Wednesday, January 20th - Cape Town to Johannesburg, South Afirca

This morning we were up early with our bags packed and out for pick up by 5:30.  After that we had breakfast, which was a bit of a challenge since they didn't normally open that early for breakfast, and then we got on a bus and headed for the airport.  Check-in went quickly and the wait in the airport was not too long.  Besides there were lots of tour group people around to talk to!

The flight to Johannesburg was about two and a half hours but the time went by very quickly.  I think most of our group was sleeping!  I don't remember whether we had a meal on the plane but I'm betting we did since the South African Airlines always seem to serve great food.  I don't think we made any food stops until we had dinner so we must at least have had a snack on the plane.  By the time we got our bags and got out of the airport and loaded on to the bus, it was certainly well after noon.  At the airport we were met by our next bus driver, Jaques (no idea of spelling), who is going to be with us for the next several days while we tour around South Africa.  

Our first stop was in Soweto.  Here we were to have either a bike tour or a bus tour through the SOuth WEstern TOwnship (SOWETO).  It took us over an hour and a half to get from the airport to Soweto.  It seemed like heavy traffic but the guide said it was just the usual.  Along the way he pointed out various sights and told us what would be found in what direction.  He also told us the history of Jo'burg and other information about the city and surrounding area and the gold industry.

When we got to Soweto we stopped near the Hector Pieterson Museum where the bikes were all lined up and ready to go on the other side of the road.  It took quite a while to get everyone who wanted to do the bike tour all suited up.  I was originally going to go but after getting on one of the bikes, all of which were small, and just bending my left nee up to put it on the pedal I decided I really shouldn't be biking because my knee already hurt and it hadn't actually done anything yet except sit on the pedal.  So while I went back to the bus, the other bikers started off on their journey.  

To the rest of us, they looked extremely silly and we had a great laugh.  The bikes were small but had high handlebars.  The helmets were not bike helmets but more like firemen's hats that just sort of sat at the top of their heads but did have a strap.  Randy looked really funny on his bike because he is so tall.  He was sitting up straight with his red fireman's had on his head and his knees bent out to the side.  He looked like a five-year old just starting out on his first ride without training wheels and Fran and I just couldn't stop laughing.

The rest of us did the tour around Soweto on the bus.  We spent a bit of time outside the Hector Pieterson Memorial looking at the outside displays but did not go into the actual museum except to use the washrooms.  I had been there before so knew it was a great museum but we did not have time to do much more today so had to settle for the outside exhibits.  Pieterson was 13 years old when he was killed in the 1976 Soweto Uprising where 10,000 black students and other supporters marched from a school to a local stadium and the police opened fire and killed 23 of them.  A reporter took a picture of a dying Pieterson being carried by another black student while his sister ran along side.  I remember that picture from back in the 70's.  At the time I thought it was a segregation issue as in the states but in fact it was a language issue.  The government had decided that all education would be taught in Afrikaans but most of the black students didn't even speak Afrikaans so it was definitely a measure to disadvantage the non-white Afrikaans students.  While not segregation necessarily, it was definitely discrimination and it was this event that led the rest of the world to begin sanctions on the South African government.

We saw Nelson Mandela's house and Desmond Tutu's house, both of which are on Vilikasi Street - quite an historical street with two Nobel Piece Prize winners on it.  We didn't go in either one.  I'm not sure if Tutu's house is open to the public but Mandela's is and I had already been there on a previous visit.  We saw other sights as well but then it really started to pour rain so we had to stop and try to locate our cyclists so they would not be left out in the rain.  Well, locating them turned out to be a bit more difficult than planned.  Their guide, who was somewhere out on the streets with them, had left his cell phone in the office and no one knew where they were.  Eventually, one of the wives on the tour suggested calling her husband and that's how we finally tracked them down.  Our guide was not too impressed to think that their guide didn't have a cell phone on him as that would be a big issue in an emergency - unless one of the people on the tour had a cell phone, which they did in this place.  I have a feeling GAdventures was going to hear about this tiny screw up.

Eventually we tracked them down where they were hiding out of the rain back at Nelson Mandela House.  They weren't too wet so we let them back on the bus and away we went on the next part of our tour.  Now this was not just a light rain.  This was a heavy downpour with sheets of rain coming down hard.  As we drove away we found a lot of streets including the main highway were full of water and in some cases they were flooded and closed.  I guess our guys were really lucky to find shelter so soon or they could have been totally drenched.

After a bit of a drive, probably 1 - 1.5 hours after a few delays, we got to our hotel or lodge for the night.  It was just outside of Johannesburg and in a rural area surrounded by farmland.  The rooms were very nice and the area in front of our rooms (one storey all in a long row) was a large garden and farm area with some animals on it.  I don't remember what kinds of animals there were, and I can't say that I even went out to try and see them.  By the time some of us got to our rooms it was already raining once again so we didn't venture much farther than the covered  walkway between our rooms.  And then, because we were tired and had yet another early start in the morning, we didn't stay up too late anyway.

Oh, I forgot that on the way to the lodge we stopped at a mall and went into a restaurant for an early dinner.  Since we didn't have much to eat for lunch the early dinner was most welcome, and since we had been up so early in the morning an early night was also needed.  The restaurant was full but we sat out on a patio inside the mall at two long tables and it was a great meal - good food and a very relaxed atmosphere that everyone enjoyed.  I think it was one of the Spur restaurants that I really enjoyed in South Africa.

Tuesday, January 19th - Cape Town, South Africa

We had breakfast on the patio at the hotel/hostel and there were lots of tour folks around, all heading in different directions to see what they could of Cape Town before we leave tomorrow morning.

We went out to do some shopping as we needed to buy some sheets or something that would serve as sleeping bags for some of our camping experiences and some Perfect Sleep bug spray.  We were told where to go but we walked right past it.  Eventually we asked someone and they sent us back and this time we did see because it had a pretty big sign that we obviously just missed.  Unfortunately, that store didn't have everything we needed so we had to go on to another place.  

We took a taxi to the next spot, Game, and found what we needed.  The taxi driver waited for us and we then went up to Kirstenbosch Gardens to do some touring.   By the time we got there it was almost lunch time.  Fran and Randy went to have lunch (carrying all our purchases with them) while I decided to take the shuttle tour first and have lunch later.  That meant no one really had to carry the bag around at all.  I'm kind of glad I didn't join the two of them for lunch because they decided to try the local worms.  I guess when the order came it was huge and they really only ate a few of them just to say that they tried.  I'm not sorry that I missed that experience.

