Pilansberg - Wild flowers - Part 5

This one is smaller than a 1c piece.

A bagworm wanting her picture taken...

Some beautiful grass and weeds.....

Then I found a golf ball...no wait...its a mushroom disguised as one. :)

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.