Notes from the Cape

We spent the weekend at Gold Reef City for annual Toastmasters conference. We arrived in a beautifully warn Thursday afternoon, and we had a couple of hours to spare before the formalities started. So what better way to spend it than wondering around the theme park.

The theme park is made to look like and old mining town, complete with mine trucks full of ore, old houses, and mining equipment strewn all over the place. It is a little cheesy, but not too over the top. The theme park is home to the (real) Crown Mines #14 shaft, which stretches over 3500m deep, and it its time was the deepest shaft in the world.

Today, you can travel down the shaft to a depth of about 250m and get a taste of what it is like working in a gold mine. being a theme park, there are the usual set of rides such as roller coasters and ferris wheels.

The entrance to the #14 mine shaft.

Ferris wheel, note the soccer balls.

One of the many roller coasters.

Sign for town square. The whole park is laid out to look like Johannesburg around 1900.

There are peacocks wondering around all over the place, in particular around the Protea Hotel where we stayed. The rooms have just been redone, and it is very nice.

Ferris wheel at night. While they do light it up at night, it only runs during the day.

Old steam engine.

Gold Reef City is a great place to spend a day, but in honesty, a day is probably long enough, you could probably even get away with 1/2 a day if you were pressed for time.