Kirstenbosch Gardens was formed in 1913 and is 36 hectares in size.  It is set in Table Mountain National Park and Table Mountain is the backdrop to many of the scenes within the garden.  The shuttle tour was to cover the highlights of the garden and then return me to the entrance gate so I could continue on with the rest of my tour.  I never did figure out quite why but for some reason the driver decided he couldn't go back to the entrance gate at the end of the tour so he let us all out at one point and said we could just walk down that path and follow the signs to get to the main area.  Well, that didn't work so well.  A lot of us wandered around for quite a while and didn't get any closer to where we were expecting to be.  And because of the dense foliage in many places in the park, it was impossible to actually see where you wanted to be.  It was hot and I was tired and I definitely was not impressed with being dumped in the middle of the garden with no clear direction.  I eventually made my way back after several wrong turns and some backtracking and also asking park workers for direction.  By the time I got back Randy and Fran were definitely done their lunch and glad to get rid of the bags so they could go do their exploring.  I no longer remember what I had for lunch.  The setting was very nice but the food was very expensive and not really all that great.

The park, however, was absolutely beautiful with tree-lined paths where branches overlapped so it was like being in a tunnel.  Other pathways were equally as shaded and relaxing and there were benches along the way so you could sit and relax and enjoy the wonderful views.  There were Incredible shades of green in the trees and shrubs and grass and all against the backdrop of green hills and mountains.  And yes, the hills all looked very lush and green from the view of the park.  Obviously this is the wetter side of Table Mountain.  There were lush green lawns with various levels of flowers, bushes, shrubs  and trees.  There were ponds and water flows throughout the park and even some canopy walks so you could enjoy the view from above.

There were flowers of all types and sizes and colours: purple, mauve, yellow, white, pink, red, orange and so on, and I finally saw some proteas, which are the national flower of South Africa but apparently very hard to find at this time of year.  They are really quite lovely.  The proteas were discovered and named in 1735 by a Swedish botanist who named them after the Greek God Proteus who was able to change his form and shape.  They are normally red shades ranging from a cream colour with red edges to a deep Crimson overall.  I've never seen another flower like them and they really are quite beautiful.  There were also beautiful birds of all colours and sizes including hummingbirds that just seemed to stand still as they gathered nectar from the various plants.

It was a beautiful and restful park to spend time in so a very enjoyable afternoon.  It was also the day of an evening concert so the traffic was quite amazing.  I guess their summer concerts are very popular and this one (someone we didn't know) was sold out weeks in advance.  As it was an evening concert it shouldn't have bothered us much but the traffic was unbelievable even when we came in shortly after noon.  As we left there was a steady stream of cars and people coming in.

We went back to the hostel to clean up and to get organized for the next day.  At 6:45 we met in the lobby and all got on a bus to go out for dinner in a local home that was about half an hour away given the traffic.  Hazel was our host and she is a journalist.  We met her sister who was helping her with the evening and her kids who were really quite adorable.  Hazel was very talkative about all kinds of topics.  One of our group asked some pretty personal questions but she didn't seem to mind.  I should remember more of the conversation because it really was quite interesting but no, many months later as I write this) I really can't remember what was said at all.  I do know that the meal was great with meat and potatoes and vegetables mixed together in a stew/soup-like dish.  The deserts were like squares and the others seemed to like them.  I wasn't too excited by them.

The home looked like a good-sized home from the street and it was on a very nice street.  Inside, the house seemed a bit more chopped up than ours would be.  The room we ate in had two tables set up and we could just barely fit around them (18 of us though!).  There was a couch back against the wall on the one side and that's where the kids sat to eat.  There weren't a lot of pictures or extra decorations around the house - just the basic essentials.  Off of this main room there were doors to bedrooms, the bathroom and the kitchen.  The kitchen was a long galley style kitchen that you might find in an apartment except that it was open at both ends.  Hazel and her husband both work so this is not a poor household by African standards.  I would guess that they are lower middle class but I really don't know that for sure.  Perhaps they are upper class blacks if you divided the races.  

After dinner we went back to the hostel for our last night in Cape Town and most of us just went to our room to get ready to start our next adventure in the morning - meaning packing up yet again and then getting some sleep.

Monday, January 18th - Cape Town, South Africa

We left the apartment just before 8 a.m.   That meant it was an early morning again as we were up and packed and had breakfast and took everything with us when we went down at 8:00.   Glendon, our driver from the airport, met us downstairs.  We loaded everything into the vehicle and he drove us to our next hotel (where our next tour starts) so we could check in and drop off our bags before heading out on our full-day tour of Table Mountain National Park.

Although Glendon wanted to take us there, we skipped some of the beaches like Haut Bay along the coast because we had already been past them on our bus rides.  Instead we went straight to Cape Point.  The views along the way were absolutely beautiful with so many lovely sandy beaches and secluded bays as well as rugged coastline and rising hills on the inland side.  It was another lovely day and all very beautiful and colourful.  We even saw some baboons, both big and little, on the last part of the journey inside Table Mountain National Park and close to the cape itself.  Unfortunately we didn't see any of the other animals that also live in the park.  The park was formed in 1938 and now includes 7,750 hectares of land all along the coast and peninsula.

At Cape Point there is a funicular that takes you up from the parking lot to the next level.  Then you have to climb stairs to reach the old 1910 lighthouse, which seems very small but sits on top of a hill so it would be well seen by passing ships.  There is a lookout with incredible views and then a walking path winds around the hill and out to end of the point.   There are actually three points at the southern end:  Cape of Good Hope, Cape Maclear and Cape Point.  We walked to Cape Point and we could look back on Cape Maclear toward the Cape of Good Hope.   Of course, as my sister points out, the latter was first called the Cape of Storms by Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 but King John II of Portugal renamed it the Cape of Good Hope so it sounded more optimistic as a new sea route to the East.

The water looked a long way down and it was straight down in most places.  The sheer rock walls dropped into incredibly clear blue water.  There were some small sandy beaches around but you would never climb down to them.  And the water is rough enough you probably wouldn't boat to them and risk getting that close to the rock face.  I wonder if the beaches are there all the time or if they are sometimes bigger depending on the tides.  Of course the water is so cold and the wind is pretty strong so not likely anyone ever sits on these beaches.  The stonework on the walkways was beautiful and fit perfectly with the landscape around it.  The green and brown land and the grey rock face combined with the clear blue waters and the beautiful blue sky and white clouds made for incredible pictures - way too many pictures.  

On the way down I once again took the funicular but Fran and Randy took the stairs.  Once down at the parking lot, Randy decided to walk to the next beach while Fran and I rode in the car.  Randy said it was quite a walk up and down but it didn't take him very long so we didn't have to wait very long for him.   While waiting we enjoyed the beach area which was very rocky, not sandy like the beaches closer to Cape Town, and had lots of boulders out in the sea with waves crashing over them.  The view looking back at the Cape of Good Hope was impressive but it looked more like a pile of loose rock than an actual piece of land.  It is a very rocky outcropping and I guess over time parts of it have been broken and eroded away causing the effect.  It is definitely not as high and impressive as Cape Point with its towering 200 metre cliffs and straight drops to the sea - but then I only saw that one from above and this one from below so maybe it was just my viewpoint that made the difference.

