African Train Safari Destinations

Dar es Salaam

2008-09-25T02:00:00.000-07:00

The railway line passes through typical African savannah. Great forests of Baobabs alternate with clumps of flat-topped thorn trees. In between, low bushes abound of many different varieties. As the line drops from the terrace to the coastal flatland, so it enters a belt of spectacular, dense, dark green jungle. Great gnarled creepers climb parasitically over tall matted trees in chaotic yet majestic beauty.

The jungle is truly impenetrable. It should be recalled that until 1928 Dar-Es-Salaam had no road communication with the interior. Low-lying mangrove swamps through the sandy coastal strip of palms and bananas interrupt the final twenty kilometres of the approach to Dar es Salaam. The heat and humidity increase and human settlements become more frequent.

Dar es Salaam was founded in 1862 by the sultan of Zanzibar on the site of the village of Mzizima. It remained only a small port until the German East Africa Company established a station there in 1887. The starting point (1907) for the Central Line railroad, it served as the capital of German East Africa (1891-1916), Tanganyika (1961-64), and Tanzania (1964-74). In 1974 Dodoma was designated Tanzania's national capital. Pending completion of the transfer of official functions to Dodoma, however, Dar es Salaam remains the seat of most government administration.

Buildings in Dar es Salaam often reflect the city's colonial past and display a rich mix of architectural styles, incorporating Swahili, British, German, and Asian traditions. Post World War II modernization and expansion brought contemporary multi-story buildings, including a hospital complex, a technical institute, and a high court. Educational facilities include the University of Dar es Salaam (1961), several libraries and research institutes, and the National Museum. Dar es Salaam's natural, nearly landlocked harbour is the outlet for most of mainland Tanzania's agricultural and mineral exports and is also a transit port for the Congo River, whose navigable tributary, the Lualaba, can be reached by rail. The city is the terminus of a rail line west to Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika, north to Mwanza on Lake Victoria south to Zambia. Dar-Es-Salaam is, in common with most African cities, more romantic to the imagination than to the senses. The road from the station, which is remote from the city centre, lies through a crowded sprawl of pavement stalls and shacks selling, inter alia, mosquito nets at a bargain prices. Tanzania is a stable African state, save for the refugee problems caused by Rwanda's genocide and the Congolese civil war. There has also been a rise in demand for greater autonomy for Zanzibar, possibly leading to separation and independence.

One hundred kilometres across the strait lies the coral island of Zanzibar, half Arab and half African. Founded by the sultans of Muscat and Oman on the Persian Gulf (the Strait of Hormuz), in 1844 it became the permanent seat of the sultan. The great slave emporium until 1873, Livingstone stayed there, as did Stanley, Speke, and Burton etc. Proclaimed a British protectorate in 1890, it continued to fly the red flag of the sultan until a bloody revolution in January 1964, after which it became a Soviet satellite. In order to prevent the emergence of a second Cuba, President Nyerere of Tanganyika engineered a condominium whereby the name changed to Tanzania. The unique aspects of Zanzibar however, remain.

Selous Game Reserve

2008-09-25T01:58:00.000-07:00

The Selous Game Reserve, the largest game park in Africa, is named after Frederick Courtney Selous, a naturalist, explorer and soldier of the nineteenth century who led Rhodes' pioneer column into Mashonaland in 1890. During the First World War in which German East Africa was a theatre of battle for four years, he was accidentally shot and buried in the park, which is now named after him. It covers an area of about 54 600 square kilometres and bestrides a complex of rivers including the Kilombero, Ruaha, and Rufiji. Its vegetation is woodland, with patches of dense hardwood forest and some of the finest virgin bush left in Africa. The reserve, established in 1922, holds one of the largest remaining concentrations of big-tusked elephants and large-maned lions, as well as such other mammals as buffalo, leopard, rhinoceros, zebra, and various antelope. This virtually inaccessible reserve was opened to visitors in 1963 when hunting tracks were constructed. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 due to the diversity of its wildlife and undisturbed nature.

Mbeya

2008-09-25T01:57:00.001-07:00

Mbeya is the first large urban settlement encountered after leaving the border post towns of Nkonde and Tunduma. Following the 1905 gold rush, Mbeya was founded as a gold mining town in the 1920s and was administered by the British until 1961.

The TAZARA railway later attracted farming migrants and small entrepreneurs to the area.

The area around Mbeya has been called the "Scotland of Africa" with good reason. It is situated at an altitude of 1 700ms and sprawls through a narrow highland valley surrounded by a bowl of high mountains.

The mountains are clad in heather and bracken but botanically they are more dosely related to the Fynbos (fine bush) of South Africa's Western Cape Province than the Highlands of Scotland. The nearest mountain to Mbeya is Loleza Mountain which rises over the town. Mount Rungwe is the highest mountain in the wider Mbeya region and it dominates the skyline for several kilometres around. It is composed of ten or more dormant volcanic craters and domes. Rising above the small town of Tukuyu at 2 960ms Rungwe is southern Tanzania's highest peak, and is third in Tanzania after Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru in the north. Mount Rungwe is surrounded by the catchments forest reserve that was gazetted in 1949. This forest reserve incorporates montane forest, upper montane forest and montane grassland with lesser amounts of bushland and heath at the upper elevations, found in low bushes along streams and at the edges of montane forest. The forest is home to a variety of significant forest flora and fauna, including the threatened Abbot's Duiker. The forest is regarded as important bird area with the most notable creatures being the Rungwe Buzh Viper and Colobus monkeys.

Also ecologically important are the Poroto Mountains south-east of Mbeya. In 2005, a completely new species of large monkey was discovered living in the southern highlands to the south-west of Mbeya. The Mbeya region has not yet been dosely studied by scientists, and doubtless there are also many new species of plants to be discovered there, and perhaps even new animals.

Forests in the area, even in the reserves, continue to be encroached upon and degraded. However, there has also been extensive tree and forest planting, which ensures the local firewood supply. There is a small illicit trade in orchid bulbs, which is thought to be endangering the survival of some species.

The landscape between the Zambian frontier and Mbeya is superb. The railway winds and twists slowly down the side of the escarpment from where views of the Rift Valley cutting its way southwards are revealed. Gradually the smudge of volcanic outcrops of the Mbeya range of mountains dominated by Mount Mbeya defines itself. Mbeya is heavily mineralised and gold is mined here. It is still high and cool. The Mbozi meteorite, the third largest in the world (25 tons), lies 64kms to the west.

