Back on the road once again, this time heading north from Capetown on the N1 highway up towards Jo Burg. We got as far as Laingsburg last night before dark after getting out of the city by about four o’clock & were lucky to get a room there at all, such as it was. Could not get in at any of the three B & B’s in town so settled for the less salubrious Gal Ghion Country Club, which although ok, did not quite match up to its names inference.

However the service was quite courteous and pointed us down the road to where we could get an evening meal. And what a meal it was this time, with the both of us choosing to pick ‘chops’ for a change as it was the first time we could see them on the menu. Dorper lamb chops I’d say as they were meant to be local and the only sheep we had seen for many miles heading into town were Dorpers and not much other stock at all. Chops, chips & peas…enough to make me homesick!

Filled in our last day in the Cape by taking a tour out to Robben Island, which is situated about a twenty minute ferry ride out into the local bay. Being famous for housing the late president Nelson Mandela for eighteen years against his will for opposing the apartheid system, and it has also been a penal colony for various other rulers for almost four hundred and fifty years. The cells were either 80 bed (actually no beds) dormitories or special two metre by two metre single cells for the targeted leaders such as Mandela, with bars and not closable windows against the cold & heat, and buckets instead of a toilet.

So a few unhappy spirits would inhabit its rocky shores….

Incredible to see what they had to go through, especially the ‘political prisoners’ & even though the conditions for working (lime & gravel mining chain gangs) and living were totally inhospitable, Mandela’s legacy was to always promote forgiveness & reconciliation. Terry McCosker talked a few weeks ago about the difference between ‘power & force’, and how there have been few people down through history with a high enough level of ‘consciousness’ to impact millions with true non violent power, rather than force.

Mandela fell into that auspicious category, along with others such as the likes of Jesus, Buda & Gandhi.

Even our tour guide was an ex inmate and veteran of seven years hard labour on the infamous island, and yet he chooses to relive it all every day by showing around the visitors to what is now an historical museum. Even some of the former guards do the same, and Mandela insisted that they too were also victims of the same regime, albeit in a different way.

Actually Mandela spent a total of twenty seven years in jail before being finally released in 1990 at what had to be the inevitable end of the apartheid era, then of course going on to be the first black leader of a country where 90% of the population is non-white.

Plenty of challenges still ahead here though, and plenty of turmoil at the top of the political scene which I must admit we don’t get much of a feel for driving around as the roads are fantastic, the people by and large very friendly by black & white, & the service everywhere has been unreal.

The main highways, not counting the multi-lane motorways, may be only one lane each way but there is enough room on either side for two cars & traffic in front will often pull over to the side and let you past, regardless of oncoming vehicles. We still hang back when trucks are approaching though as it isn’t quite that comfortable!

Today was a seven hour leg on the road & we made it all the way up to Kimberly and arrived with enough daylight left to take a tour of “The Big Hole” near the centre of town which is the remnants of the massive De Beers Diamond Mining company first diggings. It was very interesting to hear the mining history & I never realised that Cecil Rhodes was the main instigator of the huge diamond consortium & that De Beers was just a company name, derived from the family of farmers of that name that were in the area at the time. Of course the “Oppenheimer” name has also been synonymous with diamonds and that company for a long time as well.

Cecil Rhodes could be described as a man who ‘had a bit of a go’ after being sent out to Africa from England as ‘a sickly child of 17’ for health reasons. By the age of 35 he was in a position to pay 5 million pounds to consolidate the mining interests at Kimberly into the De Beers Company. That would have to be in excess of a Bill Gates style deal in today’s money, and he also went on to one day be political leader of the colony & to also have aspirations of even delivering the U.S. back into the British Empire.

Liked to think big young Cecil….

And of course he then bequeathed after death his “Rhodes Scholarship” legacy for those abroad to study at Oxford University.

Anyway, back to the big hole…. It really is a very big dent in the ground & we had to actually go around quite a bit of new road works to find our way in as some of the road is succumbing to falling into the hole!!

I’m not sure how far across the rim is but the open cut is about two hundred metres down to the water (which flooded operations in 1914 & brought about the end of mining here) and then another eight hundred metres below that to where the vertical mining reached.

We are staying in a guest house right at the mine among a group of 19^th century style buildings that have been restored to celebrate the areas famous & turbulent history. Beautiful room which is a little more expensive than our budget would usually cater for, however we rang around all over the place, and once again the town seems to be almost booked out. Annoyingly, there is no ‘internet’ here once again though & I’ll have to have a look around down town this morning before we leave.

Isn’t communication just fantastic these days? I was woken up this morning by my phone vibrating off the desk & crashing to the floor (at 6 am!) because Cathy had sent me a photo via ‘text message’ of the cattle at home as she was moving them. So then we proceeded to have a conversation about their condition & moving them etc etc…..all while she is working in the paddock at “Bokhara Plains”, & I’m sitting up in bed over 12,000 klms away in Africa.

Amazing!!

Today we head further north (after I find an internet Café) to catch up with Dick Richardson near Vryberg, and also to Sandy & Monica Speedy’s place which is about another 70 klms north of there. Should be a good few days to finish off our travels before venturing back into the sprawling metropolis of Jo Burg and catching our flight home on Sunday…

Hard to believe it’s all coming to a finish, but I’m very much looking forward to getting home & helping Cathy! I was getting a little homesick in our communication earlier….