Two interesting things to note here, or at least two things I learned and found interesting.  Although I believed it to be true, neither Cape Point or the Cape of Good Hope are the most southerly points of Africa and they are not where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean.  That honour goes to Cape Agulhas about 150 km to the east.  It is apparently just a rather level coastline and not all that impressive and that's why the other capes probably get more credit than they should.  Who knew?  The other interesting thing is that the Cape of Good Hope is only 34 degrees south of the equator.  I thought it was way farther south than that and probably at an equivalent latitude to Cape Horn in South America which is 56 degrees south.  Pelee Island, Ontario is 42 degrees latitude north so not much further north of the equator than the Cape of Good Hope is south of the equator.  Who would have thunk it?

When we left the cape area we drove north on the other side of the peninsula to Simon's Town.  There we had lunch at the Seaforth Hotel with a very nice view of the ocean.  There was a nice beach there with some rocks around but lots of sandy areas.  Randy and Fran spent some time wading in the water but soon we were off on a short walk to see the African Penguins.  The Boulders Penguin Colony is right on the shore with a sandy and rocky beach.  There is a boardwalk at Foxy Beach for the tourists to wander around on and observe the penguins who live right in a residential area.  It seemed strange to be walking down a residential street and then just turning off the road on to a boardwalk to see the Penguins but there they were right below you on the beach and there were a lot of them.  

This protected penguin colony started with two pairs in 1982 and now has over 2,200 penguins.  It supposedly wasn't yet breeding season but there were a lot of penguins stay in close to their nests and we saw some eggs and even some chicks.  And the adults were very amorous standing side by side and rubbing their necks together.  Some were in the water but most were just standing around while we were there.  Some were moulting and looked rather scruffy but most were a beautiful shiny black and white and looked very healthy.  The moulting always seems like a real struggle to me.  Not only do they look scruffy but they cannot swim and that means they cannot eat and it takes weeks to complete the moulting.  I think it's a good thing I'm not a penguin because I'd never survive for three weeks without any food, even if I did stock up well in the previous month, which they apparently do.

We stayed on the boardwalk for quite a while as we were having so much fun watching them and they were so close.  The nests were just shallow indentations in the sand - obviously higher than where high tide might reach, and they were very close together with only a foot or so between nests.  The adults sitting on the nests were very conscientious about their duties and I'm sure the eggs were kept very warm.  Both parents take turns on the nest and penguins are monogamous and mate for life.  The fuzzy little chicks stayed right close to the parent's side and often huddled right under their arm or flipper or whatever you call it.  I didn't notice any "baby blues" or young adolescents who are a bluish grey in colour.  Everyone, except the chicks, seemed pretty black and white to me.  They did make a fair amount of noise and we found out after that they were once called jackass penguins because they sound like a donkey braying.  They are an endangered species but if this beach is any indication of their success, they should come off the endangered list soon.  They were definitely beautiful and fun to watch so we probably stayed a bit longer than our driver expected and I definitely took way too many pictures yet again.

We drove straight back to Cape Town and checked into our new hotel about 5 p.m.   There was some confusion with the rooms and for some reason they still think Gillian is coming even though she cancelled some time ago.  My room and Randy's was a double instead of a twin.  Fran, who was to be with Gillian, had bunk beds in her room so Randy moved to that room.  It's amazing how we just shove that boy around and this was his holiday originally.  We are the ones tagging along!  

We had our group meeting with the new tour group at 6:00 out on the back patio.  Our guide, Ardis or Hardis, seems really nice and the group seems pretty diverse.  There are 18 of us counting the guide: 5 couples and 8 singles; 3 from Germany, 2 from England, 2 from Scotland, 1 from Switzerland, 1 from South Africa and 9 from Canada; 9 males and 9 females so a pretty interesting group.  Once again a lot of Canadians and no Americans, which we have commented on several times over the past year as being quite different than in earlier years where most tour members were Americans.

I don't remember where we went for dinner but I think most of us just grabbed something in the restaurant at the hotel (or hostel in some ways!), which consisted of picnic tables outside on the patio the so we could see everything happening on the street.  It is a great spot but it does take quite a while to get your food if they are busy.  We had most of our breakfasts here too.  Some of the people on the tour flew in just today so they are on totally different times and went to bed very early.  We were lucky as we were already used to the time zone so we got to stay up a bit later and do some visiting.

Sunday, January 17th - Cape Town, South Africa

We got up early and walked to the Hop On Hop Off station to head over to our Robben Island tour at 11:00 and found out we couldn't get to the Gateway in time, so had to take a taxi instead.  Then we arrived so early that we had to put in an hour so we went to the closest outdoor cafe and had coffee. 

We thought we were going to the Gateway early but for some reason we got on the boat right away.  We thought they would just have us sitting there for a while but no, they left at 10:45 instead of 11:00 so we were very glad we were down there early.  It was a beautiful hot, sunny day and we had a smooth ride over.  Our biggest concern was making sure we had enough sun screen on since we were sitting up on the open deck.  We saw a few seals on the ride over but not much else.

Once on the island we were loaded on to buses for a tour of the island.  Even with the windows down there was not much of a breeze on the bus, which wasn't air conditioned, so it got very hot at times.  We went through the old Irish Town, past the church and mosque, the lighthouse, quarry, penguins on the beach, and so on).   The quarry was where the prisoners worked and it looks like any other rock quarry except that now there is a pile of rocks and each rock in the pile was put there by one of the former prisoners (one stone each).  Mandela placed the first rock in the pile during a reunion on the island and spoke to its meaning - a great story that we were told on my first visit but that wasn't repeated on this visit.  

The island is only a few kilometres long and wide so it doesn't take long to see it all.  We stopped at an old lighthouse for a quick break.  They had a cafe inside so you could get one thing if you wanted.  We didn't get much because we preferred to be outside enjoying the view where there were birds, seals and even some penguins along the shore.  Eventually we made our way back to the prison, which is close to the boat terminal and started our tour of the prison facilities.  The guide on the bus and in the prison was a former prisoner.  He was okay but not excellent and it seemed he could have done much better.  The guide I had back in 2006, also a former prisoner, was fascinating and I still remember his enthusiasm.  This guys enthusiasm was definitely lacking.

Within the prison we saw the individual cells, group cells, enclosed courtyards and other areas.  Nelson Mandela's cell was no different than any one else's.  The only way we could distinguish his was that it had a sleeping mat rolled up in it while the others did not still have the mat.  Prisoners have been housed in this facility for centuries but only in 1960 was it made a maximum security prison.  Only one person has ever successfully escaped: Khoi, the leader of one of the tribes did so in 1659.  The island was used to isolate "political troublemakers and social outcasts" including slaves, political and religious leaders and resistors, indigenous leaders who resisted the Dutch or British colonization, prisoners of war, mentally ill patients and was also used as a leper colony at one point in the 18th and 19th centuries.  The entire island is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site so will be preserved for years.  Currently the guides are still former prisoners but eventually that will end.  Hopefully the tours will still be as interesting in the future even if not quite as personal.  

