It was around the year 1900 that a wagon load of unwashed guys carrying picks and shovels arrived in Johannesburg. These were pretty rough guys, killers, who were notorious for raping cattle and stealing woman. I don’t think you need a description of the women that were available in a gold mining town around that period, but with a little imagination, I bet you can get a pretty good fix on it.

My Grand Mother Dulcie Rottfoot, at the tender age of 46 embarked on a solitary wild adventure trip to Johannesburg the City of Gold to seek out employment.
She was a tough cookie having braved the trek on her own, and it took her 2 years to get from Kimberley to Johannesburg, a distance of 200 miles. She walked most of the way. The trip was hell for Dulcie, along the way she was accosted almost hourly and with her bare hands had to fight off marauding Indians from the hotels of Kwa Zulu who tried to rape, pillage and burn the curries. After 3 turbulent divorces over a 24 hour period Dulcie Rottfoot finally settled in the City of Gold and turned her exceptional talents to the upliftment of the people – mainly the very rich. In order to raise desperately needed funds for the community, (and on the odd occasion for herself), people would gather in the Town square every Sunday morning after church. Dulcie would prepare her next fund raising surprise. One of her favourite events was throwing dwarfs at the Mayor. It was hugely popular with hordes of miners who attended in their thousands. Part of Dulcie’s mystique, hidden charm and latent sensuality was the fact that nobody ever knew what her next surprise would be.
While miners toiled under the city, Johannesburg was buzzing, liquor flowed, brass bands marched and food of every kind was in abundance. Believe it or not, one of the most popular culinary delights at the time was Frogs legs in garlic butter with lemon sauce and capers. A direct result of its popularity caused international conflict between the governments of South Africa and France. Ex patriot frogs were returning to France in wheelchairs. The dusty little town of Johannesburg was starting to blossom attracting more and more traders, entrepreneurs, murderers, gamblers, horse thieves and buttock fondlers.

Bars and Bordellos opened on every corner and by now Dulcie Rottfoot headed up all the entertainment for the town folk. She’d arrange cake baking classes, snake catching competitions for the children as well as public hangings every Wednesday around lunch time on the church steps. Alas, one morning in the early spring Dulcie Rottfoot collapsed from terminal Halitosis and died.
The gold rush had started and nothing could stop it.
Some of the most famous South African landmarks during the mid fifties were mountains of yellow sand (mine dumps) surrounding central Johannesburg. They were the remnants of the gold rush where over a period of 80 years, billions of tons of gold bearing rock were hauled to the surface until finally one day, under the city the machines shut down, the tunnels and caverns became still and there was no more gold to be mined.

About 3 years ago South Africa was awarded the 2010 Games and a major part of the planning strategy was to improve the transport system that had to move millions of foreign visitors around the country during the games and festivities.

Now please pay attention here. In order to improve a transport system you have to have a transport system to start with, this allows you to improve on it. Hello, spot the blooper! South Africa doesn’t have a transport system so how are we going to improve on it?
Anyway, a team of guys commissioned by the government and armed with laptops and hardhats came up with a brilliant rail system idea that would link the key cities in Gauteng for 2010 and beyond. It is called the Gautrain Project. The dream of having a real underground like New York or London was not possible in Johannesburg mainly because of the huge cost factor and the daunting logistics of building a rail network under the city – which is mined out and hollow.
Now let’s face it, the guys who mined the gold in those days were motivated forward planners because the last 80 years of mining under Johannesburg has provided us with a network of tunnels, tube stations and rail links that would put New York and London to shame.
A myriad of intertwined passages and tunnels with flashing lights, gleaming tracks and changing signals lead off in a clickity clack, clickity clack symphony deeper and deeper into the bowels of the earth. Rumour has it at the deepest station it is extremely hot.

So when you join us in 2010 and you buy a ticket for a trip on the Gautrain be careful, you might just travel to Australia.

This Video Is a EN Report On The Gautrain City Rail

Demolition in Braamfontein, Johannesburg to make way for the Gautrain

Digging the Foundations of the Gautrain

Gautrain Segment Erection

Gautrain Arials