Blogs from Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa, Africa

Here we are, this is March 2021...and we are on for a solid road trip at home. The car is a small Suzuki Swift this time. So yes, you don't need a huge car to do special road trips. We will be on the road for 20 days. 2/3 of this trip are actually roads I have not drove before...so if you ask, yes there is a lot more for us to discover in gorgeous South Africa. We encountered close to no foreign tourists on this trip. And as it is back to school here, not many locals either. I'm dividing the blogging in 3 different blogs. The first one is leading us North. We drove first to Durban to exchange our category A car...a little Picanto...for a category B car....as the distances are huge here! ... read more

Hey Bloggers, i trust you are well. Today i want to tell you about my experience at The Big Hole,Open Mine or Kimberley Mine. This trip started when i visited my family in Kimberley for the first time. That was in 2008. I was excited because at the time ive never been in another provinve before besides my own. I took this trip with my father and my sister. To have a better experience we took a bus to view more of the towns we drove through. The day we went to the Kimberley Mine Hole it was extremely hot, as it usually is hot in the Northern Cape. We met our tour guide and she took us through the mine. it was amazing! The Big Hole is an open pit and underground mine and it ... read more

Geo: -28.7332, 24.7438... read more

Day one and the road to Kimberley is fine,boring scenery,lots of trucks and speed traps. Day two and i am skipping forward a little to sunset,when the mosque made us look east!!! This and the road right behind the caravan park are the two biggest cons. Another irritation is the supply of electricity at the caravan park in some kind of foreign plug style. apparently this is how all caravan parks operate.This being our second one, i don't know yet.We arrive late -5 ish,the trip took 5 hours ,and are pleasantly surprised to find the Friendly Supermarket is open till 9. However,the Open Mine caravan park is RIGHT opposite the big hole area,which is the only attraction in kimberley.The ablutions are very well equipped with baths, showers,vanity stations and laundry facilities,with a communal braai area and ... read more

The LAGEOS group flew from Johannesburg to Kimberley in the Northern Cape Province to view the famous diamond mining operation. (Not that we saw any actual diamonds!) The first evidence of the mining operation is the "Big Hole" visible from the air. The Big Hole was an open-air diamond mine dug by hand to a depth of 747 feet (246 m). Excavation began in 1872, and the mine continued to yield until 1914. The Kimberley Mine’s headgear is set up as a museum. As was often the case with Valene’s trips in this era, Kimberley was a fly-in, fly-out stop. The group arrived by air from Johannesburg, toured the mine premises, and flew onward to Cape Town the same day.... read more