Tanzania

2008-09-25T01:55:00.000-07:00

Known as German East Africa between 1890 and 1920, Tanzania then changed its name to Tanganyika, deriving the name from the lake and plateau of that name. Lake Tanganyika is the largest of the Rift Valley lakes. It is 769ms above sea level and stretches 720kms from north to south with an average breadth of 48 to 72kms .It touches Tanzania, Zambia, Zaire and Burundi. It is the second deepest freshwater lake in the world after Lake Baikal in Russia. Soundings of 972ms - the Height of Table Mountain - have been obtained. The temperature of the first 49ms is uniformly 25 Celsius. Of the 402 local species of animal life resident in the lake, 293 are unique to it. This is proof that it has been separated from Lake Malawi, which is the second largest Rift Valley lake and lies to the south-east, for many millions of years. Burton and Speke were the first white people to visit the lake in 1858, followed by Livingstone in 1869.

The countryside rises towards the frontier with Tanzania where it then drops towards the Great Rift Valley, one of the most interesting geological areas in the world. The gash of the Great Rift Valley zigzags 4 500kms southwards from Jordan, through the Red Sea, cutting through Ethiopia and the Danikil Depression. The valley then splits into western and eastern branches. The dry, volcanic eastern branch cuts through Kenya and Tanzania eventually disappearing into the southern Tanzanian plains. The western branch continues down to form the natural boundary for nine nations from the Sudan to Mozambique. This is where Africa's Great Lakes are situated of which Lakes Tanganyika and Malawi are the two largest.

A rift valley occurs when the Earth's crust bubbles up to breaking point. The crust thins and splits and a narrow sliver of rock slips downward. This sets up volcanic pressures and fresh lava flows form new crust in the centre of this slowly widening rift. This is termed 'sea-floor spreading1 because it usually happens along the 74 000 kilometre Mid-Ocean Ridge that circles the Earth through all its oceans.

Although the African Rift is opening much slower than the undersea rifts - about one millimetre per year -it is easier and cheaper to observe. Geologists theorise that in 50 million years time or so the widening Rift will have broken off the north eastern bit of Africa to form a new island like Madagascar did when it broke off from the Kenya Embayment. With the new weight of water now pressing on the earth's crust, dense basaltic lava will extrude to form a new seafloor.

Mpika

2008-09-25T01:54:00.001-07:00

Mpika, once a major stopover for London to Cape Town flights, but now a small country town is an administrative centre and lies near Lwitikila Falls and Nachikufu Cave which features rock art from the Neolithic age. It is a major crossroad for the Great North Road with Lake Tanganyika to the north and the Tanzanian border to the east.

The large bustling town of Kasama (1 332ms) is the capital and supply centre of the Northern Province. The Germans sacked Kasama in November 1918. Shortly afterwards, the great German guerrilla leader, General Von Lettow Vorbeck, first received word of the Armistice in Europe, after capturing a British despatch rider.

Serenje

2008-09-25T01:42:00.001-07:00

About 50 kilometres before Serenje, and approximately five kilometres from the furthest south eastern corner of the Shaba/Katanga pedicle, is the frontier with the DRC (ex-Zaire). About 100kms north of Serenje (1 585ms) is the place where David Livingstone gave his heart to Africa.

It was at Chitambo's kraal that the great Scotsman was found dead kneeling in prayer at the side of his camp bed in May 1873. His devoted servants buried his heart and then carried his embalmed body, disguised as trade goods, across 1800kms of wildest Africa to the coast at Bagamoyo and Zanzibar. Hundreds of slaves came to pay their last respects to the man who did so much to expunge slavery for Africa. Finally, after the greatest funeral of the nineteenth century, he was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey under a stone, which reads: 'Brought by faithful hands over land and sea, here rests David Livingstone'.

The countryside, although high, is thick with Miomba woodland and Raffia palms. It is bushveld, not unlike the Kruger National Park and Botswana, but only more so. A constant interplay between open plain and closed bush takes place. Along the Chozi River, the dark green and red fronds of the Raffia palms shimmer in the light.

Kabwe

2008-09-25T01:38:00.000-07:00

Kabwe, at an elevation of 1 182ms, is an important transportation and mining centre north of Lusaka on the Great North Road. Previously known as Broken Hill it was named after a mine in Australia to which its geology bears a resemblance. The Rhodesian Broken Hill Development Company (formed 1903) was instrumental in opening the region to foreign mining interests. After the mine was sunk for extraction of the high-grade zinc, vanadium, and lead ores the first railway in the country was built, extending north eastward from Victoria Falls. The need for power led to the opening in 1924 of one of Africa's early hydroelectric power stations, on the Mulungushi River 51kms southeast. Kabwe is the headquarters of Zambia Railways. Maize (corn) and tobacco are cultivated in the surrounding area. This is where 'Rhodesian Man' (Homo sapiens rhodesiensis), a primeval ancestor of modern man was discovered in the thirties, but whose significance has faded with the discovery of older skulls in Tanzania.

The railway system dates back to the pre-World War I German-built Central Railway Line, which bisects the country between Dar es Salaam, Kigoma, and the Tanga-to-Moshi railway. Today there is also a branch between these two lines, and another line connects Mwanza with Tabora on the Central Line.

In 1968, the People's Republic of China wished to erect a more concrete and permanent manifestation of its leadership of the Non-Aligned movement and solidarity with the Third World. The project selected for this testimonial was the TAZARA or UHURU or ‘Freedom’ railway line. Landlocked Zambia was then surrounded by the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique and White Rhodesia to the south. The Vietnam War sustained an insatiable demand for Zambian copper and the TAZARA line would break Zambia's dependence on Portuguese-controlled Lobito and Beira and Durban and East London. So the great irony of African history presented itself: Cecil Rhodes' project was carried forward by Communist China under Mao Zhe Dong.

25 000 Chinese and 50 000 African workers toiled for five years to lay 310 000 tons of steel rails and to build 300 bridges and 23 tunnels. 147 stations were constructed over 1858 kilometers from Dar-Es-Salaam to Kapiri Mposhi. The price came to US$230 million and, in 1975; the line was completed, ahead of schedule. At Kapiri it was connected to the old colonial line having the same Cape gauge of 3 foot 6 inches (1 067mm).

No sooner was the last bolt in place than the Portuguese Empire joined those of Babylon and Rome in history's distant memory. In 1975, the Americans fled from Saigon and Zambia's copper boom collapsed, never to rise again.

After South Africa started its long road to re-joining the World after 1990, the prospects of restoring links between South Africa and Tanzania waxed stronger. It was left to Rohan Vos to blow upon the dormant ember of Rhodes' dream and to re-ignite the heroic idea of an epic train journey tying Cape Town to Dar Es Salaam, the terminus of the Cape gauge. After being arrested at Dar Es Salaam airport for sixteen hours gradually, trust was established. Now the TAZARA railway can develop a tourist dimension, which had been singularly lacking since its inception.

