Grootfontein

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Grootfontein lies on the B8, a Namibian National Road that leads from Windhoek to the Caprivi Strip in the north-eastern part of Namibia. The town lies in the Otavi triangle and in Afrikaans its name means "Big Spring". (There is indeed a large hot spring near the town). In 1885, 40 boer families from the north-west of South Africa settled here. They were part of a group known as the Dorstland Trekkers and were heading towards Angola to settle there but when that territory fell under Portuguese control, they turned back and established the "Republic Upingtonia" at Grootfontein. Ten years later, mining operations started in the Otavi region (see article on "Tsumeb") and the Germans took control and established a military base as a gate to the Caprivi Strip.

Like all the towns in the Otavi triangle (e.g. Tsumeb and Kombat), Grootfontein is very green in summer but drier in winter. In spring, Jacaranda trees bloom in profusion. The town has an old German Schutztruppe fortress from the year 1896, which today houses a museum that expounds on the local history. The economic mainspring of the area was for many decades the Berg Aukas mine (forget about trying to pronounce it in English!) to the north east of the town. This produced zinc and vanadium but has since closed. This is dolomite country and the carbonate deposits in the upper parts of the mine have yielded interesting fossils of simian or pongoid creatures that lived millions of years before modern humans evolved.

Giant Meteorite

Main article: Hoba meteorite.

Twenty four kilometres west of Grootfontein lies the huge Hoba meteorite, also known as the Hoba West meteorite. It is easily the largest known meteorite on Earth, as well as being the largest single mass of iron known to exist on or near the surface of the planet. The meteorite, named after the Hoba West Farm where it was discovered in 1920, has not been moved since it landed on Earth over 80,000 years ago. The discovery of the Hoba meteorite was a chance find, as the meteorite left no large crater or other sign of an impact; the Earth's atmosphere slowed down the 66 ton iron meteorite enough so that it descended at free-fall velocity. At this speed, the meteorite stayed mostly intact and whatever minor crater is may have made was soon buried by sand and soil. The Hoba meteorite, when discovered, was a 66 ton, tabloid lump of rock, measuring in at 2.7 by 2.7 metres long and 0.9 metres high. However, since being uncovered in 1920, the meteorite has begun to erode and rust and tourists at first took bits of the meteorite as souvenirs. Samples were also taken by scientists. Because of this, the meteorite shrank to just over 60 tons. This lead to the South West Africa Government (this was before the name of the territory changed to Namibia) declaring the Hoba meteorite a national monument in March 1955 in order to forestall further vandalism to it. The meteorite is composed of about 84% iron and around 16% nickel, with traces of cobalt and other elements. There is a crust of iron hydroxides on parts of the surface, the result of weathering. The official classification of the meteorite is nickel-rich ataxite.

Transport

Grootfontein is a railhead on TransNamib, the national railway and transport system.de:Grootfontein fr:Grootfontein