various of theses houses, e.g. the "Miner's House", a typical, very humbly furnished dwelling of a gold digger.

Art of disguise - Part 4

Many times it is a slight movement which gives away their position and as you can see, this dragonfly is barely noticable on this rock.

Get over it!

In my life I have many times heard people say “get over it” and ‘get on with your life”, but what does it mean and how do you do it? Yes, in many ways I guess it depends on the circumstances and the subject they are talking about. If it is about something serious like the loss of someone or a bad illness, is it POSSIBLE to “get over it”?
I think in many ways it is a case of mind over matter and our upbringing. For example: Many years ago I had to go for a small operation which was done early on a Friday morning. By lunch time I was rearing to go and get out of there although the doctors wanted me to stay overnight “for observation”. In the same ward as me, there was a woman who had the same thing done the previous Monday and was still going around in a wheelchair bemoaning the fact that she was so “ill”. Now I wonder what the difference was between the two of us besides the fact she was also about 10 years younger than me? Was it a case of mind over matter and getting on with life?

If you loose someone very dear to you it is not easy to get on with your life. The thoughts and memories live with you daily and yet you are expected to smile and get over it. Does the hurt and pain of this ever stop? Is there a specific period? Can you say “Okay, by next Tuesday it will stop and I will be over it”.

As a watcher of Dr Phil, I often hear him use these two phrases and in most cases, I have to agree with him. For example: Someone’s father gave him/her a spanking 40 years ago and they are still holding a grudge against him for it. How ridiculous to spend 40 years of your life in misery brooding over something like that!! GET OVER IT!!

So where in all of this is the rule to tell us under what circumstances and in what period of time we must “get over it” and “get on with your life”? Sometimes I sit and wonder about life and where it takes us. Which rules do we obey, which do we ignore. How can we tell our heart and mind which road to follow?

Is there a simple way to forget things so we can get over it and move on with our lives? What do you think?

Bourke's Luck Potholes

This remarkable phenomena is situated at the confluence of the Treur (sad) and Blyde (happy) Rivers and the story behind the names are as follows:
During the early part of South African history, a group of pioneers were camped on the banks of a river and the men went off to hunt. They did not return for more than a month and the women came to the conclusion that they had either been killed or got lost and decided to pack up and leave their camp and move on.

They named the river Truer River (river of sadness as they had lost their menfolk). A couple of days later they were camped on yet another river and their men eventually caught up with them so they named it the Blyde River (river of happiness).

Bourke’s Luck Potholes was named after a gold prospector who never found any in the region but maintained that there WAS gold in the area. It turned out to be true and was once a thriving business for miners. Some say that there is still some gold to be found there.

Where the rivers meet, water erosion has formed one of the most remarkable natural geological formations of potholes.

Over thousands of years, surreal cylindrical rock sculptures created by whirling water, when the once rapid river carried masses of sand and debris, have formed a series of dark pools which contrast artfully with the streaked white and yellow lichen covered rocks.

Definition: Pothole (or kettle-hole) is also a term for a formation in rivers caused by a whirlpool eroding a hole into rock. The abrasion is mainly caused by the circular motion of small sediments such as small stones in the river. The interiors of potholes tend to be smooth and regular.

Laterite Matron (Automolis lateritia) Thyretidae

A stunningly beautiful moth.

Sudwala Caves

How wonderful it was to meet with Gaelyn and go on tour with her. She was the ideal traveling companion and turned out to be everything as interesting as her blog Geogypsy. This was our second stop as she wanted to visit the Cradle of Humankind first. As I have already done a post on it, I did not take more photographs.

Looming above the beautifully wooded valley of the bustling mountain torrent known as the "Houtbosloop", there is a majestic massif known as Mankelexele (Crag on crag / Rock upon rock) In the great massif dolomite rock there is one of the most astonishing caves in Southern Africa, an as yet unplumbed complex of passages and giant chambers extending into the mysterious heart of the mountain.
The Sudwala Caves are the oldest known caves in the world, and as such, are a `must-see' on the itinerary of any visitor to Mpumalanga. These incredible caverns lie in the Drakensberg escarpment which separates the Highveld from the lowlands of Mpumalanga.

The caves are situated in Pre-cumbrian dolomite rocks of the Malmani Group, formed over a period of some 3000 million years, capturing in stone a time when the area was covered by warm shallow in-land seas. These are amongst the second oldest known sedimentary rocks on the earth, and represented in the cave are fossils of the first oxygen producing plants on the earth, Collenia.

One can clearly see in the different layers and textures in the rock a reflection of the result of the different weather patterns taking place in the building of an ancient seabed. Besides the awesome rock displays the caverns also boast an array of calcium formations, aged but active, anciently and patiently still growing.

INTRODUCTION

In past ages these caves were formed when gigantic stresses cracked the dolomite. Rainwater percolated into the cracks, carrying carbon-dioxide and dissolving away the limestone in the rock, forming in the process a subterranean dreamland of vast caverns and passageways decorated with stalactites and stalagmites in all manner of weird fanciful shapes.

It is as though nature, in the privacy of these dark vaults has directed some leisure moments in eternity and created a gallery of fantastic shapes and forms, and exhibits them to mankind with a sly smile. The dolomite is a carbonate sedimentary rock consisting mainly of the mineral dolomite CCa Mg(CO3)2.

PRE- HISTORY

The caves were used as shelter by Pre-historic man in the form of "Homo-Habilis" / "Handyman." approximately 1.8 million years ago. Habilis has smaller cheek teeth, larger front teeth, a relatively large brain and skeleton more like that of modern humans.

They mainly used the cave entrance as shelter during bad weather. Excavations are still in progress and have thus far yielded a fine collection of stone-age tools which are on display at the cave entrance.

"THE AMPHITHEATER":

Early in the development of the Sudwala Caves as a South African tourist attraction, it was discovered that the "P.R.Owen hall" had natural air-conditioning and it was also suggested that this, plus its other attributes, would make it splendidly suitable for opera and other drama.

In July 1970 the famous Russian singer, Ivan Rebroff, tested the suitability of the big hall for concert purposes. His remarkable voice, with a range of four octaves, resounded gloriously through the caverns in a series of songs. Afterwards he gave his considered opinion that the acoustics were at least equal, if not positively superior to those of any concert hall or opera house in Europe.

FOSSILS

In the Pre-cambrian, all the early animals were soft bodied and thus did not fossilize well at all. However there are primitive plant fossils called "collenia" to be viewed in the Sudwala caves. They were a type of blue-green algae that used to float on the ocean.

They were tubular shaped and approximately 2 m in length. It was one of the first oxygen producing plants that produced oxygen safe enough for us to breath.

It dates back 2000 million years when these plants were formed.

It got compacted in the rock, because at high tide sand and silt would get washed over it and get caught up in it, another layer would grow and the same process would occur.