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Published: August 18th 2007
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Blyde River Canyon
3 rd largest Canyon in the world Hi, sorry that there have not been to many updates lately, but to get a faster internet connection around here is not the easiest thing to do, and hence the blogs are a bit further apart.
I am going to try to recap the last few days in a nutshell, but let me first say that winter in South Africa is better than summer almost everywhere in the world where i have been. 😊, 25-30 degrees C, or 75- 90 F during the day with a cool breeze, and night time temps in the low 10's C or low 50's F, ideal!!!
Anyhow, so after the Kruger Park excursion, i decided to stay in Nelspruit for a few extra days, and in order to experience some personal "freedom" i rented a car ( a small, WV- Chico), with lefthanded stcikshifting, right side steering wheel, and driving on the "wrong" left side of the road, the adventure was complete!! Oh what fun it was to cruise through the most amazing country side with my little automobile, windows down, african music on full blast... so much fun... so aside from seeing the Sodwalla Caves (pretty cool Dolomite caves) and driving around, i
went shopping at the local super mall, got a hair cut and pretended i was a local. Dinner was at the house of friends of friends from Dundee, Mariette and Geoff, and then i returned to my nice little backpacker and got some sleep. The next day I had arranged for a tour to Blyde River Canyon , which is about 2 hours from Nelspruit, and which happens to be the third largest canyon in the World (who knew?) (in case you are wondering which the other ones are: Grand Canyon, US; Fisher Canyon, Namibia) and the canyon did not disappoint. We stopped at several of the nice lookouts, God's Window, The Potholes and had lunch in a cute little mountain town before the return to Nelspruit, and for me dinner at Mariette's and Geoff's again. Fantastic people and super generous.
After Nelspruit it was off on the Baz Bus again the next day to Pretoria. Arrived in Pretoria just in time for some dinner at the hostel and an earlly night, and then left again the next morning for a tour to Johannesburg. Now everyone says that Jo-burg is the crime capital of the world... i am
not sure if that is paranoia or fact, but then again i wasn't about to tempt fate, and therefore played it safe by joining a tour organized by the backpacker in Pretoria. So two guys from Spain and a couple from Israel and I were driven around Jo-burg by our amazing Guide Kagiso. After a bit of "drive by" sightseeing in the center of town, we stopped at the Apartheid Museum for a two and a half hour stop. What a great museum. It tells the story of the Aprtheid regime, the resistance against it with gripping detail and lot's of personal accounts from those who lived through the dark and turbulent times in SA. It was super interesting to say the least. After the museum, we drove to SoWeTo for lunch at a local restaurant, then toured the Hector Pieterson Museum (the kid in the picture, carried by another student after he was shot during the Soweto Student Uprising, the picture went around the global press during those days) anyhow, it was a museum that explained in much detail why the students took to the streets ( to peacefully demonstrate against the law that they must study in
Jo-burg Soccer Stadium
SA - getting ready for Soccer World Cup 2010 Afrikaans) Once again very gripping and interesting. (The student demonstrations and the ensuing violence and state of emergency which gave the security forces carde blanche led to the world wide sanctions against South Africa in the late 70's and throughout the 80's until the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990.) (just as a side note a very short history info on a much more complex subject 😊
After the museum we continued to drive around SoWeTo a bit more (5 million people live in Soweto today) and saw the temporary settlements (pc for slums), and the beverly hills of SoWeTo, where those live who have since joined the upper middle class of South Africa. Another fascinating day in Africa.
Today, I am actually back in Pretoria with the friends who took me to the Kruger Park, and i will enjoy a quite and relaxing weekend here before heading off to Zambia on Monday.
Hope you are all well?!
cheers SL
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