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!Uris Safari Lodge Tsumeb Namibia!Uris Safari Lodge Tsumeb accommodation guide everything you need to know before visiting !Uris Safari Lodge Tsumeb Namibia. Photographs, room types, activities, facilities, location booking information and information for your stay at !Uris Safari Lodge Tsumeb, read all the accommodation information about !Uris Safari Lodge.
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Surrounded by the ancient Lake Otjikoto and the famous wildlife conservation area, Etosha National Park, !Uris Safari Lodge also attracts tourists en-route to the Kunene-, Kaokoland and Southern Angola. For visitors with an interest in gemstones and minerals !Uris Safari Lodge borders a number of historic German and Artesian mines. Historically there were eight existing houses, which accommodated the
mineworkers in the early nineteen hundreds, locally referred to as a "kompong".
!Uris Safari Lodge boasts delicious Pan African meals including full breakfast, lunch and dinner by candlelight. Dinners are either served in the lounge area or for guests favoring the "bush experience" the BOMA is a favorite. The thatched dining, lounge and bar areas open onto spacious wooden decks, affording views over Namibia's world-renowned sunsets. !Uris Safari Lodge is designed to accommodate the disabled traveler and all facilities are wheelchair accessible. A fantastic designed swimming pool is available for guest's relaxation. The lodge masseuse, who is available on request, can offer relaxation packages at her small scale salon. Features of !Uris Safari Lodge Some ideas of what to do at !Uris Safari Lodge Where is !Uris Safari Lodge ? Email !Uris Safari Lodge enquiries and reservations: booknamibia@madbookings.com "In the Footsteps of the Diggers" runs like a delicate string of copper throughout the lodge. If it is not at the cozy fireplace in the lounge area, mining history is available at the small scale library, as well as small bits of mineral collections are displayed in the foyer. "Dig" for wine, as you have to go down in the wine cellar with resemblance to the mining era or round off your day with a cigar from our distinctive collection. Conference & Special Function Facilities Activities - !Uris Safari Lodge Wellness - enjoy our small intimate salon where a variety of wellness treatments are offered, ranging from outdoor massages to de-stress and detoxification packages. Be blessed under the well trained and strong hands of our health and beauty therapist, Maria Shafa. The Tschudi area in the Otavi Mountain land is renowned as a natural breeding area and habitat of the famous Eland antelope. Before sunset when the burning heat of the African sunshine has diminished one can take a nature drive through the bush to observe some of Africa's most majestic antelopes such as eland, kudu, duikers, steenbok and a variety of nocturnal animals. Sightseeing trips to Tsumeb and the Etosha National Park can be arranged. Geological tours are also done on request. Tsumeb Museum & Mining tours can be booked. The Tsumeb Museum, with its comprehensive historical and geological displays, is a major tourist draw card which attracts between 12,000 and 15,000 visitors annually. Fauna & Flora Guided walks enable you to view warthog, jackal, baboon
and getting closer to wonderful examples of Namibia's exquisite
trees: Sight-seeing activities in the vicinity Sporting activities in the vicinity History of Uris & Tsumeb AreaHistoric Information and the Tsumeb Mine Before the arrival of Europeans … Tsumeb, regarded as a waterless place, had a 12-meter high malachite
hill. Due to this scarcity of water, ore trading took place at Lake Otjikoto
where an extended San family clan lived. The chief had the malachite hill
guarded and bows and arrows were fired at anyone who dared to attempt
to steal the ore. Copper ore was then brought from the malachite hill
to Lake Otjikoto. Bartering was the form of exchange at this time and
the Ovambo people came on foot from Ovamboland to Lake Otjikoto to trade
for copper ore with the San, carrying their trading wares in baskets,
woven from Makalani palm leaves and carried on their shoulders with long
poles. The smelting process - the Ovambo people produced a huge pile of charcoal. A hollow in a termite mound was used to hold the ore, from which hollow channels ran in all directions. Wood and coal were layered around to enclose the ore mound whilst the fire was poked with bellows. This activity was conducted at night, as the Ovambo people were superstitious and believed the San should not see them smelting the ore. If the smelting process were not completed by dawn, they would suspend the process until the following night! As the copper melted, it would run down the drainage channels and fill the holes, which were bored with special sticks. If the copper was to be used for spear and arrowheads, the holes were deep and narrow. Arm and leg bracelets were produced if a thicker stick was used to make the holes. The copper rods were left until the next day to cool off, after which they were transported to Ovamboland in the baskets. There they were forged into adornments or utensils. The San women were not allowed in the vicinity during this time, to prevent them from seeing the Ovambo men. The green copper hill European explorers and prospectors were informed of this dazzling outcrop. On 12 January 1893, a prospector, Mathew Rogers, working for the South West Africa Company, reached the outcrop and in a report stated: "In the whole of my experience, I have never seen such a sight as was presented before my view at Tsumeb, and I very much doubt that I shall ever see such another in any other locality". Rogers negotiated with the local tribe for rights to the outcrop and began a detailed assessment of the quantity of ore, its nature and viability of a mine in so remote a place. Financing and planning of the mine took several years. In 1900, the company formed to work concessions over the area. The Otavi Mining and Railroad Company sent a party of thirty-three miners under Christopher James to commence mining. Two shafts were sunk into the hill of copper and a hint, the wonders
lying beneath the surface was revealed. In the first crosscut, a vein
of pure chalcocite was encountered running through rich galena. Such was
the pattern of ore in the volcanic pipe, that as miners worked into the
pipe they constantly encountered astonishing mixtures, rich veins and
unexpected "jewellery boxes" of sensational beautiful rarities.
