Fancy visiting an old gold mining town? There’s one in South Africa. South Africa is not just famous for diamond mines but also gold mines. Old is Gold. The place is called Pilgrim’s Rest (Afrikaans: Pelgrimsrus). Sounds like some pilgrimage’s hotel eh? It is a small town in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa which has been declared a national monument. Pilgrim’s Rest was the location of an emergency mint during the Second Boer War. This mint struck the famous and extremely rare Veld Pond
Historically, it was officially declared a gold field in September 1873, As expected, the town suddenly grew to 1,500 inhabitants searching for alluvial gold. Towards the end of the 19th century claims were bought up and underground mining started by the company known as TGME. However in the year 1971, the mine was closed down in 1971 and the village sold to the government as a national museum without any apparent reason. But Transvaal Gold Minings Estates, currently part of the listed company of Simmers and Jack (please google it, I have no idea about this company), started gold mining again in 1998.
Fortunately, the town’s original architecture remains largely unchanged since then, because the town was declared a National Monument in 1986.
Source: Wikipedia, 2012
| An old general dealer shop, Bourke & Co. which was opened at that time for general trading |
An old cafe
| For you to enjoy the cool atmosphere |
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| An old post office to cater the miner at that time |
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| Do visit Scott's Cafe for Pancakes and Souvenirs |
On the left: A backpackers' Hostel, On the right: A horse cart for the rich
Ever wondered the kind of tools used for gold mining?
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| An old assay furnace |
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| If I am not mistaken, this is a water pump during their times to pump water into the mining tunnel |
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| That's an ore bucket |
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| Some photographic history of Pilgrim's Rest |
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| Another mini furnace |
An African kid demonstrating on how to deal/push the mining cart
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| an old gold cart with the rail together |
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| They even have a mini game machine. That is the The Big Six Gambling Machine, The Gaille Eclipse |
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| A museum collection of vintage cars |
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| An African lady (momma) performing the balancing act. She was selling delicious macadamia nuts. Mind you, the mommas are really pro in this kind of balancing act. You can actually see many of them in the streets. Instead of using their hand to carry some huge stuff, they balance it on their head |
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| An old pub/bar for the miner to enjoy their drinks. Did you notice that on the right hand side of this photo, there is a collection of foreign bank notes? That was in year 2009. I guess by now there are even more notes |
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| Instead of me getting a souvenir, I gave the bar, RM5 as a souvenir with my signature |
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| with this mark i left, I really hope that I will be able to return to Pilgrim's Rest again sometime in the near future! |
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