Rediscovering the oldest Tunnel In South Africa. 🇿🇦

[@piet8803]

That old railway line goes on for a very long bit. When I worked near Matjiesfontein and Laingsburg I would walk on the old track that is just farm road now. You find lots of things that people threw out of the windows of the train.

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

Fascinating, I bet you found a lot of interesting stuff 😮

[@paulsmi55]

Fascinating, thanks Adam. My dad was called up for military service at Kaffrarian Rifles in the 50s, so it's also interesting to see the monument you came across.

[@davidpetzer5725]

My grandfather was on that train that derailed in 1914 , hence the monument to those that lost thier lives .

[@poepflater]

I know there is a tunnel in Bain's kloof too.. never checked it out though. Don;t know if it is open still though, someone gassed themselves in their car there in the 90s... probably built by Bain. I worked in the local museum one holiday when I was like 10. they had his diary.... it would describe the animals treking by for a week non-stop on yearly migration.

[@driaan_louw]

Bro I'm so amazed when you find this stuff 🔥 legend!

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

You and me both! 😂

[@Deontjie]

They build the second one, because the locomotives got too big for the tight urn of the first one. Then later they build the third one. Opened in 1989. Which was the longest train tunnel in Africa and the southern hemisphere. Until the tunnel of the Gautrain. There is also another tunnel/s to the west, just after De Doorns's railway station.

[@matthewshambler2644]

It's a very cool bit of history, I've done the trip before and would definitely go back. That sign you saw "Tunnel" is the old Tunnel station, it used to be a very nice camp site once they stopped using the line but unfortunately people did what they do and now it's wrecked.

[@tlroctober]

Awesome dude and original content! Love it!😎🔥👍

[@Galactic-Jack1978]

In 2014 my friends and I did the hex pass ecotrek which was a basic open rail coach pulled by a tractor with auxiliary railway wheels. This took us all the way up past the monument and back obviously. Got to see this tunnel and walk through it. Sadly the ecotrek operation was shutdown sometime later by the rail safety regular due to unsafe operation which I still feel was bull dust considering how many times I see people hanging off our normal passenger trains. Another cool video dude.

[@johnstuart8511]

sure on the right track. But the road is in need of repairs. Grader. What a shame what people do to destroy History. Thank you for finding the Tunnel and sharing. Regards from East London, South Africa 🇿🇦.

[@Camdouin]

Have a look at the tunnels in Shongweni valley. it is exactly the same as this. easily accessible to. We ride out there in the valleys and travel through them. They are much longer though and you can't go through them without a light. They were built in 1899 and 1902. one is still active the other not and has not been for years and years.

[@richardrostin7373]

Smaak dit stukkend, keep up the Vlog good man!!

[@GoostTube]

Wow what a great explore, well done.

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

Thanks 👍

[@josefadario6593]

What an incredible amount of effort placed in these endeavours 😮 Do you know of the tunnel between Wood mere, Primrose, and Nigel, going past Angelo, if I am not mistaken ?

[@carolvanrooyen4929]

Love it, but show a bit more of the surrounding country side at both ends. 😊

[@caspar1975able]

Cool! needed Bev for comedy-history tag-team

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

Next time!

[@bevanpope7924]

My wheelchair is in for a service- I will be back soon!

[@bevanpope7924]

Loved, liked, subscribed … ages ago! Dig you and the tunnel Tjom!

[@RP-mm9ie]

interesting bit of history,

[@JamesShamley-y6b]

First time I have watched your program, so I don't know if you know about a tunnel dug through a mountain @ Patensie. To get water to the other side of the mountain. If I'm correct it was also dug in the 1800.

[@janinekotze387]

So cool🔥🙌🏻

[@virginiadutoit3577]

Yes, give us more, much more!

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

Watch this space 😊

[@Deontjie]

@@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger A suggestion, go explore the southernmost goldmine in Africa. At Hansiesrivier, north-east of Napier. 34°23'05.37" S 19°48'26.93" E. Don't go when it is wet. Take a rope and a friend and good lighting. Some say there is a secondary shaft from the top. Apart from the side shaft that also split in two.

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

@@Deontjie have u been there?

[@Deontjie]

@@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger Yep. Without a rope and a decent light. I got a bit scared 50 meters in.

[@Deontjie]

Then there are the manganese prospects shafts on Clarence Drive. And the underground second world war bunkers opposite the coffee shop, 100 meters before Steenbras River.

