The day started early, with everyone feeling a little worse for wear after the late night. But, Willem had called Giep and asked him to come a little later – so we started slowly and then headed off to Windsorton. Damn! I’d spent an entire day walking from there – why was I going back. Oh yes, tour!
We swung past Giep’s dads place to fetch another bakkie as the guys were first going to fix a truck for him – which ended up taking about 20 min. I’m telling you now, these guys know their heavy machinery!
We went back to drop off the bakkie and keys, and I was shown around the house and neighbourhood to see the flood damage. Incredible to see where the water is now (still slightly higher than usual) and where is rose to… and obviously the damage caused. Frightening!
I then met Giep’s dad – who was the most successful private diamond miner in South Africa. The photo albums and replicas tell it all – oh my gosh! Massive stones… absolutely massive!
We then headed around town a bit and Giep explained that Windsorton used to be bigger than Kimberley. Huh?! This little place?! Yip… and he knows, because he grew up there. Buildings were ripped down and roads moved to allow for further mining, to ensure not a single square metre of potential diamond yielding land was missed.
From there we picked up Martinus, and then headed for Pomp-huis outside Barkley West. We sat overlooking the river and had lunch while Martinus told stories of his working travels around Southern Africa. I really enjoyed the ones about the Russian pilots, especially with many of the pilots to Antarctica being Russian or Kazakstani (?) and the stories I’ve heard about them.
Then it was off to Rietgat for some more drinks, before heading back to Windsorton. There we looked for diamonds, using the Grease Table… and I even ventured as far as putting my Olympus Tough camera through the system. Nobody could believe the camera survived… and I have video from inside the system to prove it.
After some scratching and greasing and many lessons, I walked away with some stuff.
We headed back to Warrenton and enjoyed a relaxing and early evening with a lovely dinner… ready for the Sunday departure.