In December 1900, the first shipment of ore was sent by ox wagon to Swakopmund.
The mine was developed in the face of tremendous difficulties with transport,
while a narrow gauge railway was constructed from the coast. The railway
reached Tsumeb on 24 August 1906 and within twelve months the little narrow
gauge trains had carried 25,700 tons of ore to the coast. This was the
birth of Tsumeb. Mining methods were primitive to begin with. The mineworkers used ladders and candles when going underground. The ore was broken with chisels and sledgehammers and filled into iron buckets, which were then pulled to the surface with a winch. The winch had to be operated by hand. The first headgear, even the wheels, consisted solely of wood. The Tsumeb railway line was inaugurated on 21 November 1906 and a tour of the mine offered. The guests were treated to a delightful sight of industrious activity. An unbroken double line of laughing and talking women with small wooden trays on their heads moved back and forth between the ore heaps and the sorting area. The trays were filled at the ore heaps and emptied at the sorting area. A large pile of ore, remains from the first exploratory drives, was carried away to be utilized. By mid-July 1907, 7000 tons of ore had already been shipped. At this stage, smelting was initiated. By then four shafts were in operation. The so-called "Himmelsleiter" - stairway to heaven - was constructed on an inclined plane to bring the ore and waste rock to the surface. Setbacks caused by World War I In spite of the depression and political troubles, the Tsumeb mine continued its operations. In 1946, at the end of World War II the custodian put up the mine and other assets of the Otavi Company for sale. A syndicate - the Tsumeb Corporation, was formed to buy the mine. The syndicate consisted of the Newmont Mining Corporation, American Metal Co, South West African Co, Selection Trust, British South Africa Co, Union Corporation and the O'Kiep Copper Co. The purchase price was a little over 1 million pounds. The new management re-commissioned the mine and developed it to its present state of high productivity with levels being worked below 1000 meters. Mining operations started to carry on and during 1953; the De Wet Shaft was completed to a depth of 3301 feet. During 1948, the first grinding and flotation section of the new concentrator was completed and started to treat 300 tons of ore per day. As it happens in the strange lottery of creation, among the contents of the "throat" were a phenomenal proportion of economic minerals, copper, lead, zinc, cadmium, silver and germanium. If the Tsumeb mine produced only these economic minerals, it would be considered wonderful and equal to the celebrated Comstock Lode in America. However added to the already varied economic minerals created are a dazzling variety of secondary minerals created because of the infiltration of water and several different gasses into the solid body of the throat. The infiltrations produced some of the most startling and beautiful crystals and oxides ever found in the earth. Collectors of mineral specimens throughout the world regard Tsumeb as the single principal source of so vast a range of gorgeous and unusual rocks that anything near a complete collection would be a prize of incalculable value. Tsumeb can be justifiably listed among the greatest natural wonders of earth. Never before has a mineral source delivered so much extra-ordinary material, mineralogical and aesthetically speaking, in all phases over a period of almost one hundred years. An immense some two hundred and forty different minerals have been identified from this locality. Although there are other sites similarly rich in minerals, none of them attains the fascination of Tsumeb. This is because so many of the crystals found in Tsumeb are bigger and of much higher quality than those found elsewhere. To date some fifty-five minerals have been registered as occurring only in Tsumeb. The De Wet Shaft - the "Grand Old Lady" of Namibian mining for more than sixty years and the centre piece of Tsumeb itself, stopped production on June 30, 1996, due to the depletion of economical ore in the Tsumeb ore body. Today she still features prominently in town, representing times of grandeur and trade of a different level. Tsumeb II - A unique mineral locality, written by Georg Gebhard, GG Publishing, Grossenseifen, Germany - the best informative book on Tsumeb, the history of copper and the world's greatest mineral locality, is advisable to be read before visiting this unique place on earth. This book contributes to Tsumeb's legacy of being a mineral fascination with beautiful stories about discovering and collecting. |
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