[@mybinneband]

The Kaffrarian Rifles 1876-1986 - Francis L. Coleman THE KAFFRARIAN RIFLES, pride of the Border, trace the origin of the Regiment back to 1876 when its pioneers in the Buffalo Volunteer Rifles saw action in the 9th Frontier War in what is now Transkei. Subsequently it took part in the Basutoland Campaign of 1879, was in the Langeberg in 1896-7, and was prominent throughout the Anglo-Boer War including the siege of Wepener and the famous `De Wet hunt prior to the onset of the guerilla warfare which brought the war to its end. It suffered major disaster at the Hex River in 1914 when the train carrying it to Cape Town was derailed at high speed.

[@gougaldougal]

NICE ONE! 💯 keep it up Adam - like you I'm doing a little bit of investigative reporting on my channel - I really love exploring the Cape👍

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

I will check it out

[@Deontjie]

Go to Google Earth. Put on the photo layer. And look for Deontjie photos in remote spots in the Western Cape. Easy as that. And yes, an XR works better.

[@ruthlongridge]

Great place to prepare for the apocolaughs. The biggest danger is the mould in bat guano

[@nicoarnold2200]

Haha was thinking the same thing lol

[@ruthlongridge]

@@nicoarnold2200 the shelter or the poop?

[@nicoarnold2200]

@@ruthlongridge LOL I guess both.

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

Keep going guys, enjoying the thread 😂

[@nicoarnold2200]

@@AdamSpiresWannabeVloggerWill do! Have you also had these thoughts?

[@neelstheron3252]

What amazes me about this tunnel is that it was built in a time when money was really scarce, and it was never used!

[@davidpetzer5725]

It was used , railway line was there , monument to the 1914 train dreailment , my gramps was on it .

[@michaeljcoleman7126]

Very interesting bit of history, but the background music a bit too loud at times 😊

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

Noted for next time 👍🏻😊

[@michaeljcoleman7126]

@@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger thanx for your reply 😊

[@wzwick]

Feels closer to an advert for Ford Tygervalley, where a guy looks at a tunnel.

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

Well they did sponsor it so the deserve some airtime Bru 😂

[@wzwick]

@@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger I hear you man, def show them some love. Just saying that you showed so much love that it felt closer to an advert.

[@kurtvanvollenhoven7219]

How did it look on the other side of the tunnel?

[@MrDillylama]

Hedgehogs? Ja, those things are deadly compared to their tame cousins, porcupines!

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

Haha my wife spotted my labelling and wondered who would pick up on it first! 😂

[@bsleds4585]

Only a south african faceing 2 farm gates in the middle of nowhere gets out his car and locks imay be wrong certainly sounded like it. Lmao. good vid

[@mohamedyasinsungay4018]

This is the stufff I like and wanna do

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

Don’t bud!!

[@chrisferreira9098]

Why did you lock your car when you got out to open the gate? 😂🤣 Awsome post as always! 👏

[@Aaabbbcccmmmzzz]

Saw a dodgy meerkat. It is South Africa after all

[@andreventer8734]

Very interesting but surely not the oldest tunnel. Maybe the oldest RAILWAY tunnel.

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

Yes, you are correct 👍🏻

[@jeremyunsworth2373]

Hedgehogs? Are you sure? Porcupines maybe.

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

haha yeh I did mean porcupines! lol

[@MarcusThuynsma]

Why didn't you show the other side of the tunnel 😢

[@melindaloubser870]

Yes, I was also waiting in anticipation to see the other end

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

the road continues into more farm land along the railway track.

[@afriquelesud]

Typical city folks 😂 My in-laws lived on that farm, a few decades ago. We often travelled those dirt roads with regular 2WD bakkies. My grandpa built the tunnel that was completed in 1929; they lived at Kleinstraat then. He had a team of white labourers, and they worked with 2lb and 4lb hammers, with cold chisels. The British throne denied them the use of dynamite, following the Anglo Boer War. Those roads are regular farm roads, also traversed with S Class Mercedes-Benz cars.

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

Very interesting history. The roads are 4x4 access now because of the rains last year…things change over a few decades 😛

[@jontheb123]

First!

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

Not the last 😅

[@jpnewman075]

Did I miss something? Coming from the Loxton, Northern Cape I would like to know and possibly confirm tunnel otherwise just click bate and falsehood.

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

“Know and confirm”…what do you mean?

[@paulkruger3070]

Nothing new bro, there have been 4x4 groups doing little tours there for a few years now, lol.

[@simonrechner9395]

Its a shame you didnt do any research what so ever on the tunnels before you started...Did the ford even make it home back to TYGERVALLEY FORD?😂 The Kuga caught on fire...the Bantams had a 1800RPM idle...The rangers dont start🤮

[@Reson8life]

I was the 100th “like”. 👍🏻 Yay! 🫸🏻🫷🏻But I wasn’t able to folllow ☹️ Am I just doff or what???

[@AdamSpiresWannabeVlogger]

You can just hit subscribe. Thanks for watching 😉