Rustenberg and Sun City

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Woke early to the Tarentaal guinea foul calling, thank goodness they hadn't set of the perimeter alarm as they sometimes do. Love being able to hear the birds, nestled at this beautiful home under the Magaliesberg mountains.

Aunty Pauline and Uncle Dave treated us to a beautiful breakfast seated on the veranda overlooking their infinity pool. I had papaya fruit for the first time in over 30 years, miss that taste. Followed with Rooibos and raspberry yoghurt, some scrambled eggs and bacon. Definitely an amazing start to our holiday. We were introduced to the maid and gardener, again another part of Africa I'd forgotten. The concept of servants is foreign now.

It was great that Aunty Pauline took us on a short run through Rustenberg the previous day, because we were ale to find all the spots quickly, take our photos and hightail it out of there. Grenville High School was located on 98 Kloppers Street, the last school Ailine and I attended before immigrating. Back then it was an English school, reasonably prim and proper, now it's an African school. We also found our old church in Van Zyl Street, it used to be a large property green grass, beautiful house, tree out front and the side mulberry bush yielded plenty of leaves for our silk worms. Now it's all paved, and taken over by a car yard. The house structure is still in tact and beautifully maintained. Many memories of services, Sunday school and running in the yard during lunch times, playing with friends and visiting the Mance situated to the right and at the back of the building. Now also gone.

We dared not visit the Wimpy bar we frequented on most Sundays, because we were advised it was not a safe part of town any longer. Instead we drove around the street, noticing how filthy and unkempt it was and being taken aback by the disrespect of everything.

We then drove to Sun City making our way through small shanty towns. Noticeable to us was the warning signage on the road, Beware of Potholes sign prominently placed as it seemed obvious the governments cannot keep up the maintenance of the roads up to meet the demand of the traffic. We eventually arrived at Sun City only to be told that we would not be able to see the palace! We were devastated, isn't that why you come to visit?

We had anticipated swimming in the water park but realised that there was little shaded areas and it was also drizzling so we decided not to. Anyway we decided to have lunch at the Wimpy Bar and work out what we would do for the afternoon. After luch, David, Ailine and Peigi started up the hill to the Palace to see if they could at least get outside photos, while Maria and I agreed we would not survive the climb and took the soft option, a visit to the day spa for a massage.

We took the short walk to the spa and were greeted by two lovely attendants who happily squeezed us in for a double massage within 10 min. We were given locker keys, and shown to the palatial dressing room. Our lockers opened to a range of goodies, a towel, soap, shampoo, gown and shoes. We were invited to take a seat in the large open lounge area, help ourselves to juice and water while we waited. The half round shaped room had amazing views, the seating surrounded a pool and overlooked a gym area. We were given forms to complete to ensure that the masseur met our needs.

After a drink we were escorted into our rooms for what I'd say is one of the best massages I've had for a while. We were just completing our showers and getting ready when Peigi and Ailine arrived with exciting news! They had snuck into the palace and were bubbling with the excitement of what they saw.

We then took the bus escort back to the car park and drove back to Rustenberg for another night at Aunty Pauline's home. We were treated to a South African braai, with the borewors, millie pap and tomato & onion garnish. We were visited by Natalie, Aunty Pauline's & Uncle Daves daughter, her husband and three children. My younger sisters remember her as she was closer to their age. It was great to reminisce. We retired later that night despite the big day.

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Photos

Grenville High School
From an English predominant school to an African school

Assemblies of God church building
This is now the offices of the car yard

Potholes!
Using signage instead of fixing the problem

Sun City Spa
Our palatial bathroom/change room