This day was one that I had looked forward to since I had first started reading about South Africa history back at UC San Diego in 2007. Journeying to the heart of South Africa which drew the world to a spot on the edge of the Kalahari desert and the veld. We awoke and passed on the breakfast on over at the Victorian Guest Lodge.

We set off directly to the Big Hole Complex that we had walked around the night before. It was not as dead as before, but certainly not as busy as one might expect for a winter holiday. We had just missed getting tickets for the Big Hole tour at 10am, so we bought two for 11am and set out to walk around the ‘town’, a replica of Kimberley during its boom years. The doors to the buildings were open and we were able to walk through them. While the town itself was a replica, the buildings themselves were authentic. One of them was a church that had been erected in the early 1800s. It’s always remarkable to find these little treasures in South Africa. There are few things of such fragility remaining from American boom towns, so to find a 200 year old wood church in the middle of Kimberley was quite unique. Even more remarkable. It had been in use up until just 50 years earlier when it was finally moved to the complex for preservation. We stopped to reenact the moves by our new friend Emo Adams, at the cable car before we headed in to take our tour. Continue reading →