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South Africa during Apartheid |
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In search for copper and diamonds - 6 months in the South African "Bush" A very special time for me was the work in a geological exploration team at a " white spot of the map" in northwest South Africa as interruption of my study time. Months-long isolation in nature and the daily challenge of detecting interesting and new geological formations is a quite special mixture of attractions. Mostly by myself, later also with a local "pathfinder" by foot, one gets into a very intimate relationship to the surrounding nature. My pathfinder, native bushman Joe, had the marvelous ability to maintain a given direction without compass over mountains and valleys perfectly. And if we had to bypass obstacles, he easily found the way back and put us "back on track" again. He also found water places just as safely.
Back then, it was still the time of "apartheid", the blacks in South Africa by law were not allowed in the driving cab of a white. I had encouraged him several times, without success. One can hardly imagine how hard a ride he had standing on the back of the Land-Rover on our cross-country rides. We made friends despite all barriers over time.
This was the first time that I had managed to get him under the same shadow tree as myself during the lunchtime rest. Towards the end of the time he invited me also to his family in the "Kral". There he and his family lived under desperate conditions. months-long they only had a handful of milled mash per day. The children had clear deficiency symptoms. All photos, which I shot in this environment, did not get back to me from the South African film development center - the film " had been lost": a usual practice of censorship, as was said to me later. Never forgotten: I attended a celebration in the "Kral", and they had a large pot of " Kaffer beer ". They threw a dozen of empty batteries in there! On my question: "why that?" the response came: " makes beer strong "....... Back to the exploration tasks: Once in the week the chief geologist of the "African Selection Trust Corporation" came to discuss the results.
Distributed over one hundred square kilometers we were three - here the two other field geologists and a troop of natives.
At the end we were successful! - here is the " winner photo!": Under this place there is a copper-nickel ore mass, detected by geological cartography, as well as geo-electrical and geo-chemical measuring methods. We found diamond-containing sediments also, but only with low concentration: on average, 2 carats per 100 tons of rock, there you will have to search for a long time.....
And afterwards: Contrast program: Vacation in South Africa! .....near the Indian ocean, a yellow Indian crocodile
a puffotter snake and.....
a " boomslang " right behind the tent.....in that night I slept in the car!
The Cape of the Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa, a wonderful place!
Sunset in the Cape Region
... and at the end a picture from port Elizabeth, completely in the Italian style of the immigrants.
Contrast program - colorful, but bitter-poor: a girl in the slums of Indian immigrants in Cape Town.
All in all: interesting experiences with severe contrasts! Disclaimer |