Lusaka

2008-09-25T01:33:00.001-07:00

To the northeast Lusaka lies on a limestone plateau 1 280ms above sea level. In the 1890s the area in which Lusaka is situated was taken over by the British South Africa Company from the local chiefs in the course of the formation of Northern Rhodesia, with control passing to the British Colonial Office in 1924. Lusaka became the capital of Northern Rhodesia in 1935. The city figured prominently in the movement for independence and was where the Federation of African Societies founded the Northern Rhodesian Congress in 1948. After the federation of Northern and Southern Rhodesia took place in 1953, Lusaka was a hub of the civil-disobedience movement (1960).

Lusaka is now the capital of Zambia, an independent state since 1964, and until 1991, ruled by Dr Kenneth Kaunda. Dr Kaunda, in common with Bismarck and Churchill, was profuse with tears on any sentimental public occasion. His countrymen, however, had more substantial grounds for tears than their ruler! Kaunda impoverished his country so, that Zambia, with 12 million people, vast reserves of copper and double the size of Zimbabwe, has one of the highest per capita foreign debts in the world. It also has one of the highest rates of urbanisation in sub-Saharan Africa. The countryside of Zambia is empty of people - most squat around Lusaka and the Copperbelt.
The surrounding area consists mostly of flat grassland that supports ranches and farms. Termite mounds 3 to 6ms high are a regular feature of the landscape. Farming and stock rearing are the principal economic activities in the region, and products include com, beef, hides, dairy products, and tobacco. The Nyanja and Soli are the major ethnic groups in the area, and there are minorities of Europeans and Asians.

Although basically reliant on its agricultural environs, and a major collecting point for maize (corn) and tobacco, Lusaka has a mixed economy that includes cement, textile, and shoe manufacture, and food processing. An international airport and the University of Zambia (founded 1965) are just outside the city, and the Munda Wanga Botanical Gardens are nearby. The city lies at the junction of the Great North Road (to Tanzania) and the Great East Road (to Malawi) and has rail connections to Livingstone, Ndola and Tanzania.

To the west lies Barotseland, which, until 1964, was governed by a king under a separate treaty signed with Queen Victoria. This provided a rich source of constitutional dispute and much unpleasantness when Britain withdrew. In common with the Kabaka of Buganda and the king of the Zulus, traditional African monarchies have generally made a poor transition to the modern age.

Zambia

2008-09-25T01:31:00.000-07:00

Most of the territory of Zambia forms part of the great plateau of south and east Africa and has an average elevation of about 1 220ms above sea level. The plateau displays a gently rolling and somewhat monotonous surface, relieved at intervals by hills, ranges of hills and small escarpments of resistant rock formations. To the northeast, east and southeast the continuity of the surface is interrupted by a series of deep valleys characterised by abnormal conditions of topography and climate. Elsewhere the plateau surface extends unbroken across the boundaries of Zambia. The highest part of Zambia is in the northeast where "Namitawa", a peak on the Malawi border, reaches an elevation of 2 200ms. The plateau about Mbala (previously Abercorn) and parts of the watershed between the Chambezi and Luangwa rivers stand at over 1 524ms, as does a large portion of the Zambia-Zaire boundary. From these high points the plateau slopes southward to the Zambezi River, on the south boundary. The lowest part of the Territory is at the junction of the Luangwa and Zambezi rivers, about 314ms above sea level.

In the eastern part of the Territory are several trough valleys, part of the great African Rift System. The wide and relatively flat floors of these lie well below the general plateau level and are often bordered by prominent escarpments and invariably by rugged country. Approaching the rift valley, the plateau surface becomes progressively more and more dissected by streams tributary to the master stream of the trough. Many of these have cut back into the escarpments to form deep gorges. This can be clearly seen in the stretch after Chambeshi station leading to the border at Nakonde.
Several large areas of swamp and alluvium are present on the plateau. Of these the Bangweulu depression, visited by, Livingstone in the northeast, is the largest. Farther east, the Chozi and Chambeshi rivers - crossed by the railway - occupy a well-marked swampy depression.

The Continental Divide, separating the drainage to the Atlantic and the Indian oceans, forms the Zambia-DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo/ ex-Zaire) boundary as far as the south tip of the Katanga pedicle, where the DRC intrudes into Zambia. It then trends northeast to leave the country about halfway between Lakes Tanganyika and Malawi. The railway, in fact, follows this line very closely. In this comparatively short section of the divide are the sources of the Congo and the Zambezi rivers, two of the four largest rivers on the continent.

The ultimate source of the Congo is on the Tanzania boundary, where the Chozi and Chambezi combine to flow southwest to the Bangweulu swamp, and thence northward by way of the Luapula, Lake Mweru and the Luvua to the Lualaba. Rising in north-western Zambia, the Zambezi, after a comparatively brief excursion into Angola, forms a large part of the south boundary. The Zambezi and its tributaries drain over 75% of this enormous country.

Kafue

2008-09-23T06:26:00.000-07:00

Kafue, in south-central Zambia, is about 40kms south of Lusaka. The town is located on the northern bank of the Kafue River, whose water is diverted northward by channel to Chilanga and Lusaka. The Kafue River Bridge consists of fifteen 31m spans. In 1927, this bridge was raised 1.5ms to bring it above flood level. The Kafue River is navigable for 400kms upstream and a hydroelectric power station now harnesses the power of the water. The Kafue Flats teem with fish and its shallows are habitat to waterfowl. The town's industrial area, which gets its power supply from the Kafue hydroelectric scheme, houses an ammonium nitrate fertilizer plant, a textile mill, an iron and steel complex, a firm producing fibreglass fishing boats, a leather tannery, a pulp and paper mill, a copper-processing unit, a bag and sacking plant and an assembly and equipment repair plant. The Great North Road and a railway route pass through Kafue, linking it to Mazabuka and Lusaka.

Livingstone

2008-09-23T06:17:00.001-07:00

The town of Livingstone in Zambia (907ms) has never recovered from the removal of the capital to Lusaka in 1935 (due to its central position) and the break-up of the Federation (1963). Before the age of aircraft, Livingston was the principle entry point for Northern Rhodesia. Up until 1963, Livingstone was the place to stay when visiting the Falls. With UDI, international sanctions and the murder of Canadian tourists in 1974, Livingstone no longer provided a base for visitors, especially South Africans who made up the vast majority.

After having suffered severe decline with the ebb of empire, post 1963, Livingstone has undergone a small renaissance since only 2000. The airport has been revamped; Sun International has built two sparkling new hotels from scratch – the Royal Livingstone and the Zambezi Sun. The multiplier effect on Livingstone has been great and the prestigious Rhodes-Livingstone Museum has finally undergone a refit. It houses an outstanding collection of artefacts associated with David Livingstone.

