PERU-BOLIVIA: 6th day: Pretoria-Kimberley

Yesterday I spent the evening in a suburb of Pretoria. My arrival was a bit shocking... After leaving the highway you realise to drive on streets surrounded with 3m high walls topped with a 1m electric fence. I did not have any accommodation booked in advance, just wanted to find something based on Lonely Planet. Non of the addresses were existing anymore, which made me panicking a bit. I was always approached by some street guys, when driving slower than 30kmh or stopping at traffic lights, begging for or selling something or just simply commenting on me. I had no choice, started to drive around street by street and checked in to the first hotel I found. It was quite a nice one at the end, costs double than my hotel in Dubai marina.

I went out for dinner, just one block distance from the hotel and I was the only white guest during the whole evening.

It was quite a change after the Safari, I really had to adapt and get used to the new situation. Once Pretoria was a really nice liveable city. Unfortunately by now not much left...

This morning I visited the main sights of the city mainly through the window of my car and left to Kimberley.

I have quite a long drive behind and arrived in Kimberley in the middle of the country. The city is famous about the once biggest diamond mine in Africa. The mine is simply called as "The Big Hole". It is really impressive to stand on the hanging bridge above the hole.

According to Wikipedia:

In 1872, one year after digging started, the population of the camp of diggers grew to around 50,000. As digging progressed, many men met their deaths in mining accidents. The unsanitary conditions, scarcity of water and fresh vegetables as well as the intense heat in the summer, also took their toll. On the 13 March 1888 the leaders of the various mines decided to amalgamate the separate diggings into one big mine and one big company known as De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited. This massive company further worked on the Big Hole until it came to the depth of 215 metres, with a surface area of about 17 hectares and perimeter of 1.6 kilometres. By 14 August 1914, when over 22 million tons of earth had been excavated, yielding 3,000 kilograms (14,504,566 carats) of diamonds, work on the mine eased after it was considered the largest hand-dug excavation on earth. Below a more than 3000 carat diamond on exhibit.