Africa's Gold Hoard

**Africa's Gold Hoard** is the 15th episode in Season 2 of Expedition Unknown.

## Plot Synopsis

Gates travels to South Africa to search for the missing Kruger Millions, the gold coins of the country's entire financial reserve. The treasure vanished overnight after South African President Paul Kruger loaded the hoard on a train and it vanished in 1900 during the Boer War.

## Historical Context

"The year is 1900, and the capital of the South African Republic is under attack by the British. With the city about to fall, President Paul Kruger loads the entire financial reserves of his nation onto a train - gold coins worth more than a billion dollars today - and he flees to the east. The British win the war, but despite countless treasure hunters searching for over a century, the location of the vast fortune has never been found."

- Josh Gates

## Summary

Josh heads to Pretoria, South Africa and meets historian, Fransjohan Pretorius. Fransjohan gives him background on the Boer War and Paul Kruger. Josh takes the Delagoa Bay Railway to Machadodorp where the gold was unloaded. He looks for the gold in an old train tunnel but doesn't find anything. He goes to the Gold Reef City Mint and meets director, Glenn Schoeman. A treasure hunter found a coin he believed was a Kruger coin and sent it for authentication. Josh and Glenn test it and find it's a genuine coin.

Josh goes to meet archaeologist Anton Van Vollenhoven at the Sudwala Caves. They explore the caves because one legend tells of a Boer Officer named Fritz Joubert Duquesne who supposedly brought the coins to the cave. They find a tin can and a new coin but no gold. Josh then goes to meet Edward Mabunda, a Shangaan tribesman, in Hazyview. Josh gets permission from the village chief to search for the millions in Kruger National Park and the chief gifts him a spear.

Josh heads to meet the treasure hunter who found the authentic Kruger coin - Lukas Van Der Merwe. Along the way, he sees a lion, a hippo, impalas, and elephants. He meets Lukas, Nico Moolman, and Sergeant Mark Preston at an anti-poaching unit base camp. They go to an area in the bush and search for the coins with metal detectors and find an old bullet. At night they use a drone and find the front of a Boer saddle, a horseshoe, and an old pistol.

## Final Words

"My search for the Kruger millions has taken me on a South African odyssey. The story itself is no myth. The money is real, minted in pure gold. Its route is known, preserved along steel tracks. So, where did the coins end up? Are they buried beneath the park that shares their name? Or could they be hidden in a prehistoric cave? At this very moment, dogged treasure hunters are searching acre by acre to find out. The truth is that the Kruger millions are more than just treasure. The coins reflect the history of South Africa itself, stamped with the face of a divisive founding father who helped scar the continent. Unearthing the history of the Boer War is important, but perhaps it's best that the money and the ideals it symbolizes remains buried deep under the veldt of a new South Africa - one whose real treasures are its people, its animals, and its breathtaking wilderness."

- Josh Gates

## Notes & Trivia

* *This is where you can put notes and trivia, anything that is interesting or strange can be included here*

## Quotes

* "It's a little bit like milk and vodka and corn on the cob."
* "Oh yeah, I can get you wife number four easy. We have a town known as Las Vegas."
* "That is a herd of impala. Named, of course, after the Chevy Impala. One of America's best selling mid-size cars for over 10 years."
* "Lukas and Nico may look like two runners up from a Hemingway look-alike contest, but don't be fooled."
* "We've left the safety of the car and by the looks of the faces in our security team, it's clear this isn't Disney's Animal Kingdom.

## References

1. ↑ https://travel.home.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/travel/fullrights/2016/07/12/0/TEXU211H\_Josh-Gates-Shangana-Tribe-Krugers-Coins\_206582\_711539\_1257154.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.725.suffix/1491593023387.jpeg