The boat ride back was smooth again and the weather was perfect.  We even saw a whale along the way as well as lots of seals and birds.  In one portion of the harbour there was a sailing regatta so that was nice to see.  There were lots of big ships and tankers in the harbour, which seemed to stretch a long way down the coast.  The city itself looks quite impressive behind the harbour but the really spectacular sight is Table Mountain, which looks absolutely beautiful above the city and against a beautiful blue sky with some white clouds.  Over all it was almost a four-hour tour and it was very enjoyable, especially the boat ride out and back.  As usual, I took way too many pictures.

We walked back through the waterfront area to the Hop-on, Hop-off bus station again and rode the Blue line bus out to wine area to do wine tour.  The first part of the tour was pretty similar to the Red line route we had taken earlier but then it turned and went behind Table Mountain instead of in front of it.  Again the views of the city and harbour were beautiful and when we got off at the spot to catch the purple bus there was someone there who told us the purple bus wasn't running so we might as well get back on the Blue bus and keep going, so we did.  The area with all the vineyards looked   beautiful though so I'm sure it would have been a wonderful drive.  We knew we weren't going to have much time so we weren't actually going to get off the bus.  However, I guess we'll have to save that for another trip.  We continued on the Blue line and there were only a couple of more stop before Haut Bay, which is another lovely coastal town with beautiful beaches and gorgeous scenery.  Then we continued down the coastline to Cape Town past a lot of the beautiful beaches and scenery we had seen on the Red line route.  Again, we decided not to stop but jut continued on to the stop closest to our apartment.

Before heading home we stopped for dinner at a local restaurant on Green Market Square.  Our lunch had simply been some cheese and crackers and carrot sticks that we brought from jour apartment and ate while on the bus tour so we were rather hungry.  After dinner we walked home, repacked yet again and got organized for tomorrow's shift in hotels.  

And at this point I know I have something screwed up in these blogs.  We had groceries and ate in a couple of nights but right now I only have on night (13th) where that happened.  We definitely ate in the outdoor Italian restaurant down at the corner of Green Market Square one night.  Another night we were in the small cramped upstairs room of the funky cafe for young people a couple blocks from our apartment.  And we definitely ate one meal down at the waterfront in the nice outdoor setting.  But I have both the 17th and the 14th down ear Green Market Square so one of those two is wrong and I don't know which one it is.

Saturday, January 16th - Cape Town, South Africa

This was another leisurely morning but eventually we did get going.  Breakfasts at our apartment are pretty simple and could be quick but we seem to sit around for a long time before we actually make a move.  This morning we walked again to the Green Market area and caught the 10 a.m. Hop-on Hop-of bus to Table Mtn, as we finally had a day without high wind.  It took almost an hour to get to that stop but the drive was beautiful and the commentary was interesting so it was a nice trip.  Some folks think that Table Mountain could be the oldest mountain in the world.  Its sandstone and granite layers were formed by volcanic and glacial action over 500 million years ago so it is over 6 times older than the Himalayas.

Once at the Table Mountain cable car stop we waited in line even though we had tickets to get up the cable car.  However, the line moved quickly so the wait was not too bad, especially since we were shaded for much of the wait.  The line up to buy tickets was not going nearly as fast so we were glad we had purchased ours in advance.  The cable car moves quickly so the trip seems quite short.  The ride only takes a few minute up the 1.2 km hillside and the views are spectacular as the cable car rotates as it ascends.  Each car holds 65 people and at full capacity and speed they can move 800 people an hour.   When we wanted to come down we waited a bit longer at the top and the only complaint there was that there was no shade.  We had little wind on the way up so a smooth ride.  If it gets windier they put up to 4,000 litres of water in the tank below the car to stabilize it.  When not needed they empty the water at the top where they need it for the services offered.

We spent a lot of time looking at the scenery from the viewpoints and we walked around some of the trails at the top of the mountain.  Randy took off on one that we decided not to follow just because the path was a bit more treacherous.  Fran and I completed the other routes on the flatter, more easy paths.  Eventually we met up again near the main point and went into one of the restaurants to have our lunch.  It wasn't cheap but it was nice to sit and eat overlooking Cape Town and the ocean.

There were lots of birds and flowers and shrubs to look at on the mountain.  The vegetation was pretty sparse because it is so dry but there were still some nice things to see.  Some of the most interesting creatures to watch are the dassies (as the locals call them) or rock hyraxes.  They look like gophers to me but these guys are in fact the closest living relatives to the elephants so obviously there is something different and unique about them.  Most of the time you could see them down in the shade of the rocks but sometimes they would be right up on the path as you were walking across.  They were very cute but not very photogenic as they never stayed still.

It was quite busy up the hill, probably because it had not been open for several days, but it was still very upset and beautiful.  There are so many trails and so much area that you really don't feel crowded at all, except perhaps in the line up for lunch!  The views were absolutely spectacular and I just kept taking pictures at every stop.  The coast line had beautiful bays and beaches.  You could even see Robben Island as just a small dot out in the ocean.  The city view showed off Cape Town at its finest, and the views over the other hills and mountains were equally beautiful.  There are lots of hiking paths up and down the mountain so if you didn't want to pay for the cable ride you could always walk.  Some people were rappelling off the side of the mountain which drops like a sheer cliff.  I wasn't very interested in that.  I was quite content to just sit and enjoy the views.  Table Mountain was formed over 600 million years ago under the sea and the glaciers moved across its top and flattened it before it was thrust upward out of the sea by tectonic forces.  It is amazing to see the mountain from the city and the view from the top of it is pretty darn nice as well. 

Once we were back down we got back on the bus and drove all along the coast from Camps Bay to Cape Town.  Along this route there are beautiful beaches, lovely homes and gorgeous green parks.  There are also long walkways along the ocean that join all the beaches and there were lots of people out enjoying the sand and water.  It would have been a perfect way to spend some time but alas, our time was limited so we just rode on and enjoyed the magnificent views around every corner.

We got off at the V&A Waterfront.  That stands for Victoria and Alfred, not Victoria and Albert.  Apparently Victoria and Albert's son Alfred spent some time in Cape Town and thus the A is for him not his father.  In 1860 he tipped the first load of stone for the new breakwater when the city decided to reclaim the waterfront land from the sea and develop it into what we see today, which is pretty impressive with shops and restaurants and tourist attractions all along a beautiful harbour front walkway.

Part of our Hop-on, Hop-off ticket included a  harbour tour so we took that.  It wasn't very exciting but it was nice to be out on the water and the seals alone were worth the trip.  They were cooling themselves off and looking cool at the same time while in the water, in the tires along the side of the piers, or on the steps up to the pier.  They looked pretty darn lazy and yet really comfortable.

