Eureka City - Sheba Mine - Barberton

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Zonkelnut

Race Dog
Joined
Jan 30, 2006
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Location
Gauteng
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Honda XRV 750 Africa Twin
Been to Barberton 12-14th June 2007. Visited some seriously nice gold mine places from the early 1880's. The goal was to assess some routes and grade them accordingly for Honda SA. All went well and I will inform everybody of organized trips. All bikes will be welcomed and the accommodation is 5 stars and the food excellent.

As you know, I am not good with writing large reports so I will include places (explanations) and plenty of photos.

So here goes. (I am kind of busy but I will add pics as I get time).

We started in Centurion (Prof. Attie Snyman) and left at 8:00am. Attie makes documentaries about all things. He is quite good and knows his stuff. He is working on a documentary regarding the gold route used by the suppliers of King Solomon (all the way from the Barberton mines up into Egypt) and also the Kruger millions. He also made a series for KykNET regarding the Dorsland trekkers. Very interesting guy.

A high level map of the route. I will give more detailed maps as the report progress.

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Filling up with petrol at Centurion. Here is Attie with al the Bling for a TransAlp.

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At the entrance to the Komati Mine (S25 43 27.0 E30 35 42.8)

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Turning back to the Tar road to Barberton (S25 48 14.9 E30 46 25.9)

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The most tranquil place for a rest, beer and food. (S25 47 55.3 E30 54 09.6)

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In Barberton where we stayed. This place is beautiful and service is excelent. No, more than that. It is called "Diepinniberg, innikrater" (of so iets) (S25 46 01.8 E31 02 58.0). They also give quad rides from ez to very difficult.

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Standing on the veranda looking over northern Barberton. In the back you can see the hill where some say the Kruger millions are buried. The refreshment (right bottom) is compulsory.

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Barberton Garden of Remembrance. This was erected for british soldiers during the Boer war. The entire property belongs to Rassie with a huge 'koppie' for exploring. (S25 45 55.9 E31 03 07.2)

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In memory of units during World War II. All in the same place.

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Apparently this is the only place in South Africa where there is a place of remembrance for the soldiers that died on the border (Angola).

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The ovens used for bread baking for soldiers in training. This was apparently the 'oorgangs kamp' for soldiers.

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A view of Barberton from the top of the hill located at the back of the lodge we stayed.

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The same spot just many years ago.

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OK. nuff for now. Will upload later.... Thanks for being patient. I have some nice old photos of what the area looked like and the gold mines from 1880. Here is one just to water ya mouth.

Eureka City. There is nothing left today. Only the ruins of the Victoria Hotel.
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