Diamond Town

A Small Town Called Cullinan
- 20 November 2013 -


Cullinan is a small town just outside of Pretoria, it is a diamond mine town which evolved from primarily.... diamond mining. In actual fact it was this mine, named the Premier Mine, that discovered the Cullinan Diamond, the largest rough unpolished diamond found at the time, weighting in at a whooping 3,106.75 carats. 

Today the mine is still in operation, however the town has also grown to that of a small tourist attraction. From mine tours, flights over the massive hole which was dug when the Cullinan Diamond was discovered, to restaurants and a numerous selection of guest houses.


I arrived on the Sunday morning and headed straight for the main street (Oak Street), where all the restaurants are found. Actually the street with all it's old converted houses and just the general look and feel, reminded me of Parys (I have a post in my blog on this one too) in the Free State province.


Obviously catering for all ages from young to old. Some of the stores have strange and interesting decorations, I never could understand how the one store name "Jan Harmsgat se agterplass", came up with all there decor ideas. 




I've been here a couple of times and was interested to see if I can find a spot that can give me a photo of the town, mine or the big hole, so I set off on foot to the main road I used to get into the town. What caught my attention for a large part of the trip was the old railway line.




I eventually left the main road, crossed the railway line and headed to a hill which from the road, looked like an ideal spot to get a view of Cullinan. And I wasn't wrong...


I would have liked to have a better view of the massive hole, but it soon dawned on me that I would need a much bigger mountain to get that, I guess that is why there are microlight and small plane tours which fly over the town and mine. On the other hand, this was a scene I hadn't experienced before and gave me a good idea of how the mine looks.



On my way back, still intrigued by the old railway line I came across a restaurant on  the Cullinan train station called "Oppistasie Resturant" (Oppistasie translates to - on the station), and opposite that another shop which although I'm not sure if it was the actual name, but a board said "Coffee & Gift Shop".




There was also other fellow photographers wondering around on the tracks.


I guess you could call these 2 "iPhone photographers". In the time that I was there I didn't see one train and the tracks didn't look in the best condition so I'm assuming that this station and railway is not in active use at the moment... so I guess lying on the tracks is safe enough.

Done with the railway I decided it was best I start heading back to my car, and on my way I came across a very interesting and probably a little screwy homemade tow truck, crossing the railway..... I just had to get a photo.

No comments:

Post a Comment