Piet Retief is the name of an old Afrikaans settler who moved into what is now the Mpumalanga region of South Africa. He is honored by the town of Piet Retief that sits 10 miles from the Swaziland border to the east and about 60 miles northwest of Klipwal mine. This is the place that staff at the mine go to get all the essentials like food and gasoline. Friday was my first trip out to Piet Retief for a big shop, and I was joined by my boss Nick who drove me there in one of the mine’s pick-ups (known as bokkies in Afrikaans).
Nick was born in England but moved to South Africa when he was six months old. He only learned of his British citizenship when he was in his mid twenties serving his obligatory tour of duty as a medic in the South African army. He studied to become a pharmacist at University and worked as one for a good 10 years before taking over the family electrical engineering business for 6 years. On the drive over, where a good 20 miles are over a extremely pot-holed road, he talked a lot about wishing he had gone to the UK after university, lamenting about his split with his wife, and telling me his excitement about this new adventure working basically as the mine manager at Klipwal. He was another seemingly impulsive hire by Lloyd, who apparently called up Nick one day about 4 months ago and asked him if he was “up for an adventure”. I say “seemingly impulsive” because I was pretty shocked myself when Lloyd offered me this job when I had very little experience of mining geology. It turns out there was more to it than that, but that’s a story for another time.
Aaaaannny-hoo, we arrived in Piet Retief about an hour and a half after we set off from the mine, this time driving in daylight so I could see the sustenance farming plots gradually turn into larger commercial farms as we got closer to town. There were lots of people walking around on the dirt roads, always putting their hands out for a lift before eventually getting picked up by taxi vans. Apparently it’s a no-no to pick them up as it’s in a mine-owned vehicle, and an accident would result in some serious trouble in terms of liabilities.
We arrived into town, passing a 9-hole golf course on the outskirts, to find an enormous traffic jam on the main drag. It turns out a large truck had broken down at one of the intersections, and despite their best efforts, the two police men who were directing traffic were getting all sorts of abuse from angry drivers who were getting out of their cars to complain. First on the agenda was to get a pair of gum boots for going down in the mine with. Nick recommended a shop in what I quickly realised seemed to be the dustier, poorer part of town. Here there were various run-down shops, often with big signs advertising mobile phone SIM cards and TV’s, and many fruit and vegetable stalls making up the side of the dirt road. Later on we visited Pick n Pay, the biggest supermarket in Piet Retief. This was on the other side of town in a strip mall. The scene looked like it was straight out of a place like Alamo or St. Andrews, except for the ubiquitous parking attendants that come with most shopping centres in South Africa. I was shopping for food for 2 weeks, so my first food bill was quite a big one.
Nick and I quenched our appetite with a meal at Wimpy Burger for lunch, a fast-food chain that is just about dead in the UK but is super popular in South Africa. It was pretty crappy food if I’m being honest. We finished at another strip mall where I bought some essentials for life on the mine: flip-flops, notebooks, beer, and a brand new soccer ball. Finally we got in the bokkie and drove back home.
I’ve constantly been asking myself whether or not I want to stay working at Klipwal for more than 3 months. I’m sure I will have a much better idea in time, but I’m thinking about various pros and cons in the mean time. Some I’ve noticed so far:
Pros: awesome scenery, wild animals, nice people, local interactions, great food (BBQ’s every day!), and a great incentive for doing a good job at work...GOLD!
Cons: nobody my age, everyone smokes like a chimney, super-slow internet (okay I spend too much time online anyway), giant African millipedes (harmless but they scare the hell out of me), and known poisonous snakes in the area
Too close to call this early on.
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