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Published: October 8th 2018
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God's Window
Looking across Blyde Canyon The posting of our last blog, UBBs, all felt a bit rushed and last minute. We are in a bit more civilisation now back in an area of Johannesburg called Melville.
It is interesting to reflect, though, that during our travels through back-ish streets of Asia, including our £4 per night room in Sumatra, we were able to get internet access. But, despite Africa, including Kenya and Tanzania which we safaried in 10 years ago, being way ahead of us then in terms of remote technology such as internet banking, they seem not to have embraced internet for tourists fully yet.
Day 14 - Friday 5th October - continued
We left the Kruger and, as indicated in the last blog, there was no internet at our overnight stop, but we posted the last blog from a Portuguese restaurant that Vern had booked for our final group meal.
Day 15
Was basically a long, all day drive back to J'burg via the Scenic Highway with some sightseeing stops along the way. Mostly geological highlights including the Blyde River Canyon, which Vern claims is the only major canyon in the world that is 'green', all others being in desert areas
eg the Grand Canyon. And several geo features - God's Window viewpoint, The Three Rondavels, and Bourke's Luck Potholes.
Lunch stop was Dullstroom, a large trout fishing area, so we all had trout in one form or other for lunch. One final stop before J'burg was a service station but with a water hole within a game reserve out back. Herd of water buffalo, some sable and eland, ostriches and yet more birds. Don't tend to get sights like that round the back of a UK motorway service station.
Our 4 fellow travellers were dropped off at the airport whilst we, eventually (due to a mix up in location communication ) moved to Melville, a residential suburb to the south west of J'burg centre. The main street is quite a jumping place, described by a cafe manager as arty and bohemian. There are more nice places to eat and drink at than we can possibly do justice to during our 4 night stay here. All in all feels like the choice of area, especially given the concerns that Pip had about violence in J'burg, had worked out very well.
Day 16
Felt like it was time to
just relax a little but there was an important event to attend to first. It was Glastonbury ticket day. After a leisurely breakfast - the 'b&b' we are staying at has an arrangement with a local, very nice indeed, cafe - we prepared for the fray. Paul and Simon were in a group of 5 all trying frantically to get tickets for next year's festival. In the end Paul here in SA was the only one that got to the booking/details/payment/buy tickets pages, twice, on his Samsung tablet with WiFi connection, but each time the payment connection took too long and he was kicked out. For the first time since 1998 Paul was unsuccessful in getting tickets. They all sold out in 36 minutes. He'll try again in the April resale though, but much fewer tickets are available then.
We took a taxi to the nearby Botanical Gardens, which frankly were something of a disappointment. Even allowing for heat, lack of water, etc, they were very poorly planted. But it was nice to get out and about. There was, however, a pop festival happening in the park. Paul thought the music sounded pretty good and in other circumstances, and
even in hindsight, he may wished to have gone to it because as we found out when we got back to our b&b a) it finished at 6pm, not late at night b) it was less than £10 and c) one of the 5 bands listed was Wolf Alice who have just won the Mercury Music Award back in the UK!
Day 17
On our way out, by car, this morning Pip was convinced she saw Sir Kenneth Branagh walking down the street. The area is known for its tv and film industry. Later in the day we watched some filming. A company had taken over a local barber's shop and were filming a group of Santas inside, whilst the signs outside said Santa Barbers.
We put today aside to visit the Apartheid Museum. This is often combined here with a Soweto trip with 2 hours or so being assigned to the museum, but we were sure we would need much longer. As it turned out we spent from 9.30 to around 11.30 just doing the temporary, special exhibition on Nelson Mandela, without touching any of the standard museum! We felt really sorry for the visitors who we
knew had started after us who were already exiting past the cafe.
So we then spent another 3 hours in the main museum. This really is a seriously good museum. Very wordy - very difficult to demonstrate history of apartheid and afterwards through physical artefacts - and picture/video heavy. The museum tells the story of the country in general, and apartheid in particular, through the 20th Century up to the Truth And Reconciliation hearings which passed judgement - whether to give amnesty or not - to individuals if they owned up to their crimes including brutality, torture, and even murder. Many, both blacks & whites, were pardoned.
The Mandela exhibit was worthy of being a museum in its own right.
There was even some 'local' connection. An early display was about prospectors and tin miners who came from Cornwall during the gold rush. One, John Baragwanath - good, solid Cornish name - from St Ives, did so well that a hospital was built and named after him.
A very hard hitting museum. Some of the films were particularly graphic.
Our 'driver', actually the b&b's doer, picked us up at 3 and back in Melville we
went in search of a cool drink. As we were strolling up the street we heard a loud 'crack' sound from behind us. Pip said afterwards that she thought it was a gunshot, a view not helped by the sight of the waitress we had just passed clutching at her chest obviously in pain. But barely had we absorbed this than a black guy passing by hit Paul quite violently and ferociously on the forehead with his open palm. Given the same 'crack' sound for a split second Pip's immediate concern was that Paul had been shot. Now, in hindsight and given that we are calmly posting this blog, this is clearly not the case. And also as the stream of expletives emanating from Paul in the immediate aftermath showed Pip that Paul was still very much alive, and kicking!
Shortly after we were told that locals and security patrols, which are all over the place over here, had apprehended the man and called the police. It was suggested that we should go up the street to where he was apprehended so as to wait for the police. On the ensuing discussions whilst waiting it became apparent that the
man had been known in the area for a couple of years as being an undesirable. People were also sure he was high.
The waitress's manager also turned up and he was already lodging a formal charge of assault against the guy on behalf of the waitress. Fortunately that meant that all the police wanted of Paul was his name, and only the briefest of statements, listened to but not written down.
Frankly, the only damage, aside from each initial period of Pip's panic at the two 'crack' sounds, is that Paul has a forehead that looks like he's been in the sun for too long. So nothing much new there then.
But we did get a free meal out of it - the manager owns the gourmet burger joint where the waitress was assaulted and offered us an 'on the house' for that evening. And very good burgers they were too. Pages of choice and combinations. There were even 2 pages of vegetarian options.
But, oh well, yet another story to bore fellow travellers with.
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