After the boat ride we walked around the waterfront a bit more.  We saw the statues of four South African Nobel Peace Prize winners: Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, FW Le Klerk and Albert Lutuli - all awarded for their fight against apartheid.  We went to the ticket office and got our tickets for Robben Island for tomorrow, caught them just before they closed but took some time to look around the exhibits in the building.  They then kicked us out because they were closing.  Fran was in the bathroom so it took them a while to find her but eventually we all made it outside.  

We did a bit more looking around the waterfront and did some shopping in the souvenir store where there was lots of African art from everywhere.  Most of the stores are way beyond our price range but sometimes it's just nice to look.  Then we decided to have dinner at the waterfront so went to  a nice place where we could enjoy the outdoors and ambiance of the waterfront.  After that we took a cab back to our apartment and that was the end of another great day.

Friday, January 15th - Cape Town, South Africa

Another slow relaxing start this morning despite the fact I was up and ready to go by 7:15.  Going to bed early certainly gets you up earlier.  However, that doesn't mean you get moving early.  I think it was close to 10 before we left the apartment.

Our first destination was the District Six Museum.  Of course we walked right by it the first time but didn't get too far before realizing our mistake.  District 6 was once a vibrant and vital part of Cape Town where a tenth of the city's population lived, but now it is a big open, empty space.  In the 1970's, as part of apartheid, 60,00 people were removed from the area, an area that covered hundred of blocks.  Now there are discussions about how to develop the land and some former residents of District 6 are definitely wanting their heritage to be recognized, and many want their lad back - a process that will no doubt take a lot longer.

District 6 was settled by former slaves, Cape Malay, Indians, native blacks and a few whites, and included merchants and artisans and various other professions.  It was a very inter-racial and multi-cultural area and therein laid the problem.  The government of the time did not want the different races mixing and possibly inter-marrying so after years of saying the district was just a den of crime that should be removed from the city, they eventually declared District 6 as a whites only area.   That meant most of the people had to leave the area and their homes were bulldozed.  The people were moved to the Cape Flats area, which was no more than a slum about 25 miles further away, and their lives changed drastically.

The Museum was not large but the space was used well to tell the stories of how the displacement happened, what the community was like before and how tight it was, stories of individuals and what happened to them, and of course all the rules and laws and supposed logic behind the move.  The individual stories were certainly the most interesting and it took quite a while to read through some of the stories. One of the most amazing things to me though, was that these were real homes and buildings, some of of them several storeys high.  At one point I thought it was just another slum that was being torn down but this was not the case.  The government bulldozed actual homes and apartments that were as big and as nice as what I lived in at the time.  The district had streets and parks and stores and schools and churches.  When they were finished all that remained were the churches.  There are a few more buildings on the area now but softly it is just barren land.

From there we walked down toward the waterfront but stopped at the castle or fort.  It is officially called a castle but didn't look like one so the name fort seemed more logical.  Originally it was called the Fort of Good Hope and was right on the shoreline in a good location to assist ships going around the Cape of Good Hope.  Now it is several kilometers from the water as the city has reclaimed and developed land in front of it.   There was a green area around it that was once the moat and there were high stone walls (beautiful big brown, grey stones) above it that comprised five walls and five corner bastions of the star or pentagon-shaped fort.  You couldn't really walk around the ramparts although we did try several times.  A lot of the area was closed off because it was under construction/renovation or simply restricted to visitors.  The main entrance was gated and you could see how thick the walls were (several metres) as you went through and came out under the clock tower.  Several of the walls on the interior were painted yellow which was the original colour used to cut down the heat of the sun.

We arrived just prior to the key ceremony and the firing of the noon cannon, both of which only happen once a day so we timed it just right.  The key ceremony was pretty unimpressive and the cannon they were firing was pretty little but it was still interesting to see.  There were larger cannons up on the actual ramparts.  We had a bite to eat from the little coffee shop - not much more than cake and ice tea but the chocolate cake was pretty good.  After that we wandered around for several hours.  We didn't take the actual tour but caught up to it several times.  We saw the prison areas, the torture chamber, the granaries, the arsenal, the well, etc.  Sometimes we seemed to be in areas where we maybe weren't supposed no be but there was no one around so we just kept walking.  At one point we were definitely in an area that was under renovation and it was obviously part of the old castle/fort which held the main buildings for entertaining.  There were large windows and chandeliers and the rooms themselves were very large and could accommodate many guests.  

There were two official museums within the compound: the Secunde's House and the Military Museum.  The Secunde's House has been redone and furnished to look as it would have centuries ago when the Dutch East India Company controlled the Cape from 1652 to 1795, before the British occupied.  The three separate areas are furnished as if from a 17th, 18th and 19th century period.  The Secunde was second in charge of the settlement at the Cape - a vice governor.  The Secunde's House would have been where he lived and carried out his administrative duties and received guests.  Furniture originally came from the Netherlands and was made primarily of oak.  Later the Dutch used local designs and woods such as yellowwood and stinkwood.  The English used mahogany for most of their furniture so period again was quite different.  In one room there was an 18th century sedan chair, probably for the women of the house, which would have been carried by slaves who probably lived in the basement of the castle.

The Military Museum was huge and covered hundreds of years of South African history.  It seemed to go on for ever.  Each time you went out a door thinking you were exiting you actually entered another room of exhibits.  I found the original tribal history and wars very interesting and spent a lot of time there, not realizing that there was so much more to see beyond that room.  The museum covered the arrival of the first whites and the wars that ensued after that including the Boer Wars, and the World Wars so in all the museum covered many, many centuries.   It was interesting at first but got tedious after a while.  The Fort also had other exhibits like an art gallery but we didn't get to see everything.

From there we went on a walk back over to the Green Market Area.  We went through the flower market that was absolutely full of beautiful bright colours.  There were not many proteus out though so I'm still waiting to really see the national flower.   Cape Town is very easy to walk around, at least in the main city centre so we enjoyed walking from place to place.

Our next stop was the Slave Lodge.  The Lodge itself is pretty unremarkable from the outside.  It is simply a pale yellow square building with two storeys of plain rectangular windows.  The only ornamentation of sculptures is above the main entrance.  The building doesn't look that big on the outside but is quite large once you are inside.  It was originally a slave lodge and then later a government building, a courthouse and a museum.  It is one of the oldest buildings in the city.  I was expecting the building to only be about slavery in South Africa and indeed most of the exhibits were on slavery.  However, some of the building is devoted to other exhibits such as ceramics, silverware and artifacts from Egypt.

The slave exhibit made it very plain that living in the Slave Lodge was not all that nice.  Slaves (men, women and children) from south eastern Africa and from the Indies were brought to Cape Town in the 17th and 18th centuries by the Dutch East India Company to help with its ventures in the Cape and around the world.  The slaves were kept in the slave lodge until they were sent elsewhere to work.  The exhibits gave you an idea of what the living conditions were like at the time, what the treatment was like and how the slaves survived.  Some of the other exhibits talked about their different cultures and music, which was really interesting.  It also helped explain how they survived what they were living through when families were torn apart and separated.  The museum also had an exhibit about how the slaves were transported to Cape Town and that was pretty brutal to see and hear.  I don't think I would have survive the ship ride with them.  I think we all had separate audio guides as we toured the building.  I don't remember listening to things together so I think it must have been on individual audio sets.

