Eureka City - Sheba Mine - Barberton

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Zonkelnut

Race Dog
Joined
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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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Nice report ...years ago i went up to Eureka city with my old man in his peugot 504  :eek:  ...but them cars were tough i reckon...would love to go back
 
Ye Icecreamman, the roads are in a very good condition (1/5) and some places into the mountains I would grade it as 2/5. Not very technical. But very interesting places. There are some serious bad ones (3/5) but nothing impossable. The main thing is that we spend a entire day on dirt roads (the worst 2/5). This makes it great to forget about tar and cars. The mountains in Barberton area is awesome.

Honda SA is starting to get adventure ride-outs together. But it is more than just Honda SA and their bikes. It is more the spirit of Dual Purpose than Honda related. It is driven by Edenvale Honda. I also think it is fro the runup of their new 700cc Dual Purpose bike that will be coming out later this year.
 
Awesome stuff Zonk. I hope the ride on Sunday is still on, maybe time to do final planning??
 
funacide said:
Awesome stuff Zonk. I hope the ride on Sunday is still on, maybe time to do final planning??

Yes, it is still on, I hope. I will be stere for sure. OK. let me quickly refresh that thread.
 
It's about 22 years since I have last seen Barberton. Still the small town it seems.

Thanks Zonk! Your trip took be back to memory lane. Back when I played rugby and cricket against the Barbers.
 
IceCreamMan said:
Nice report ...years ago i went up to Eureka city with my old man in his peugot 504  :eek:  ...but them cars were tough i reckon...would love to go back

Oh Kak, when I arrived here, the company gave me a car, sorry guys I don,t have a car licence only a bike licence, so then a loan to buy a bike ;D! But, we got you the car anyway, yes a Peugot 504!!!!!

Welsh
 
Zon, nice to see pics like those you too. I enjoy the these sort of reports a lot. :thumleft:
 
Welsh said:
IceCreamMan said:
Nice report ...years ago i went up to Eureka city with my old man in his peugot 504  :eek:  ...but them cars were tough i reckon...would love to go back

Oh Kak, when I arrived here, the company gave me a car, sorry guys I don,t have a car licence only a bike licence, so then a loan to buy a bike ;D! But, we got you the car anyway, yes a Peugot 504!!!!!

Welsh

indestructable cars hence they organised u one  ;D

ever been to egypt , still hundreds of 30 year old peugots running around  ;D

that car my old man had just kept going an going irrespective of where we took that car  :eek:
 
Some Volcanic pipe rock, or something.

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Attie on a pass going up the mountain leading to Sheba Mine.

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Tracks in sandstone of Ox wagons of the old miners. Also, the way they went over the mountain. These oaks had balls of steel.

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And as usual, I love graves and had to stop. This one of a little girl that died. I think the grave in the back is of her mother. They died on the Drummond Castle Ship that sank (1896).

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The Mother. see the inscriptions on the grave stone.

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Another one . Died at Eureka City.

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The old Victoria Hotel. Nothing left.

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Yes well, me and the Zonkmobile.

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Sheba School 1886. Still standing. Guess the kids those days did not break down their school.

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Inside the Sheba Mine. The story goes of a prospector that walked the same route every day. One day he got fed up with this rock in the middle of the path and started hammering away on the rock. The rock broke open and it turned out to be the biggest gold nugget (is that what you call it) found in the area. He then started digging down and this is the whole that he started. So the mine was started.

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Some of the many tunnels found within the mine.

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A wooden ladder going down into the mine.

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Something?

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Another tunnel inside the mine. These tunnels were done by hand in the late 1880's. amazing stuff.

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An Office outside the Sheba gold mine.

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Rail going into the mountain.

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This is on the service road going next to the railroad next to the N4 to Nelspruit from kaapsehoop.

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The size of the tunnel. I thought it to be a nice photo.

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This poor likkewaan did not fear a little train at all.

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The river (krokodil rivier) next to the railroad. And yes, some slangbyt gifkan.  ;D

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Breakfast . Hey, it is never to early for slap chips and chakalaka. :)

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This is a very high tower going into the ... well, very high up so that the polution can be swept away by the upper winds. Well, something like that.

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Shiyalangubu Dam (S25 45 21.2 E31 15 53.3)

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Workers busy cutting trees. This was very interesting to watch. They work like they know what they are doing.

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A natural forest.

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Attie inside the forest.

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At last he got his clothes (looks like he is going to take over the country) and Alpie dirty. O yes, and the bling  ;) He was game for anything. Never complained at all. Very nice travel companion.

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A view from the road going to the Swazi border, and my Alpie. O how I love my Alpie  :p

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You beauty. I love you! 8)

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Road sign. Duh!

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Very pretty in this area.

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We also went thru a ghost town called Diepgezet (S26 00 17.2 E31 04 36.7). I was amazed by the beautiful houses that were standing empty. This must have been a flourishing town in its days. If anybody knows something about this town. Please reply on this tread. I would love to know what happened to this town. Even got a golf course. Sorry, no photos.

OK. Enough for now. The next set will be old photos of the late 1800's.

Cheers.

 
Zonkelnut said:
Honda SA is starting to get adventure ride-outs together. But it is more than just Honda SA and their bikes. It is more the spirit of Dual Purpose than Honda related. It is driven by Edenvale Honda. I also think it is fro the runup of their new 700cc Dual Purpose bike that will be coming out later this year.

Hmmm. Same as what Honda George is doing - why do you think I'm riding so much?

Nice report so far!
 
Cool, methinks we need to go suss out this area this weekend, hopefully that place you guys stayed at has place for us.
 
Yes Adventurer, you will love the place and please go and meet the owner, he is very friendly and will talk to u for hours. Also a very interesting guy and area. If you want the GPS route, just pm me with your email and I will send it to u. Cheers
 
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