28. Diamonds are a girl's best friend. Diamond mines are a claustrophobe's worst nightmare.

Wednesday 1 May

Workers' Day! (A national public holiday in South Africa...so everything is closed)

This morning we left very early to drive out to Pretoria to visit a diamond mine. Yes, the claustrophobe's nightmare continues... 

It was about a 2-hour drive out there, and then we got dressed up in miner's suits, sat in on a long safety demonstration and a brief video about the mine's history. The world's largest diamond, the Cullenin diamond, came from here. And so have some ridiculously high percentage of the world's largest diamonds. Diamonds are cool and all I'm sure, I don't actually own any. But diamond mines are scary places. For claustrophobes. We went 763 meters below ground. Yep that's 763. The spaces were big, big enough for heavy machinery and cars to drive through, so it wasn't too bad from that perspective. I just couldn't let myself think how far away we were from open air, and how many miners have died from being trapped underground... They reassured us we were fine, but the 10-lb safety kit attached to my belt that contained an oxygen bag and mask was not so comforting...why do I need this?! 

I was doing alright until I started thinking about how far down under the ground I was in terms of running the 800m in Track and Field in high school. And then I started feeling a bit queasy. But I was very proud of myself and mostly ok. The miner gear was really heavy and clunky, but it was fun to dress up and we all had a great time taking pics and striking poses. 

The diamond mine was interesting, but I feel like that's only the case if you experience it first hand, so I'm just gonna let you see pics of it instead of me talking about it.

Strike a miner pose... 

The oxygen mask we had to carry around with us at all times.
The lengthy safety video made this sound like a 'when' not an 'if' situation. 

sassy miners...with Lily photobombing in the background. 

Whole group pic, with our awkward bus driver awkwardly joining us...3rd from right. So much for submitting this to the IPD website. 

Michelle and I - the claustrophobes riding an elevator to 763m below ground.
How's that for facing fears?! 

they look so natural...except for Professor Gouws (3rd from right) still looking so proper... 

walking along in the mine, trying to forget how far below the air and sunshine of beautiful above-ground life we are...

trudging along...miner-style

Once above ground again. Hallelujah! That is the pit we walked around. It's 500m x 1km x 900km.
That's one hell of a hole in the ground. 

Mining equipment. 

After our visit to the mine, we walked around the little town of Cullenin and ate a long big filling lunch at a Greek restaurant. The food was unique and pretty good. There were different kinds of meats and cheeses. And of course Greek salad. Mmmmm. 

We headed back to Melville and arrived there a little after 5ish. I'm still confused what the point of visiting the mine was, but it was interesting, and I can cross it off my bucket list now. And I suppose it helped me face my fears. If only there were a submarine and some sharks down there... 

When we got back, I got someone to help me configure my computer to the wifi network at the Ginnegap. For some reason, mine had not been working yet and I just really was beginning to wonder what was going on in the world/at home/ with my family. So after he fixed my internet, I went in my room, decided to skip the group dinner (I was still full from the massive lunch and could not comprehend yet another 3 course, 3 hour dinner, which indeed it turned out to be), so I called home and talked to my mom finally! Then I checked my email (yes, in that order, Mom you should be proud!) and had a ton of them to sort through, so I spent my evening dealing with that until I fell asleep pretty early because we had another early morning departure. And because facing your fears in the bottom of a diamond mine pit is actually thoroughly exhausting!