This photo was taken with my cell phone from the plane just before landing. In this photo you can see the sprawling township of Soweto to the bottom left (probably less than 5% of the actual township which houses over 3 million people), three huge mine dumps in the front centre and left, and the national soccer stadium that is famed for being shaped like an African pot (or calabash) just off centre to the right. The CBD of Johannesburg is in the distance with one last notable land mark being the mine dump that is currently being demolished to the centre left. The removal of numerous mine dumps around the city in recent years has resulted in a massively changing landscape.

Urban legend has it that the mine dumps, being a remnant of the very early mining days in and around Johannesburg, are still rich in gold dust because of the less than efficient mining practises of days gone by. After a Japanese firm offered to purchase the seemingly worthless land for a pretty penny, it sparked renewed interest in the dumps resulting in the sand being reprocessed and reasonable quantities of gold once again being extracted from these mine dumps. Whether or not there is any truth to this, I may never know. But it does make for an interesting tale to tell my grandchildren some day.