one road to freedom

Today we are heading to Kimberley for Easter weekend.
Kimberley has been built around the first diamond mine, and is one of the oldest cities of South Africa, one that was very prosperous, attracting numbers of people from around the world.

We stop at Martin’s workshop to pick him up. It is situated in an industrial suburb south of Jo’burg.
The company repairs gearboxes for trucks and tractors.
Peter one of the employee shows me around. It’s a really busy place: one gearbox can go in and out the same day if urgent.

The landscape around Jo’burg goes from steep hills to flat land.
Along the way Martin shows us the gold mines. The dumps create a new landscape like the derrick in the north of France.

We cross Potchefstroom and Klerksdorf.
Life in south Africa resolve a lot around roads as driving is the main transportation, and those towns are built around the main arteries crossing the Northern Cape Province.
All along are low buildings with hand painted typography, fast food joints: Chicken Licken, Wimpy, Steers and the local biltong joint (dried meat with herbs and spices).
People everywhere are walking along the road or waiting for taxis.



We pass a private game farm along the way where we can see rhinos giraffes and zebras.
The road is a bit chaotic at times as they are improving it and some portions are closed, so we have to wait till the traffic coming from the other side has gone.