Page 92 - SAICE book proof 2 LATEST JULY 2014

s a i c e

CHAPTER 8: Northern Cape Province

Introduction: each year under extreme heat conditions and where
Volkswagen park their cars in the desert for years to
At about 372 000 km² this province has the lowest den- test for durability under the harsh UV rays of the sun.
sity in terms of population. A place of loneliness and
raw beauty in the Richtersveld, mostly semi-desert with This province and especially the Karoo region is also
wild, cold coasts, some of the best fishing along the home to Merino sheep which make this the wool pro-
South African coast and the great Gariep or Orange Riv- ducing capital of South Africa. On its northern border
er winding through the last stretch of its westward trav- with Namibia and Botswana, the Kgalagadi cross border
els – this is the Northern Cape. This is also the home of game reserve in the old Kalahari is the source of many
one of the biggest iron ore deposits in the world, copper, songs and game-related experiences and stories.
zinc and other rare minerals and the home of ‘the place
that thunders’ where amidst a moon-like landscape with At Verneukpan Malcolm Campbell came to claim the
huge rock structures the Orange River plunges 122 m in world land-speed record with his Napier-Campbell Blue
a narrow gorge and when in flood, the Augrabies Falls Bird in 1929 and in 2016 the Bloodhound SSC is plan-
become an awesome and frightening spectacle when 6 ning to tackle the land-speed record again at Mier on
000 m³ tumbles through the gap per second. the Hakskeenpan.

This province is also home to the diamond riches of the Last but by no means least this province is home to the
past when the Star of South Africa (AKA the Dudley South African Large Telescope (SALT), the Meerkat and
Diamond) of 47.69 carats was picked up by a Griqua the new Square Kilometre Array (SKA) from where the
shepherd boy near Hopetown. Kimberley became the universe will be studied from one of the most pure air
city of glitter and hardship as delvers from all over the and clear space places in the world.
world rushed here in 1871 to share in the treasures
yielded by the extinct volcanic pipe structures dotted And this is where civil engineering has been playing a
around the landscape. Alluvial diamonds became entic- ROLE in capital letters.
ing and even now in the year 2013 small item delvers
are looking for the ‘girl’s best friend’ the way in which This province features:
De Beers marketed their stones. At the estuary of the
Orange River – the Oranjemund and Alexander Bay 1. Sishen-Saldanha iron ore railway line
diamond-rich area still produce diamonds which got as constitutes one of the longest dedicated railway lines
far as the sea and ships with huge vacuum cleaner type in the world, about 860 km from end to end, but all
nozzles dredging the diamond bearing gravel from the in all has over 1 000 km of track. En route the line
seabed at the border with Namibia. crosses 82 bridges of which the Olifants River Bridge is
a magnificent 1 035 m long structure. It was opened in
Along the mighty river agricultural settlements are scat- 1976 and now carries about 60 million tons of iron ore
tered over hundreds of kilometres. The biggest wine per annum by means of trains up to 342 wagons long,
cellar chain in the world is situated along the river east each with a payload of 100 tons. These are the longest
and west of Upington and what is lesser known, the train sets in the world and with locomotives dispersed
vineyards are bigger in size than those of the Western within the length of the train radio controls manage
Province or Cape region. Over a distance of about 300 the power distribution. A world record for Cape Gauge
km sultana grapes for export are produced by the ton, track was however set in 1989 when a mammoth 7 km
to be flown by jumbo loads from the longest airport train with 660 wagons and 16 diesel electric and electric
runway in South Africa to the tables of Europe just be- locomotives provided the ration. The 800 km trip was
fore Christmas every year. In addition, dried fruit in- completed in 22 hours at speeds of up to 80 km/h. The
cluding world famous sultanas find their way into fruit statistics about bridges and rail lengths and excavation
cakes in many countries. on this line reads like a Guinness Book of Records. In
the Western Cape section, the Olifants River Bridge is
The region around Upington is also where BMW of mentioned.
Germany tests their prototype cars during March

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