With president Dunn’s permission we traveled out of our mission to the city of Kimberly which is famous for the diamonds that were mined there.
As we came to the edge of Kimberly there was a lake that had hundreds of flamingos spread across the surface. One flock can be seen in the foreground and another near the upper edge of the lake. Unfortunately we could not really get close to the lake to take any good pictures. Not far from the lake is the Flamingo golf course, hotel and casino with this sculpture near the entrance.
We went to see the Big Hole which Diamonds have not been mined since 1914 because of the flooding of the mine during WWI. If you read the sign it tells that about 5000 pounds of diamonds came out of the mine before it shut down.
Mary and the big hole. Elder and Sister Dummer and Mary in an “underground” area of the tour that was really at ground level.
Some of the trolleys that were used in Kimberly at one time.
The bar was not open for business when I looked in. Loved the display of bedpans that were in use at the turn of the century.
A very modern dental office for the period – before this the barber was often also the dentist in town. We had lunch at the Occidental Bar. Mary and I split a very good BLT sandwich.
So I did not feel bad about having this delicious frozen peanut butter cheesecake for dessert.
Some scenes along main street.
There were a pair of 2 1/2 foot gauge donkey steam engines that had been preserved. When I had my N 2 1/2 model railroad, I had a model one of these. They were the work horses of mining all over the world.
On Tuesday we went to the McGregor museum where I managed only to take pictures of the grand staircase and the outdoor chess set. The museum had one of the best WWi displays I have every seen. They also were featuring a display about slavery, segregation, and it’s end in the US. I guess they wanted to show that other countries were not all that good about how they treated their black citizens.
Our next stop was the Duggan-Cronin art museum. It featured the work Duggan-Cronin who traveled around africa taking pictures of the people and their surroundings. Also featured the recordings of native music by another explorer at about the same time. It seems that marimbas/xylophones were used through the world – this one is from Mozambique,
The lyre is from Uganda. Duggan-Cronin took about 8000 pictures of native africans and just a few are on display in the museum. I particularly liked this one of the woman and child. They still carry their young children this way but today they usually use a blanket that they wrap around themselves.
After visiting the two museums we thought it would be fun to go to the Widlebeest Kuil rock art centre where there is hundreds of images carved into rocks on the surface of the ground. While we were traveling there I felt that I should call to make sure they were open. The phone was answered by David Morris who said due to budget problems the centre was not open for tours. I mentioned we had come 400K and were now only 5 minutes away. He said that since we were so close that he would stay and let us in. He was waiting in his car when we got there and turned us over to Amos – who I missed photographing – who showed us a movie about the centre, the art and the Sans people who now live nearby. Then we got a tour of the hillside with many examples of the art that goes back between 1000 and 10,000 years. The wild pig has been split in two.
Since we will probably never get back to Kimberly, I feel that the fact that I called at just the right time and got the one person who could let us take the tour was one of those simple tender mercies that we often receive but do not recognize as we go through our days as senior missionaries.
The most feature animal is the eland but there were also ones of an elephant and rhinos.
There are also many geometric designs which some feel were made by shamans and had to do with spiritual ideas but no one is sure because of course there is no written record available.
As we traveled around Kimberly we saw some beautiful flowers and lots of avenues of jacaranda trees in bloom. These are young trees but we saw some that were very large and very old.
We evening we had dinner in a small mall. When we were served water we noticed that Mary’s glass seemed to be leaking water. When she picked it up she noticed it was cracked near the bottom. While she was holding it the bottom fell out and water went all over the table and her. At one of the petrol stations we stopped at the doors to the toilets displayed these great pictures.
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Some farmers really do not like people coming into their yard. Where some have dogs this one seems to have guns. As we drove home I noticed this cloud and it looked to me like a flying ghost.
On Wednesday morning the elders and us drove up to Parys to visit sister Swanepoel and Louis. It was elder Liera’s first trip to Parys.