A Day of Departure

Day 125:  We spent our last hours in South Africa at the hotel today.  We had to repack a bit. Everything we've been carrying since November of last year are in two, full-size suitcases and two backpacks as carry-on. The Holiday Inn @ Rosebank let us stay until 2:00 pm gratis although they usually like guests to leave by 11:00 am.  They consider this a late check-out.

Our flight from Johannesburg leaves at 7:10 pm.  We will fly for eleven and a half hours to Paris on Air France. We have to wait around four hours before boarding another Air France that flies to Vancouver directly.  The second flight is scheduled to last around ten hours.  So, we should arrive pretty exhausted in British Columbia around noon on Sunday. This schedule is subject to change without notice, but I hope not by much!

Tomorrow's journal entry should be published from the comfort of our apartment in New Westminster!  So this is expected to be the 125th and final with the topic label: Winter 2024-25.

Trip to the Lesedi Cultural Village

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!

Joberg Tourist Bus - Chapter II

Day 123:  We sort of repeated the morning from yesterday all over.  However, this time we got out in the actual Johannesburg Central Business District.  We hopped back on another bus when it showed up after around 40 minutes.

The streets we walked today were the actual areas where gold was first dug up.  This is what started this lovely city in such a geographically difficult location.  The CBD dates back to the 1860s but it was probably a muddy mess in those days.  Now, however, there are a number of monuments to remember the city's beginnings.  Main Streets in most cities are crowded with businesses and cars but not Joburg's.  I sort of get the idea this place is quirky for a whole lot of reasons.

We enjoyed our walk to Gandhi Square and a statue showing him as a lawyer in his younger days in South Africa.  If you cannot recall Mahatma Gandhi's biography, he spent a total of 21 years in South Africa.  In fact, you might say his time here is where this political views and ethics were birthed.  We enjoyed the exercise and the second day on the hop-on, hop-off bus.

Another accomplishment today included eating lunch in a Nando's.  Somehow we have never done that although this chain of restaurants are common in many places we stay and visit.  

Also, we just got back from buying some small food items to give to friends upon our return.  We frequently do this in far-away places.  Although we have found that South Africa produces a large percentage of the items in supermarkets, we wanted something light and cheap.  Ah ah, we now have five small packs of rooibos tea bags.  By the way, that name means 'red bush' in Afrikaans. And for me, I got a couple of bottles of South African produced Shiraz.  It's too bad wine bottles are so heavy.

Joberg Hop On/Hop Off Bus

Day 122: We didn't know just how convenient our hotel choice would be!  Yesterday, we noticed that the city's hop-on, hop-off tourist buses start from exactly in front of our hotel's entrance.  So, after a huge buffet breakfast, we bought tickets.  Each ticket cost us around $US 21.  But for just $5.50 each more, we extended our one day tickets for an extra day.  So, we know that these buses will undoubtedly part of our day tomorrow too.

We plugged in our earphones and listened to the running commentary with many useful bits of information about Johannesburg.  Although I knew this is one of the world's mega-cities of over six million people, I wasn't aware it was such a relatively new town, dating only back to a gold mining town in 1886.

I was impressed by what I saw during the two and a half hour bus ride.  We didn't even get off at any of the stops today, but will choose where to go tomorrow by what we saw today.  I was also impressed by just how beautiful the area is. 

I didn't have such positive impressions about this city, until seeing it.  I most definitely could live around here.  See, the problem about prejudging a location is that unless you actually get to see it, you carry around incorrect information.  

The present political divisions in many parts in the developed west is because so many people are ignorant about the world in which they live.  They live in their own little bubbles of the like-minded.  This affords politicians leverage to mislead and peddle misinformation to their people for personal gains. Ignorant people cannot think for themselves and willingly queue up to follow any new wolf in sheep's clothing.

This is why I feel blessed by actually having had a chance to travel extensively.  I wish it were a gift that more people could access.

We arrived back at our hotel after 1:00.  We finally walked around the extensive upscale neighbourhood mall that has grown larger over the decades with extensions and addons.  

We ate lunch in a type of restaurant I only saw in Cape Town.  It is like a food court but also has a large segment of supermarket type prepared food by the weight.  They are great places to eat an interesting selection of food at grocery store type prices.

After a little afternoon rest, we may go a cineplex to see a movie.  It's been a long time since we went out to the movies.

Durban to Johannesburg by Bus

Day 121: We were packed and just had to do a bit of final checking and a bit of breakfast this morning. We got up at 6:00 am but didn't order an Uber to take us to the Durban Bus Station until a quarter to eight. The day went smoothly.

 

We expected to travel the 570 km in the scheduled eight hours. It was mostly pretty routine. There was quite a climb as we travelled on Highway 3 through Pietermaritzburg. There was one stop for food and just several for passengers. 

The bus was comfortable but we hit a torrent of rain as we were approaching Johannesburg. Some of the windows leaked a bit but not much on Jay or me.   

We made our way out to the street from the bus station.  We got a really friendly Uber driver who got us from the bus station to the Rosebank area. We checked in at around 6:00 pm. The hotel is next to the Zone Mall and we went there for dinner.  I wish earlier in our months here, we'd used the South African restaurant chain called, Spur.  They use a native American Indian with feathers as a logo.  It provided plenty of food and service for a very reasonable price.