Leenstra Travels

Today we did some more touring of the area around us. There is an area called DinoKeng (meaning place of rivers). It covers 281,000 hectares in a place of sacred water sources. There is game viewing, restaurants, hiking, bird watching, jewelry, museums, watersports, festivals, traditional culture and places of historical interest. We like it because it is low cost, close to us, and it will take a while to see all of it. We will be marking off our map little by little (you know how much kids love maps!). Today we visited the area of Cullinan (bottom, almost center of map).

Cullinan is a quaint Victorian and Edwardian village which is famous of the mine which produced the world's largest diamond - 3106 carts. Cullinan features a working diamond mine, historic buildings, tree lined avenues, guesthouses, restaurants and shops. Here are the pictures of us experiencing more culture.

The trip there was a hoot - we had to drive about 15 minutes on a road that had issues - it would be paved - then gravel with huge dips, paved, a new round about - pretty much in the middle of no where.

every once in a while you would see a village

Looking at the diamond mine from a far

First Stop

The open-air museum. It shows all the equipment used at the diamond mine there. Very fascinating. It was weird because there is a sign that says museum and then there it is in the open. The kids liked playing with all the gadgets and seeing the big machinery.

The Town

The street of the shops and restaurants - very cute.

art made of tin (pop cans, sheets, bottle tops, wire)

Having Fun

a painted wall in the town - very cool

Of course every little tourist town needs a candy shop

The Cullinan Big Hole View Point

The BIG HOLE - from a distance (a diamond mining hole -1 km long, ½ km wide and ½ km deep)

Here is a better picture I found on the website - we were not able to get that close.

Another learning day!! The kids will appreciate this someday! Find out next Saturday where we go next on our map.