Hwange National Park

2008-09-23T05:59:00.001-07:00

The existence of Hwange rests upon the great coal reserves estimated at 3000 million tons, which lie beneath the surface. Hwange (746ms) sits on a 12-metre coal seam a mere 46ms below the surface. Rhodes gave orders that the railway line be diverted to pass through the coalfields, rather than continue straight to the Victoria Falls.

Hwange the largest of Zimbabwe National Parks covers an area of more than 14 000 square kilometres, the size of Wales in the United Kingdom. It was declared a Game Reserve in 1928 and through a careful management system over the years the small wildlife nucleus has grown into large herds that now roam the game park. The National Park is estimated to have more than 40 000 elephants and is also home to a wide range of other species, one of the most rare being the wild dog (or painted hunting dog) that through the efforts of a dedicated team of experts are once again breeding and growing in big numbers. The magnificent Sable Antelope, Zebra, Eland, Kudu and Water buck, the bad tempered buffalo, and the tall gracious giraffe are just a few of the animals which are commonly seen on game-viewing drives.

Victoria Falls

2008-09-23T05:31:00.000-07:00

The little station of Victoria Falls (913m) was first reached by railway in June 1904. Old colonial buildings, bougainvillea and palm trees against the backdrop of the Victoria Falls Hotel form a charming oasis of soft sweetness after the rugged dryness of the landscape.

The Victoria Falls is one of Nature's great revelations on a par with the Grand Canyon, Mount Everest and an erupting volcano. It is believed that there have existed no less than seven different 'Victoria Falls' over the past two million years. These cascades correspond to the lower gorges of the Zambezi. The present falls is wearing from Devil's Cataract northwards, eroding the softer material behind the present basalt base of the falls. When eventually all the soft matter has been removed, the Victoria Falls will move back, a fresh gorge will yawn and where the falls are now will become a new site for tourists.

Although just over a mile long (1.7km) the falls are broken up by various small islands, including Livingstone's. At their deepest, the falls are 108m deep at Rainbow Falls. Although the usual tour of the Victoria Falls National Park is recommended from the south or Zimbabwe-side of the falls, the finest view along the gorge is to be had from the north side or Zambian-side.

David Livingstone is generally considered to be the first European to have seen the falls in 1855 during his first expedition from the Cape to Luanda (Angola), then back again via the Falls; along the Zambezi to Quelimane in Mozambique. A truly heroic journey! The greatness of Livingstone lies in his painstaking research and accurate observations. His book, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa including a sketch of Sixteen Years Residence in the Interior of Africa was published in 1857 and sold 70 000 copies. It probably did more to influence Western attitudes towards Africa than any book written before or since. Livingstone first approached the falls from upstream and landed on what is today called Livingstone Island. Let him tell the story:

When about half a mile from the falls, I left the canoe by which we had come down thus far, and embarked in a lighter one, with men well acquainted with the rapids, who, by passing down the centre of the stream in the eddies and still places caused by many jutting rocks, brought me to an island situated in the middle of the river, and on the edge of the lip over which the water rolls. In coming hither, there was danger of being swept down by the streams which rushed along on each side of the island; but the river was now low, and we sailed where it is totally impossible to go when the water is high. But though we had reached the island, and were within a few yards of the spot, a view from which would solve the whole problem, I believe that no one could perceive where the vast body of water went; it seemed to lose itself in the earth, the opposite lip of the fissure into which it disappeared, being only 80 feet distant. At least I did not comprehend it until, creeping with awe to the verge, I peered down into a large rent which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambezi, and saw that a stream of a thousand yards broad, leaped down a hundred feet, and then became suddenly compressed into a space of fifteen or twenty yards. The entire falls are simply a crack made in a hard basaltic rock . . . In looking down into the fissure on the right of the island, one sees nothing but a dense white cloud, which, at the time we visited the spot, had two bright rainbows on it . . . From this cloud rushed up a great jet of vapour exactly like steam, and it mounted 200 or 300 feet high; there condensing, it changed its hue to that of dark smoke, and came back in a constant shower, which soon wetted us to the skin. This shower falls chiefly on the opposite side of the fissure, and a few yards back from the lip, there stands a straight hedge of evergreen trees, whose leaves are always wet. From their roots a number of little rills run back into the gulf; but as they flow down the steep wall there, the column of vapour, in its ascent, licks them up clean off the rock, and away they mount again. They are constantly running down, but never reach the bottom.'

Bulawayo

2008-09-23T05:15:00.000-07:00

Bulawayo (1 360m) was founded in about 1824 by a Zulu chieftain who broke away from Shaka, founder of the Zulu nation in Natal. After spending some years in the area of modern-day Pretoria, Mzilikazi fled before the approaching Boers to found Bulawayo, 'the place of killing' as capital of Matabeleland. A generation later, his son Lobengula granted a mineral concession to CJ Rudd, Cecil John Rhodes' partner in De Beers. On the basis of this document, Rhodes obtained a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria and in 1890, the British South Africa Company began the White invasion / colonisation of 'Charterland' later called Rhodesia and, subsequent to 1924, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).

The existence of Hwange rests upon the great coal reserves estimated at 3 000 million tons, which lie beneath the surface. Hwange (746m) sits on a 12m coal seam a mere 46m below the surface. Rhodes gave orders that the railway line be diverted to pass through the coalfields, rather than continue straight to the Victoria Falls.

Hwange the largest of Zimbabwe National Parks covers an area of more than 14 000 square kilometres, the size of Wales in the United Kingdom. It was declared a Game Reserve in 1928 and through a careful management system over the years the small wildlife nucleus has grown into the large herds that now roam the game park.

The National Park is estimated to have more than 40 000 elephants and is also home to a wide range of other species, one of the most rare being the wild dog (or painted hunting dog) that through the efforts of a dedicated team of experts are once again breeding and growing in big numbers. The magnificent Sable Antelope, Zebra, Eland, Kudu and Waterbuck, the bad tempered buffalo, and the tall gracious giraffe are just a few of the animals which are commonly seen on game-viewing drives.