From there we walked through the Company's Garden, a lovely green park that was established in the 17th century as a place to grow fruit and vegetable to supply all the ships going around the Cape of Good Hope.  The "company" refers of course to the Dutch East India Company and it was their garden hence the name.  The Company's House is just to the one side of the park and it is a beautiful low white building with sculptures on top.  It is not accessible and is fenced off by a white brick fence and ornate railing which makes the house look even more impressive.

The park itself is quite lovely with trees and flowers and grass and benches to relax in.  There are statues and fountains and ponds and it really is a relaxing setting.  There are friendly squirrels always looking for a handout and pigeons who will come and sit on your arm or head or shoulders if they think you have any food at all to share.   There are big swings to rest on - some big enough to hold several children or adults at once - and seats shaped like birds nests.  They even let you walk and sit on the grass, unlike many parks.  They have a restaurant where we were thinking of going for dinner but alas they close early so we missed that opportunity, although it seemed more like snacks than meals.  

The War Memorials are in the park as is a very prominent statue of John Rhodes.  At the far end of the garden you have the South African National Gallery, the Jewish Museum, the South African Museum, the Planetarium and other large lovely buildings.  The end we entered at had the Slave Museum, the Parliament, St. George's Cathedral and other government buildings.  It really is a lovely area and our apartment is just a couple blocks away.  Unfortunately the government buildings are in our way so we have to go way around to get back home again.   

On way back to apt, via the far end of the park, we found a small grocer where we could buy some supplies for home.  We also found a restaurant which was very small but interesting.  It is definitely frequented by the younger crowd but we figured we fit in quite well.  The food was good and we enjoyed ourselves but we didn't get home until after dark, which was a bit unnerving as a walk, and had a late evening for a change - maybe 10:30 so not really late by some standards.

Thursday, January 14th - Cape Town, South Africa

Both my room mates were very quiet this morning.  One was up at 5 and the other at 6 but they sat and had coffee and read e-mails, and I really didn't hear them at all.  I got up around 7 and still we sat in our lovely living room / dining room watching the view and relaxing.  It is really quite amazing watching Table Mountain appear and disappear in the clouds which roll over it.  Yesterday we could never see the top as the clouds (table cloth) was so low.  This morning we can actually see most of the top.  The east end is still partially covered but the west, where the chair lift is, is open.  However, there are still wind gusts of 50-60 kph so the chair lift is still closed so we won't be going up there today.  Hopefully we have at least one calm day to make it to the top.

Around 10 we went out for a walk to the Green Market area which is only about ten blocks away.  We found the hop-on hop-off bus office and got some information from them.  However, we decided to do their free walking tours first and take the bus another day when we had more time.  We did the Bo Kaap walking tour in the morning and the Historic City Centre walking tour in afternoon.  In between we had lunch on the Green Market square sitting outside at one of the street side cafes.  There were lots of different street entertainers who seem to just take turns entertaining people in the various restaurants.  After about 15 minutes they move on and another group moves in.  They were all very enjoyable to listen to.

Bo Kaap is the Malay Quarler of Cape Town.  It is made up of very colourful homes in bright pink, blue, green, yellow, purple, etc.   The streets are lovely to look at because they are so colourful and hopefully we got some great photos with the brilliant blue sky and the mountains (Table, Lion's Head and Signal HIll) behind.  We walked up and down the streets, and I do mean up and down as it was very hilly, but at a good pace.  We had an excellent tour guide who had some great stories of the area so it was a very enjoyable tour.  The Malay were actually from an area that we now know as Indonesia which was ruled by the Dutch from the 17th and 19th century.  The Dutch brought them to Cape Town as slaves and they eventually all settled in this area and were called Cape Malay or Cape Muslims.  They continued their Islamic faith and built a mosque in the area.  Slaves from other areas such as Southeast Asia and Madagascar, joined them in the superb and many intermarried.  The Malay language is not used much any more but the Malay food and music and other cultural activities still continue to present day and are enjoyed by everyone in the city and tourists alike.  There is a great Malay Museum that got rave reviews but we didn't have time to go to it and we never did get back to it so something left for the next trip to South Africa.

The Historic Tour was a lot more walking but this time on more level ground.  We walked down toward the waterfront but stopped where the old waterfront was, and then back through more city streets and back up almost to our apartment.  During the tour we saw the Green Market and old City Hall, St. George's Mall, St. George's Cathedral including the Crypt, Company's Garden, Parliament Buildings, Slave Lodge, Parade area, Castle (Fort), Magistrate's Court, and a lot of other beautiful buildings and streets and markets.  Again we had a good tour guide who had a lot of stories to tell.  The government buildings are large and impressive normally with white or light stone buildings, many with dark ornate fences.  One of the buildings, the Parliament itself, is red with white trim around the windows and doors and roof and balcony and it looks very impressive (actually more white than red) and has a statue of Queen Victoria in front of it.  The garden was lovely with tree lined pathways and plenty of benches throughout, and it was a great day to be walking.  The guide pointed out several things that we would not have seen otherwise like sculptures of babies crawling down a tree trunk.  The garden is right behind our apartment so we were there a few times over the next few days.  The squirrels and pigeons were very friendly and Fran got up close and personal with the pigeons one day, having several sitting on her arm.

Some of the most memorable places for me were all related to black slavery and apartheid.  Standing in front of City Hall where Nelson Mandela made his first speech after being released after 27 years in prison, is always moving.  I remember being there in 2006 and it was no different then.  With over 50,000 people, mainly blacks, packed into the park and parade area across from City Hall, and many more blacks celebrating by rioting all across the country, and millions watching on TV, Mandela gave a speech that moved everyone and called for the struggle for human rights in South Africa to continue but he also praised de Klerk, the current President for his recent changes and called for peace and forgiveness of the past and not revenge.  The whole country could have exploded into violence but it didn't, mainly due to Mandela's influence.  It wasn't a perfect situation and indeed there was still a lot of violence and there were deaths but it certainly wasn't as bad as it could have been.  The balcony of City Hall was where it all started and eventually the blacks were given equal rights, including the right to vote which they did in huge numbers in the first election called and Mandela, the former prisoner, became president.  His life was quite amazing and he was truly an inspirational man.

Other moving sights were the slave auction tree plaque, the place where many years ago slaves were auctioned off to their new owners.  While awaiting auction, and sometimes longer, the slaves were held in the nearby Slave Lodge, which we hoped to tour later.  From more recent years, the race classification memorial and benches for whites and for non-whites stood outside an old courthouse where decisions were made on reclassifications.  The story of how classifications were made in the first place and the process for being reclassified were quite moving.  We had already heard a lot of these stories in the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg so we understood only too well what was happening.  And being in St. George's Cathedral where Desmond Tutu still occasionally preaches and walking down the mall where he often stops for coffee was also exciting as he is another great man that I admire.

