Pilgrim's Rest: An Old Gold Mining Town

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Fancy visiting an old gold mining town? There’s one in South Africa. South Africa is not just famous for diamond mines but also gold mines. Old is Gold. The place is called Pilgrim’s Rest (Afrikaans: Pelgrimsrus). Sounds like some pilgrimage’s hotel eh? It is a small town in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa which has been declared a national monument. Pilgrim’s Rest was the location of an emergency mint during the Second Boer War. This mint struck the famous and extremely rare Veld Pond
Historically, it was officially declared agold field in September 1873, As expected, the town suddenly grew to 1,500inhabitants searching for alluvial gold. Towards the end of the 19th centuryclaims were bought up and underground mining started by the company known asTGME. However in the year 1971, the mine was closed down in 1971 and thevillage sold to the government as a national museum without any apparentreason. But Transvaal Gold Minings Estates, currently part of the listedcompany of Simmers and Jack (please google it, I have no idea about thiscompany), started gold mining again in 1998.
Fortunately, the town’s originalarchitecture remains largely unchanged since then, because the town wasdeclared a National Monument in 1986.
Source: Wikipedia, 2012

An old general dealer shop, Bourke & Co. which was opened at that time for general trading

An old cafe

For you to enjoy the cool atmosphere

An old post office to cater the miner at that time

Do visit Scott's Cafe for Pancakes and Souvenirs

On the left: A backpackers' Hostel, On the right: A horse cart for the rich

Ever wondered the kind of tools used for gold mining?

An old assay furnace

If I am not mistaken, this is a water pump during their times to pump water into the mining tunnel

That's an ore bucket

Some photographic history of Pilgrim's Rest

Another mini furnace

An African kid demonstrating on how to deal/push the mining cart

an old gold cart with the rail together

They even have a mini game machine. That is the  The Big Six Gambling Machine, The Gaille Eclipse

A museum collection of vintage cars 

An African lady (momma) performing the balancing act. She was selling delicious macadamia nuts. Mind you, the mommas are really pro in this kind of balancing act. You can actually see many of them in the streets. Instead of using their hand to carry some huge stuff, they balance it on their head 

An old pub/bar for the miner to enjoy their drinks. Did you notice that on the right hand side of this photo, there is a collection of foreign bank notes? That was in year 2009. I guess by now there are even more notes 

Instead of me getting a souvenir, I gave the bar, RM5 as a souvenir with my signature 

with this mark i left, I really hope that I will be able to return to Pilgrim's Rest again sometime in the near future!