Zimbabwe

2008-09-23T05:14:00.000-07:00

Zimbabwe is named after the mysterious ruins of Great Zimbabwe, located near Masvingo (previously Fort Victoria) in the east of the country. The word Zimbabwe means 'place of stones' and is generic, not particular. These ruins are believed to date from about 800 AD but its origins are lost in mists of antiquity. It seems to have been suddenly deserted in about 1600 AD probably as a result of desertification and absence of firewood. The most probable theory is that this enormous complex of circular battlemented compounds was used as the base for the Mwena Mutapa (Monomotapa). Slaves captured in the interior were kept at Zimbabwe pending the change in the Indian Ocean trade winds or Monsoon, when they were marched smartly down to the port of Sofala (30kms south of modern-day Beira, Mozambique), placed in dhows and blown across to Ceylon, India, Arabia and Persia. They are the largest and most mysterious ruins in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 1953, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland (Malawi) joined together in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland under the British Crown. This was to be the high watermark of colonial achievement. Great investment in infrastructure, mining and manufacturing took place. By 1963 however, Harold Macmillan’s 'winds of change' had blown through British Africa. African nationalism in the persons of Banda (Malawi) and Kaunda (Zambia) were determined to force political independence irrespective of the economic costs to their people. It is true to say that these two countries have never recovered the levels of economic prosperity which they enjoyed in the days of the Federation.

The British government refused to grant independence to Southern Rhodesia without majority rule. On 11 November 1965, Ian Smith proclaimed a Unilateral Declaration of Independence for Rhodesia. After a bloody guerrilla war fought by the Patriotic Front headed by Robert Mugabe, now President of Zimbabwe, and Joshua Nkomo, deputy-President, in which 30 000 people (98% Blacks) were killed, Rhodesia metamorphosed into the African-Socialist state of Zimbabwe on 18 Apri1 1980.

Cecil John Rhodes is buried in the granite tomb of the Matobos, just outside Bulawayo. It was Rhodes who gave the instruction that the streets of Bulawayo be wide enough to allow an ox-wagon with its full complement of sixteen oxen to turn a complete circle. Bulawayo thus has the distinction of having the widest streets and the longest railway platforms in the world! The Cape-to-Cairo railway line reached the city in 1898, having come up from Cape via Mafikeng and Francistown and so skirting the Transvaal republic of President Paul Kruger.

Selebi-Phikwe

2008-09-23T05:12:00.001-07:00

Beyond Palapye the main road passes through stands of mopane woodland before reaching the eastern turn-off to the mining town of Selebi-Phikwe 88km southwest of Francistown. Many visitors to Botswana in the past have missed this town, located just over 50km off the main road, but it has grown into the third-largest urban centre in Botswana. With the completion of the tarred road from the Martin's Drift border post, Selebi-Phikwe is now a convenient half-way stop-over between Johannesburg (via Ellisras) and Botswana's northern tourist attractions.

Originally there were two tiny places called Selebi and Phikwe, which straddled a large undiscovered deposit of copper and nickel in the area. When the mineral wealth of the area was discovered in the 1960s a mine and township was built in the woodland between the places with the combined name of Selebi-Phikwe.

The mining operations at Selebi-Phikwe have not been as successful as expected and the economy of the area has diversified into areas such as textiles, manufacturing and commerce. A power grid terminal was opened here in 1996 to carry electricity from South Africa through to Zimbabwe - the first stage of the Southern African Power Pool.

Selebi-Phikwe is one of Botswana's four mining towns - the others being Orapa, Jwaneng and most recently Sowa - Selebi-Phikwe was established in 1967 as part of the infrastructure for the BCL (Bamangwato Concessions Ltd) copper nickel mine. This was the country's first modern commercial mine.

With a population of almost 70 000, this centre owes its development primarily to the presence of the copper-nikel mine, which employs over 4 850 people, making it the single largest employer in the country.
Selebi-Phikwe is today an excellent example of a success story in the government's efforts to create employment opportunities as well as to diversify the economy by boosting the manufacturing sector. The town was chosen as a priority centre for regional industrial development and is a principal location for large-scale light manufacturing.

Francistown

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As one of the oldest towns in Botswana and site of southern Africa's first gold rush, Francistown, home to 92 500 people, is a typical frontier town, strategically placed as the gateway to the north, with all the main roads to Gaborone, Zimbabwe, Maun and Kazungula passing through it. It manages to maintain its character despite being Botswana's second-largest urban centre and "Capital of the North".

Evidence of human habitation goes back for 80 000 years. In the 1820s, the Ndebele stormed through before coming to rest near Bulawayo, bringing their influences and taxation to the Kalanga territory of north-eastern Botswana. The first European to visit Nyangabgwe (the nearest village to present-day Francistown) was missionary Robert Moffat. He was followed by Karl Mauch, who discovered gold along the Tati River in 1867, followed soon thereafter with more deposits in the Francistown area itself. Francistown was the site of southern Africa's first "gold-rush". The area, hailed as the Ophir of Africa, was rushed by prospectors and adventurers alike to stake their claim of fame and fortune, many coming from as far as Australia and America.

With the rapid influx of people, Daniel Francis - after who Francistown was named - organised the establishment of the town. Initially the town consisted of just one main street lined with bustling western-style saloons and supply stores running parallel to the "Cape to Cairo" railway line.

Many of these old shafts and dumps now litter the urban sprawl, most whose history has long been forgotten, along with the dreams of early pioneers. But the excitement of the times is preserved in the evocative names of some of the mines which remain; 'Phoenix', 'Bonanza', 'Jim's Luck', 'Lady Mary' and 'White Elephant' to name but a few. It is not only the mine names which tell a story, the main street in Francistown is still called 'Blue Jacket Street', and is dedicated to the memory of an old prospector, Sam Andersen. Sam was famous before arriving in Botswana as having been the first man to walk, with little more than his prospecting wheelbarrow, right across Australia's Western Desert. Yet he is immortalized in Francistown for the blue denim jacket that he always wore.

The gold in eastern Botswana is a complicated mix of narrow reefs, which made it very difficult for the early miners to extract and by the 1940 much of the small scale operations had ceased, leaving the larger mines, which now merely sustain their operations hoping for new finds and an improvement in the gold price.

Gaborone

2008-09-23T05:09:00.000-07:00

Often described as Africa's fastest growing city, Botswana's capital Gaborone is a vibrant and colourful city, which lies in the flat valley between Kgale and Oodi hills, on the Notwane River in the south eastern corner of Botswana, 15km from the South African border post at Tlokweng.

In 1998 Gaborone had an estimated population of 192 000 inhabitants. As the capital city, Gaborone is the seat of government as well as the country's commercial and administrative heart. The city is named after Kgosi (Chief) Gaborone who led the Batlokwa tribe into the area in the 1880s. They settled in Tlokweng, the first urban area you reach when driving into the city from the South African border post 10km to the east. In the early 1890s a colonial fort was built in an area now known as The Village near Tlokweng, and its ruins can still be seen near the Village Cinema.

As plans developed for Bechuanaland's independence, the need to establish an administrative town within the boundaries of the country was recognized. Bechuanaland was the only territory in the world whose administrative centre, Mafikeng, lay outside its boundaries. Nine possible sites had been suggested: Mahalapye, Shashe, Francistown, Serowe, Artesia, Lobatse, Gaborone, Maun and a point within the Tuli Block.