After the tour we stopped for coffee just off the Green Market Square at an Italian place and then decided to have dinner there as well.  We sat outside and watched the merchants pack up and wheel their wares away from the square.  It seemed like a lot of work to do every day but it seems to happen in a lot of places and I guess the extra work is worth the savings of not having to own or rent a building.  From there we walked back to our apartment and had another early night.

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Wednesday, January 13th - Johannesburg to Cape Town, South Africa

We were up early today: the others at 4:30 so they could relax and wake up over their coffee, and me at 5:30.  We had a quick breakfast and were all packed up and ready to go before 6:30 when the taxi arrived to take us to the airport.  Check in and security were quite quickly at the airport so we had some time to relax at the airport and do Internet but none of us could get logged in to our free time so that was useless.  However, we did get about three free newspapers to read so the time passed quickly.

The flight to Cape Town was 1.5 hours and we were served a hot breakfast, which was surprising.  Air Canada can barely get you a drink on that length of trip, but South African Airlines can serve you a full meal and have everything cleaned up well in advance of landing.  It took us quite a while to get our bags and we were just about the last to leave the baggage claim area.  We looked all around for someone who might be meeting us but did not see anyone with our names on a sign.  We got some maps and information from the tourist desk and they helped us get a cab, which we took to the apartment.  Strangely enough, he knew exactly which building we were going to and what the process was for getting in so I guess he has dropped people off there before.

Once inside, there is a security desk.  They called upstairs to get someone to come down with the keys.  The lady who appeared was very nice but didn't speak a lot of English.  The apartment itself is very nice.  Fran and I took the bedroom with two beds in it.  Randy took the couch - said it was easier since he'd be the first up anyway.  The kitchen, living room and dining area are all open in the one area and quite large.  There is a floor to ceiling window along the outside wall and, as a result, the room is very bright.  The view is pretty amazing too as we look right out at Table Mountain.

We relaxed for a bit and got settled in.  Actually, we relaxed for quite a while because the view was so nice and because we were up so early.  Eventually we got hungry so we decided to go for a walk around the local area and for lunch.  The Truth Cafe was recommended for having good coffee and it was only a couple of blocks away so that's where we ended up.  The cafe is quite unique as it appears to be in an old factory building or warehouse and they haven't done a lot to fix it up.  There are pipes everywhere and really strange art on the walls and long tables with benches so you just sit wherever you can find a place.  The coffee was good (I'm told) and the food was pretty good too.  The place was packed and obviously very popular, especially with the younger set.

After lunch we went back to the apartment and sat around a bit longer while we tried to figure out what we wanted to do in Cape Town.  Everyone's first choice was to go up Cable Mountain but we could see very clearly from our living room that it was covered in cloud and you wouldn't see much up there.  When it is covered with cloud they say it has a table cloth on, which is quite appropriate for a table.   And it really does look like a table as it is much higher than the rest of Cape Town and it appears to be perfectly flat on top.  The cloud definitely ruins the view so you don't want to be up there when it is cloudy but you can get there as the cable car does work.  The cable car does not work when it is too windy and the wind blows a lot in Cape Town.  Supposedly the cable car runs 365 days a year but in fact it only actually operates about 250 days because of high winds.  You have to be lucky as a visitor to get up and get a good view.  Today was not the day.

January 11th - 12th - Johannesburg, South Africa

Monday, January 11th

This morning we got up and after breakfast we walked to the Gautrain station and went to Park station to catch the tourist bus again.  The ride to the Apartheid Museum took about an hour but seemed longer because we'd already heard all the stories yesterday.  Part way through the trip I started listening to the track for children and that was way more interesting and fun.  They actually do a really good job and the stories and gimmicks would keep most children interested - lots of corny jokes but it wasn't bad for adults either.  I kept laughing and everyone else who was on the serious channels kept looking at me and wondering what I was laughing about.  I did share a few of the jokes later.

The Apartheid Museum doesn't look very big from the outside.  It looks like a rather plain white building of different heights, but nothing huge.  There are high rectangular concrete pillars outside and each has one word written on it:  Democracy, Equality, Reconciliation, Diversity, Responsibility, Respect and Freedom.  These were/are the seven fundamentals of the South African constitution of 1996.  As you walk into the museum and start through it you realize it really is huge and could take you all day to see everything.  We didn't see everything, or at least didn't have time to read and listen to everything in the museum, but we were there for hours and it was all very entertaining.

When you purchase your entrance ticket it comes with a classification card to tell you that you have been classified as white or non-white.  Then you must use the appropriate entrance to get into the facility and view the first exhibition hall.  Two of us were non-white and one was white.  It was an interesting process and certainly had you wondering why you went that way and why and what you were missing on the other side, and that was certainly the intent.  During Apartheid, everyone was classified into one of four groups: white, native, coloured, Asian.  According to their classification they were allowed or restricted from doing certain things including going into some parts of the country or their city and being on the streets after certain hours.  Everyone was issued a pass card that they had to carry with them at all times.  The police could stop you any time and ask to see your card to ensure you were not breaking any of the restriction on your class.   And from those police checks came many of the people who were arrested and imprisoned in the cell blocks and jails on Constitution Hill, which we visited yesterday, and in other places.  The first exhibit, where we were separated due to class, talked about the classification system, some of the restrictions people experienced and showed a lot of the actual ID  cards.  It was shocking to see some of the differences and how segregated things were throughout the country.  

As you walked from that display to the entry of the main building, you passed an exhibit that showed how diverse the country was, particularly around Jo'Burg.  When gold was discovered in 1886, people from all over the world came to the area and the community truly was multi-cultural with a number of different races and cultures.  This was the start of what the government saw as a problem.  Segregation was developed by the government after 1910 when the Union of South Africa became a country and its purpose was to separate the races and it was met by much opposition, most of which was suppressed by violence.  Apartheid started after that and resulted in the removal of people from whole towns and communities to other areas to truly separate the different races.  And with all these movements, the situation for non-whites deteriorated while the whites prospered and controlled everything.  

Protests intensified in the '50's and 60's as groups such as the ANC were formed.  There was more violence and by the end of the 60's most leaders of the protest groups were in prison.  The exhibits in the Segregation and Apartheid sections showed what these periods meant in legal turns and how they affected the non-whites of the country.  The sections on the resulting protests and resistance movements seemed understandable given the situations that non-whites found themselves in, while the violence that met them was totally unbelievable.  Even peaceful demonstrators were beaten or jailed or killed.  It seemed like it would never end but it couldn't possibly get any worse.  Then the young Blacks got involved and somehow seeing all of the children really did make it all so much worse.  And hundreds of prisoners were tortured and executed (or supposedly committed suicide according to the government).  

