Dome Tours - A rocking experience!!

Geological Tours that will rock you!!!

The Vredefort Dome really offers a scope into the life of Southern Africa, there is the phenomanal geology of the meteorite impact which could be responsible for our economy and the gold mining industry. Askoppies, which is an ancient Sotho/Tswana city from the 1650's and the old gold mining village of Venterskroon which provides us with an insight into the way of life during the gold rush.

Our tours will prove to you that the Vredefort Dome is indeed a meteorite impact site with a wide bio-diversity. Tours can be tailor made to suit your needs. For smaller groups we offer self-drive tours and tour buses can be arranged for larger groups. Our tour guides are qualified, experienced and knowledgeable in the geology and other interesting facts about the Vredefort Dome.

To really appreciate the Vredefort Dome one actually needs a whole weekend but half day tours are available for the drive through visitor.

The following places of interest can be expected to be visitied on our tours:

• Venterskroon
• This old village is one of the very little de-proclaimed municipal towns in South Africa and dates back to 1889, it was established due to the gold mining indusrty. The little ghost town has a few interesting stories to tell....

• Old Gold minetunnels
• These tunnels were mined from 1889-1911 and again from 1930-1937 with a total weight of 130kg gold extracted. This was not a very prosperous industry as the local gold reef was not part of the main reef of Witwatersrand and did not yeld impressive amounts.

• Late Iron Age site of Askoppies
• Askoppies refers to the ash-middens created by the Sotho/Tswana peope who stayed in the area from the 1650's to the 1800's. Today there are remnants of the stone walls which gives a perspective into the ways of live of this ancient community.

• Anglo Boerwar sites
• The Anglo Boer war past through this area during August 1900 when genl. Christiaan de Wet crossed the Vaal River at Schoemansdrift entering the Transvaal. This was an important mission as Pres. Steyn from the Orange Free state was in de Wet's company and had an urge to meet with Pres. Kruger from the ZAR. The battle of Tygerfontein took place on 7 August 1900, De Wet used the concentric hills of the Vredefort Dome to his advantage and escaped from the British Forces through van Vuurenskloof.

• Totius Farm House
• This is the holiday house of Totius, a well knowm Afrikaans writer and poet. It is here were the Bible was translated to Afrikaans by him and were he also lost his daughter. She was tragically hit by lightning whilst closing the windows before a storm.

• Bushman Etchings on granophyre dykes
• The granophyre is a rock that was created from a lava due to an impact melt and has inclusions of other rocks in it. It is on these rocks on which the Bushmen did their art work. The granophyre dykes are also situated close to the center of the Dome where one gets an idea of the brute force of the meteorite impact.

• Wild Olive grove
• This bush wich is the largest in the world of its kind belongs to the Olea Europaea subsp. Africana and is a National monument of South Africa.

• Pseudotachylite
• The pseudochylite veins in the Parys granite was formed by the granite layers having friction against each other due to the meteorite impact. This action pulverized the granite into an powder which burnt back into the rock.

• Vaal River views
• The Vaal river is South Africa's second largerst river and is the border between the Northwest and Freestate provinces. The river offers great fly-fishing, birding, canoeing and white-water rafting oppurtunities.

Please contact so that we can tailor-make a rocking tour for you!! A popular option is a half day tour combined with a picnic on the banks of the river and a tranquil canoe trip