Day 124: Jay was clever to look on Viator yesterday and book a trip for us today. A car arrived at our hotel at 10:00 am. We spent about an hour travelling to the Lesedi Cultural Village. It was out of the city, close to the mountains that are are considered the Cradle of Humankind. We were welcomed at the gate and ushered into an area with five traditional villages from central and south Africa.
To start things off, all of the visitors who arrived, close to when we did, went in for drumming lessons. Then, our guide took us on a walk to each of the villages and explained some basics. There were folks in each who said hello and were working on some traditional craft or work.
The following showcase the traditional way males dressed in the five tribes represented in the villages.
We enjoyed the walk and the chance to see the type of architecture traditionally used by each of these peoples. By 1:00 it was show time! We entered an auditorium for some traditional tribal dances. The backstories for each dance was explained. The dancers were so active and appeared so happy in showing them to us! The presentation was quite a workout. At the end, we joined them and felt like part of the community.
Lunch was included with our tickets, so we ate lunch and finished about 1:45 pm. It included African food. Although I ate a dried caterpillar served at one of the villages, I was still quite hungry. We had ostrich, crocodile, and chicken for meats.
There was a large school group from Atlanta, Georgia. Jay was clever and got his dessert at the beginning. By the time, I had finished my meal, they had not left me much. I had a beer though.
Our driver ate lunch with us and brought us back to our hotel after the meal. What a great way to spend the last day in South Africa and the final day of our winter of 2024-25!