Friday 23rd December. The Blue Train. Leg Two

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ianfisher 101
Staff Sergeant
Posts: 296
Joined: 31 Jul 2019, 15:32
Location: Clevedon. UK

Friday 23rd December. The Blue Train. Leg Two

Post by ianfisher 101 »

The second leg of our current Friday Tour takes us from the Metropolis of Johannesburg down to the Diamond Centre of Kimberly.

Johannesburg, colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demographia, the Johannesburg–Pretoria urban area (combined because of strong transport links that make commuting feasible) is the 26th-largest in the world in terms of population, with 14,167,000 inhabitants. Johannesburg is the seat of the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa. Most of the major South African companies and banks have their head offices in Johannesburg. The city is located in the mineral-rich Witwatersrand range of hills and is the centre of large-scale gold and diamond trade. The city was established in 1886 following the discovery of gold on what had been a farm. Due to the extremely large gold deposit found along the Witwatersrand, within ten years, the population had grown to 100,000 inhabitants. A separate city from the late 1970s until 1994, Soweto is now part of Johannesburg. Originally an acronym for "South-Western Townships", Soweto originated as a collection of settlements on the outskirts of Johannesburg, populated mostly by native African workers from the gold mining industry. Soweto, although eventually incorporated into Johannesburg, had been separated as a residential area for blacks only (no whites allowed), who were not permitted to live in other White designated suburbs of Johannesburg. Lenasia is predominantly populated by English-speaking South Africans of Indian descent. These areas were designated as non-white areas in accordance with the segregationist policies of the South African government known as apartheid. It was one of the host cities of the official tournament of the 2010 FIFA World Cup—and it hosted the final.

Our destination today is Kimberley which is the capital and largest city of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The city has considerable historical significance due to its diamond mining past and the siege during the Second Anglo-Boer war. British businessmen Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato made their fortunes in Kimberley, and Rhodes established the De Beers diamond company in the early days of the mining town. On 2 September 1882, Kimberley was the first city in the Southern Hemisphere and the second in the world after Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States to integrate electric street lights into its infrastructure. The first stock exchange in Africa was built in Kimberley, as early as 1881. In 1866, Erasmus Jacobs found a small brilliant pebble on the banks of the Orange River, he showed the pebble to his father, who then sold it.  The pebble was purchased from Jacobs' father by Schalk van Niekerk, who later sold it on again. It proved to be a 21.25-carat diamond, and became known as the Eureka. Three years later, in 1869, an 83.5-carat diamond, which became known as the Star of South Africa, was found nearby. This diamond was sold by van Niekerk for £11,200, and later resold in the London market for £25,000. Miners then arrived in their thousands and the area became known as the Big Hole. From mid-July 1871 to 1914, 50,000 miners dug the hole with picks and shovels, yielding 2,722 kg of diamonds. The Big Hole has a surface of 17 hectares and is 463 metres wide. It was excavated to a depth of 240 m, but then partially infilled with debris reducing its depth to about 215 m; since then it has accumulated water to a depth of 40 m leaving 175 m visible. By 1873 Kimberley was the second largest town in South Africa, having an approximate population of 40,000.

Meet at: 1830z for a 1900z departure.
Meet on: Digital Theme Park on JoinFS.
Comms through A2A Discord channel.
Start at: FAOR
Aircraft: C172, PA28, T-6
Local takeoff time: 0800.
Weather Historic

https://skyvector.com/?ll=-27.477207214 ... 47E%20FAKM
Little Navmap Map 20221218-234159.jpg
Little Navmap Map 20221218-234159.jpg (513.12 KiB) Viewed 791 times
Spitfire : P-51 : L-049 : C172 : C182 : PA-24 : PA-28 : T-6 : P-40 : V35B : J-3 : P-47 : Anson : 504K : Albatros : B377 : HE-219

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