Gaborone was chosen because of its strategic location, its proximity to the railway line and Pretoria, its already established administrative offices, its accessibility to most of the major tribes, its non-association with any particular tribe, and, most importantly, its closeness to a major water source.

Botswana

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Twice the size of Arizona, Botswana is in south-central Africa, bounded by Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. The terrain is mostly an arid plateau (910 m high) with hills to the east and the Kalahari Desert in the south and west. In the northwest the Okavango (Cubango) River drains into the vast region of the Okavango Delta and Lake Ngami, thus forming a huge marshland. Rainfall varies from less than 23cm per year in the southwest to about 64 cm in the north. The climate is subtropical, but droughts are common.

The country's population is mainly Tswana, who speak a Bantu language and are divided into eight major groups. There are also small minorities of Kalanga, Basarwa, Kgalagadi, and other peoples. English is the official language, but Tswana is also widely spoken. About half the population is Christian and half adheres to traditional practices.

Cattle farming and the export of beef and other cattle products and subsistence farming are the chief agricultural activities. The country's water shortage and consequent lack of sufficient irrigation facilities have hampered agriculture, and only a small percentage of the land is under cultivation. Corn, sorghum, millet, and beans are the principal subsistence crops, and cotton, peanuts, and sunflowers are the main cash crops.

Mining has become the country's economic mainstay since independence. The only known minerals in the country at the time of independence were manganese and some gold and asbestos, but significant diamond, coal, nickel, and copper deposits have since been found, as well as salt and soda ash. Botswana's diamond mines collectively make up one of the largest diamond reserves in the world, with stones mined by the government and a South African mining concern. The revenue earned from diamonds has underwritten national health-care and educational programs, and now drives Botswana's economy. The vast coal deposits are also being worked. Deposits of antimony, sulphur, plutonium, and platinum have also been found.

Although Botswana's mineral wealth has made it one of the wealthiest nations of Southern Africa, high unemployment remains a problem. Development of the tourist industry has been based partly on the attraction of the country's game reserves, and financial services are an increasingly important sector of the economy. Botswana, because of its landlocked position, remains heavily dependent on South Africa, which provides port facilities. Many Botswana’s people work in the South Africa's mines, although their numbers have diminished. There are rail and road links with South Africa and Zimbabwe, its chief trade partners. Botswana is a member of the Southern African Development Community.

The San people (Bushmen) were the aboriginal inhabitants of what is now Botswana, but they constitute only a small portion of the population today. The Tswana supplanted the San, who remained as subjects. Beginning in the 1820s, the region was disrupted by the expansion of the Zulu and their offshoot, the Ndebele. However, Khama II, chief of the Ngwato (the largest Tswana nation), curbed the depredations of the Ndebele and established a fairly unified state.

A new threat arose in the late 19th century with the incursion of Boers (Afrikaners) from neighbouring Transvaal. After gold was discovered in the region in 1867, the Transvaal government sought to annex parts of Botswana. Although the British forbade annexation, the Boers continued to encroach on native lands during the 1870s and 80s. German colonial expansion in Namibia (formerly South West Africa) caused the British to re-examine their policies, and, urged on by Khama 111 they established a protectorate called Bechuanaland in 1884-85. The southern part of the area was incorporated into Cape Colony in 1895. Until 1961, Bechuanaland was administered by a resident commissioner at Mafikeng, in South Africa, who was responsible to the British high commissioner for South Africa.

Britain provided for the eventual transfer of Bechuanaland to the Union of South Africa; in succeeding years, however, South Africa's attempts at annexation were countered by British insistence that Bechuanaland's inhabitants first be consulted. The rise of the National party in South Africa in 1948 and its pursuit of apartheid turned British opinion against the incorporation of Bechuanaland into South Africa. Although Bechuanaland spawned no nationalist movement, Britain granted it internal self-government in 1965 and full independence as Botswana on September 30, 1966. Shortly after, Botswana became a member of the United Nations. Seretse Khama, grandson of Khama III, was elected the first president, and served until his death in 1980, when he was succeeded by Dr. Quett Ketumile Joni Masire.

In the period after independence, the country generally maintained close ties with its white-ruled neighbours and refused to let its territory harbour guerrilla operations against them. Prior to Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, however, Botswana became a refuge for guerrillas. In the years before a multiracial government was established in South Africa, Botswana was the target of South African reprisals.

Although Botswana is rich in diamonds, it has high unemployment and stratified socio-economic classes. In 1999 it suffered its first budget deficit in 16 years because of a slump in the international diamond market. Yet it remains one of the wealthiest as well as most stable countries on the continent.

After 17 years in power, President Ketumile Masire retired in 1997, and Festus Mogae, an Oxford-educated economist, became the new president. Mogae has won high marks from the international financial community for continuing to privatize Botswana's mining and industrial operations.

Although Botswana's economic outlook remains strong, the devastation that AIDS has caused threatens to destroy the country's future. In 2001, Botswana had the highest rate of HIV infection in the world (350 000 of its 1.6 million people). With the help of international donors, however, it launched an ambitious national campaign that provided free antiviral drugs to anyone who needed them, and by March 2004, Botswana's infection rate had dropped significantly. But with 37.5% of the population infected, the country remains on the brink of catastrophe. President Mogae won a second and final four-year term in October 2004.

After serving 10 years as deputy president, Ian Khama, the son of Botswana's first president, Seretse Khama, was inaugurated as president in April 2008. Festus Mogae stepped aside after 10 years in office.

Madikwe Game Reserve

2008-09-23T04:50:00.001-07:00

The malaria free Madikwe Game Reserve situated against the Botswana border, 90 km north of Zeerust, just four hours' drive from both Johannesburg and Pretoria, is now a prime safari destinations and one of South Africa's largest game reserves. Madikwe has the distinction of being one of the few game reserves in the world to be proclaimed purely on the grounds of being the most appropriate and sustainable land use for an area.

The reserve is run as a joint venture between the State, the private sector and local communities. The success of this approach has made Madikwe the role model for similar ventures being started up elsewhere in South Africa.
The reserve is divided into two main areas. The area north of the Molatedi Dam is fenced and stocked with all the historically indigenous wild animals including elephant, rhinoceros, lion, leopard and buffalo. As part of future developments for the park, the dam area will be fenced separately and stocked with smaller, non-dangerous animals thus allowing free movement of tourists and maximum utilisation of the dam.