It was definitely a bleak picture of South Africa as they entered the 70's and 80's.  The exhibits were excellent and told the story through pictures, newspaper stories, radio broadcasts, TV reports, etc.  The music of the decades and the sounds on the street accompanied you throughout the museum.  Quite frequently I'd identify with the song in the background and realize that all of what was in front of me was happening at that time when I was a teenager or an adult.  Some of the pictures I remembered seeing and some of the TV reports also looked familiar - certainly a lot of the players were known.  I certainly remember Mandela from an early age and Tutu was in Hamilton speaking when I was there studying.  His wife came to speak at the YWCA where I was staying and I remember going down to hear her.  It was quite interesting.

The world's response, or lack thereof, during the whole segregation and apartheid era was shown in the exhibits.  And finally, after wandering through years of struggle, you arrived at de Clerk's election as President in 1989, his discussions on apartheid and his freeing of Mandela from prison after 27 years.  It was an amazing although not always easy transition but eventually the situation did change.   Mandela's release in 1990 had a lot of coverage in the museum, as did the next four years when over 14,000 South African died from the protests and counter protests while the power players (including Mandela and de Clerk) negotiated a way to a new constitution.  Mandela's speech when he was released for prison asked the blacks to forgive the injustices of the past and move on, something that would be really hard to do, but his speech and his attitude probably helped to hold the country together during this period.

In 1994, all South Africans voted in the first democratic election within the country and the pictures of blacks lined up for miles, for some after having walked for miles to get to a polling station, were amazing.  We take the right to vote so lightly that most Canadians don't even vote.  Everyone of those who were now eligible in South Africa wanted to make their vote count.  In the end the ANC had 63% of the votes and the other black parties 31%, while the whites only had 6%, and Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa.  Mandela was certainly the public hero of the story but there were a lot of other stories as well and you just couldn't read everything the museum offered.  And the Truth and Reconciliation Commission headed by Desmond Tutu was a big part of trying to bring the sides together with a better understanding of each other and the situation.

And of course the museum didn't gloss over the next decade or two either.  The way was not always easy and even now there are flare ups that make one wonder just how secure the country is from a racial standpoint.  The long weekend in January was when I was in Port Elizabeth.  The beaches were packed but basically with black people and only a few whites.  The picture on the front page of the major papers were of the beaches in Durbin and the situation was the same there, and someone made a very derogatory comment in the paper about getting all the blacks off the beach.  After that the follow-up comments in the media were very telling with people both in agreement and against.  The country seems peaceful but there is definitely still an undercurrent of hostility between the races.  And, from my personal observations only, I'd say the blacks are still more disadvantaged than the whites.  The whites took over the lands the blacks were removed from during apartheid and they developed it and then some sold it later so they all seem very rich.  They make disparaging remarks about the black politicians, including their current president, and how uneducated they are and don't know what they're doing but it was the policies of the whites that kept the blacks out of schools and gave them such an inferior education.  The system in place right now isn't perfect and it will take time to get it right, but in the mean time the "truce" is holding.  Hopefully it will continue to hold and improve in the near future.

After we each finished with the museum we gathered in the courtyard and decided to have a relaxing lunch under the trees before moving on.  Eventually we got back on the bus and rode around the rest of the route, then got back on the Gautrain and wandered home.  My knee was bothering me again after walking and standing around all day so I stopped at the apartment while the others went on to the corner shopping mall for coffee.  Luckily for me, they decided to bring home some dinner and we ate it at the apartment while we were visiting

Tuesday, January 12th

This was a lazy morning as we had some early rain and things were a bit wet.  We had our breakfast at the hotel restaurant  It's a good breakfast and the outside patio is quite nice with the trees and flowers around.  It's beside the pool but we've never found any time to make it there.  We might not have eaten at the restaurant at all but when Randy paid the original bill for the room the guy at the desk charged him more than he should have.  They don't want to refund the money so we get some free meals instead.  I think we had to have two mornings with the three breakfasts and then our account was settled.  That means we must have eaten here yesterday too!

After breakfast we walked down to the Standton Gautrain station and rode to the Rosebank stop to go to the Rosebank Mall.  We aren't big shoppers but they apparently have a large African market there and Fran wanted to buy some stuff.  The mall is large and spread out and the African market is not actually in the mall but just behind it so it took us a long time to find it.  It was large though with two floors of small stalls each crammed with African artwork.  And of course everyone of the individuals at the stalls said it was authentic and from their country.  Each stall was an individual from some African country, mainly in the south.  I could tell that much of it was indeed individual because, having been to several of the countries, they were noted for that particular artwork.   It was really interesting to see so many artisans in the one setting but having so many also made it really hard to say no to anyone.  However, I managed and escaped with no purchases.  Randy escaped much earlier than I did.  I'm not sure he even made it to the lower level.  Fran took a while but she eventually surfaced with no purchases although she was eager to go back.

We took a break and had some lunch a Ninos.  The restaurant was very busy but we got a spot out on the patio so the two smokers could have a cigarette or two.  The food was good and it was interesting watching everyone coming and going.  After lunch we went our separate ways and agreed to meet a few hours later at the Gautrain entrance.   Randy wanted to find some cigarettes and perhaps have a hair cut.  Fran wanted to go back to the African market and actually buy something.  I said I was just going to do some generally shopping but I did have one goal in mind.

I decided this was the time to get my hair cut so off I went in search of a hair salon.  It took a while but after talking to a lady in the elevator at the mall I went to her suggestion of Carlton Hair.  It looked good and the girl at the front was very helpful, although she did say I had to bring my own picture which I had not done.  And they didn't have many magazines with hairstyles so it was tough trying to find something in what general magazines they did have.  In fact, I think we only found four pictures in total with short hair.  Two of them were a bit longer than I wanted for our 30-day tour into the wilds of southern Africa.  Ulsan, the hair stylist, really liked the one shot and asked if she could really cut it that short.  I said yes and away we went.  It was a strange feeling as she cut the long pieces off but it also felt right.  She cut it and then kept cutting/trimming more as she finalized a style she liked.  It turned out really nice and the colour (original since I'd stopped colouring it last year) was quite nice as well.  It was mainly grey but part of it was pretty white and some of it quite dark.  It was a pretty nice mix and looked great the way she cut it which was really short in the back and on the sides, parted on the left and then longer going to the right that can be very neat or messy depending on my mood I guess.  I liked it and the reaction from Fran and Randy when I saw them was very positive, although they could hardly believe that I'd actually done it.  The last time I had short hair was over 45 years ago so I think a lot of people will find it hard to believe.

From there we we caught the Gautrain back to Sandton where we were to meet a friend for dinner.  Yoshi had been on our Spain/Portugal trip and we had a great meal and a great visit at a restaurant right on Mandela Square at the Sandton Mall.  After dinner, Yoshi drove us back to our apartment where we did some packing and went to bed early to prepare for an early flight to Cape Town in the morning.