Even before Madikwe had been officially proclaimed, work had begun to clear the many derelict farm buildings and structures, the hundreds of kilometres of old fencing and the many alien plants. Some of the buildings were spared and now serve as Park offices and workshops, while various outposts have been built to house game scouts and other reserve staff. Approximately 60 000 hectares of the reserve were enclosed in a perimeter fence, measuring 150 kilometres. This was later electrified to prevent the escape of elephants and the larger predators. Where possible, local business and labour have been used to demolish and clear unwanted structures, erect fences, construct roads and build dams and lodges. The reserve consists of vast plains of open woodlands and grasslands, dissected by the rugged Rant van Tweedepoort, and bordered in the south by the Dwarsberg Mountains. The area is dotted with huge rocky hills or inselbergs.

The largest ever translocation of game occurred when 10 000 animals of 27 species were moved to Madikwe in Operation Phoenix. These included the big five, other endangered species such as the Wild Dog and Cheetah. Madikwe is now home to 66 mammals and approximately 300 resident and migrant bird species.

Mafikeng

2008-09-23T04:50:00.000-07:00

The frontier history of southern Africa was a brawling, boisterous, violent chapter in human history. Mafikeng’s beginning was during a period of considerable frontier instability. The Rolong people who lived in the area were divided into two factions. Both sides recruited European mercenaries, and some wild individuals, known as freebooters, joined the fray. Rewards from local chiefs for services rendered consisted of farms and the result was the creation of a miniature republic named Goshen, with Rooigrond some 20kms from Mafekeng, as its capital.

There was considerable uproar. The British forces sent a force to occupy the area and the commander, Sir Charles Warren, annexed what became known as British Bechuanaland. An administrative area was established at the place known to the Tswana as maFikeng (place of boulders). This was the foundation in 1885 of Mafekeng as it was known to Europeans until recent years.

The great glory of the town came with the outbreak of the South African War (a.k.a. Anglo-Boer War). Mafekeng was besieged by South African forces from 14 October 1899 until 17 May 1900.

Colonel R.S.S. Baden-Powell was the British Commander, and it was during the siege that he conceived the idea of the Boy Scouts. The small boys of Mafekeng were almost as tough as their fathers. To keep them usefully employed and out of mischief during the long months of the siege, the ingenious colonel gave them non combative tasks. They proved so useful at carrying out the town’s essential services that the idea of the Boy Scouts movement became firmly established.

The siege of Mafekeng captivated the British public. It was not particularly violent. The South African/Boer forces completely outnumbered the defenders of the town but they were content to simply besiege Mafekeng, with an occasional shelling, and no attempt at a massed onslaught was made. There was seldom any fighting on Sundays and apart from monotony, short rations, shell dodging, sniping, periodic patrols, raid and minor clashes, the whole siege was a singularly civilised example of warfare, with polite notes exchanged between the opposing commanders on such matters as the status of non-combatants.

The relief of Mafekeng was a great delight to the British people. London enjoyed a wild night of celebration. So many odd little stories had reached the outside world about the siege – escapes and tragedies of individuals, tales or heroism and cowardice, and of the personalities of the besiegers and the besieged – that the siege will always be remembered and discussed.

In the modern town there are numerous mementoes of the siege. Cannon Koppie with its fort is maintained as a historical monument. Guns and cannons are preserved in several of the original buildings. Mafekeng has reverted to its original Tswana name of Mafikeng and forms parts of the sprawling urban complex that includes Mmabatho and Montsiwa.

Thirty one kilometres away is a vast sink hole in the dolomite. Known as Wondergat (‘Wonderhole’) it is nearly 100ms deep and 70ms wide at its widest point. It is filled with clear water and legends still linger of its use as a place of execution by Mzilikazi and his Ndebele raiders before they were driven across the Limpopo by the Voortrekkers.

Zeerust

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Zeerust originated in 1864 when Casper Coetzee employed a builder, Walter Seymore, to build a church and fort on his farm. Coetzee died before the buildings were completed and the town that grew around them was named Coetzee’s Rest, or Zeerust, in his memory.

Mixed farming and mining of minerals like lead and chrome are the backbone of the economy in this bushveld town.

The original name of the city, Mahikeng, literally means "the place among rocks". The name refers to the volcanic rocks that provided temporary shelter to Stone Age humans while hunting animals drinking water in the Molopo River. This name was given to the area in 1852 by early BaRolong chiefs who had settled along the river, near the present day village of Rooigrond.

Groot Marico

2008-09-23T04:44:00.001-07:00

The town Groot-Marico (it means Big-Marico) is named after the Groot-Marico River, one of the few perennial rivers in this area. The name has got nothing to do with the size of the town, which is very small. Groot-Marico is well known for its beautiful African bushveld surroundings and the special kind of hospitality of its people.

The fertile valley of the Groot Marico River is densely cultivated with maize, citrus fruit and tobacco. This valley is the setting for many of the tales of Herman Charles Bosman, the South African author who evolved a unique style of Afrikaans-flavoured English in books such as Mafekeng Road.

The town of Groot Marico has an intriguing Wild West atmosphere. Many of the inhabitants are descended from the early Voortrekkers. Marble, slate and andalusite are mined in the area which is also famous for some remarkable dolomite caves containing animal fossils.

When you turn the key of your car in the morning, and it bursts into life, consider that if it were not for an obscure mineral called andalusite, this simple act would not be possible. In the world of minerals, andalusite is known as an alumino- silicate (Al2 SiO5), and is very similar to the other commercially-exploited minerals of silliminite and kyanite. One of its uses is in the manufacture of spark-plug ceramics. However, the steel your car is made of most probably, was manufactured in a furnace or ladle lined with andalusite refractory bricks.

While South Africa is the world leader in the export of gold, ferrochrome and manganese, it is also the world’s largest exporter of andalusite.

Magaliesberg

2008-09-23T04:41:00.000-07:00

The Magaliesberg are among the oldest mountains in the world, almost 100 times older than Everest. They stretch for 120kms from Bronkhorstspruit Dam east of Pretoria to Rustenburg in the west and separate the highveld grasslands to the south from the bushveld savannah in the north, with its summit rising 1 852ms above sea level. Sheer quartzite cliffs face south, overlooking a wide valley and a smaller ridge similar in shape and structure to the Magaliesberg. Water runoff from the mountains has created deep gullies and wonderful kloofs, some more than 100ms deep, with perennial waterfalls of crystal clear water spilling from the heart of the mountain. These beautiful places are popular with climbers and hikers.

The Magaliesberg probably has the most intriguing and longest session of the history of mankind than anywhere else on earth. The caves at Sterkfonetin, 25km south of the mountains, provided archaeologists with the most significant finds of early humans. Here is was that they discovered “Mrs Ples”, 2.3 million years old. Another 4 million year old skeleton, Little Foot, lies deep within the caves, and has still to be excavated.

Many people have lived in the region over hundreds of thousands of years, leaving evidence of different lifestyles, cultures and technologies from primitive societies through to the Late Iron Age and beyond. The tribes of the descendants of the earliest proto-hominids had free reign in this tranquil valley, fished the clear streams and hunted the vast herds of animals that roamed the plains with tools made initially from stone and later forged from iron. While wild animals or early death from injury or disease may have threatened human life but people lived in harmony with nature, which flourished in abundance in the greater Magaliesberg area over the previous two million years of human development.

Modern Twana people talk about how their ancestors migrated here through Zambia and Botswana and settled in groups all over the highveld. A group of Kwena people moved into the Magaliesberg and the Kwena chief at the time, Modimosana, divided his chiefdom among his four sons, who called their groups Kwena Magopa, Kwena Maake, Kwena Matlahaku and Kwena Mmatau. The Kwena Mmatau, who were particularly successful, became the dominant group. By 1800 they had constructed stone walled villages all along the southern slopes straddling the mountain passes that early ivory traders used on their way to the Cape. These traders and other travellers called the mountains Cashan after Kgwashwane, the powerful chief of the Kwena Mmatau, and it remained with that name until about 1840.

Around 1822, Shaka, famous leader of the Zulu nation, sent his favourite captain, Mzilikazi to subdue the Sotho tribes in the area. After conquering the Sotho tribes, Mzilikazi decided to break away from Shaka and the Zulu tribe and create his own clan (khumalo, or elephant clan). Fearing an attack from Shaka, he fled and settled in these regions. Mzilikazi’s impis left behind them a trail of destruction while consolidating the Matabele nation, with neighbouring tribes living in trees for fear of their lives.

In the early nineteenth century explorers like Robert Moffat, David Livingstone, and William Cornwallis Harris travelled in this part of Africa and made contact with some of the tribes that occupied the area. Some of these early explorers were scientists, others traders, missionaries or hunters, but no matter what their interests were they all found great rewards in the region.

After a number of Boer trek parties had been slaughtered by Mzilikazi’s impis, the Boers, led by Hendrik Potgieter and Gert Maritz, warded off a series of attacks by the Matabeles and drove them north across the Limpopo River where Mzilikazi later established his kingdom of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. The Boers settled in the valleys of the Magaliesberg and turned it into some of the most productive farmland in South Africa.

On the 1st of October 1899, war broke out between the two ‘white’ tribes, the British and the South African/Boer republics of Transvaal and Orange Free State. Within a year many lives were lost in the fighting in the Magaliesberg valleys, at Kommando Nek, Nooitgedacht and in many of the deep gorges and high ridges along the mountain side. All over the area remnants of these clashes can be seen. Many forts and blockhouses were built at strategic points in the mountains and some can still be seen today, the most prominent being the fort overlooking Kommando Nek and the Hartebeespoort Dam built in early 1901.

The second South African War (a.k.a. the Anglo-Boer war) brought its own pressures to this area. The South Africans, who were very familiar with the mountains, used secret pathways to cross the mountains and launch guerrilla attacks on the British soldiers. Occupation of the Magaliesberg was of great importance to the South African and English forces, especially routes between Pretoria and Rustenburg that crossed the Magaliesberg Mountains through, Silkaatsnek and Kommandonek.

Great battles were fought and lives were lost at Buffelspoort, Nooitgedacht, and Olifantsnek. The mountains were a severe testing of military skills and the Magaliesberg war was dominated by South African leaders like De la Rey, De Wet, Beyers, Smuts and Kemp, who were experts in guerrilla leadership.
Although many of the farms lay in ruins after the war, the natural beauty of the Magaliesberg remained unscarred and breathtaking as it is today.
Citrus fruit, tobacco, vegetables and various sub-tropical fruits are grown on the slopes, and there are nurseries where flowers such as cyclamen are cultivated.
In the past elephants and other wild animals roamed the ridges. Today it is the home of the Cape Vultures. There are about 250 breeding pairs and these great birds can be seen circling in the thermals. Vultures are slow breeders, laying only one egg a year, and the mortality rate for the fledglings is high. Ornithologists climb to the rocky ledges to ring the chicks and ringed vultures have been found as far afield as the Etosha Pan, some 1 200kms away in Namibia.

The Witwatersrand gold reef was formed over hundreds of thousands of years, with its most northern reaches being discovered at Blaaubank, a few kilometres from the present day village of Magaliesburg. This is where the first strike of the Witwatersrand system was made and in 1874 the Blaauwbank area was pegged out for formal gold mining activities. Here the first mining company near what is today Johannesburg was formed, and named the “Nil Desperandum Co-operative Quartz Company”. The importance of this mine attracted miners to the present day Johannesburg Reef area and the discovery of rich, valuable veins of gold, creating the largest settlement of man in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Today you can view the early beginnings of gold mining activity at the ‘still operational’ Blaauwbank Gold Mine and Museum. A few minutes drive from the Magaliesburg village.

Extensive coverage of the history of Magaliesburg can be found in Vincent Carruther’s excellent book on the region.

Lost city and the Pilanesberg National Park

2008-09-22T08:13:00.000-07:00

In the centre of a volcanic valley surrounded by the dun slopes of the Pilanesberg Mountains, a wilderness wonderland rises from the dust. Shimmering in the African sun, the fantastic Sun City Resort could be mistaken for a mirage. In reality, it's a vision realized through a multi-million-dollar investment and one man's unshakable faith in the religion of tourism – South African hotel prodigy Sol Kerzner.

The dream began with a middle of nowhere luxury hotel in the sun. It soon evolved to include a second sumptuous hotel, the Cascades, with a tropical garden, a flamingo lake lapping the edge of the building, rushing waterfalls and a Sky Train which whisks visitors between destinations within the resort.

Then Sol Kerzner's imagination looped the loop in a defiant free fall and he built his ultimate fantasy - the 'recreation' of a Lost City which, legend has it, was inhabited by gentle people of an ancient civilisation. The Lost City has as its centre a 'palace' of impossible opulence guarded by towering elephants lining an immense bridge; it is ringed with man-made lakes stocked with rare birds and fish, pools, forests and a tropical beach with perfect surfing waves - electrically generated. Lit with the glow of a million candles, the Palace is decorated with Renaissance frescoes, hand-carved furniture, mosaic-inlaid floors and towering columns of false tusks and palm fronds. Today the Sun City Resort Complex is one of the world's largest adult entertainment centres, a luxury theme park for grown-up kids. And when the day's play is over, there are beds for more than 2 000 guests. Out of doors, two championship golf courses - one with crocodiles at the 13th hole - are bordered by the Pilanesberg National Park (containing the 'Big Five') where a vigorous conservation programme has resulted in more than 300 rhinos numbered among the 10 000 animals in the reserve. The 55 000-hectare park is the third biggest game reserve in Southern Africa.