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Southern Africa May 2016
  • Jay Rossiter
May 2016

Southern Africa May 2016

A 15-day adventure by Jay Read more
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  • Trip start
    May 11, 2016
    Jay RossiterJay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016

    And we're off!

    May 10, 2016 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    It's a beautiful hot Spring day as we fly on our tiny six passenger de Havilland Beaver over to Vancouver International Airport. We have over 33 hours of flying ahead of us as we head to Cape Town, South Africa.

    I had my usual co-pilot's seat on the short 20 minute flight and then we stopped at one of our favourite haunts, the Flying Beaver Bar and Grill for an early dinner.    Read more

  • Jay RossiterJay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016

    An afternoon in Zurich

    May 11, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Well we made it safely to Zurich for the first leg of the journey. We both managed to get a few hours sleep on the plane. The flight was bumpy - really bumpy. I don't like bumpy, but we made it safely. Once we landed, we put our carry on in a locker at the airport and headed into the city to stretch our legs and see the sights.

    Zurich is pretty cool with lots of little side alleys and street front cafes. There's a couple of big churches and many bridges crossing back and forth over the river.

    The people are diverse and very friendly. After all, it's Switzerland!

    We had a quick meal (quick but definitely not cheap!!) at the Hauptbahnhoff anf then caught the train back to the airport for our next 10 hour flight into Johannesburg. Swiss Air has been great and so far I've watched Spectre anf The Martian    Read more

  • Jay RossiterJay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016

    Johannesburg stopover

    May 12, 2016 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Another very long flight in the books as we've now made it to Jo'burg. We still have only managed a few hours sleep since Tuesday morning at 5:30, so we've been up for the most part for the past 45 hours. The scenery flying into Jo'burg was beautiful with the red dirt and glimmering rooftops standing out against the flat terrain.

    I write this as we're waiting to board our final flight into Cape Town. I can't wait to get to our hotel to shower and have a good night's sleep! I also can't wait to see our friends David and Priscilla and Robb and Linda!    Read more

  • Jay RossiterJay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016

    Jo'burg to Cape Town

    May 13, 2016 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    After our short stopover in Johannesburg we boarded the plane for the final leg of our journey to Cape Town. Thankfully this was a short flight of about two hours and we landed safely in Cape Town. We caught a taxi - they're not called cabs here - and drove into the city and to out hotel, the Protea Victoria Junction. After having a wonderful hot shower and a change of clothes we met up with outer friends David, Priscilla, Robb and Linda. We had a great time catching up since our last trip together and then we headed out for a bite to eat. We ended up at a Cuban restaurant and bar where we had a not so great meal but a great time together.

    We called it an early night after a couple of drinks back at the hotel bar, so that we could be up nice and early for our first day of the tour.    Read more

  • Jay RossiterJay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016

    Cape Town Day One

    May 13, 2016 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    We were up early this morning for breakfast and our tour briefing before heading out for the day's sights. We have a large tour group for this trip with 38 other travellers. There is one Brit, three Canadians including us, and the rest are American.

    After the briefing we got on the coach - they're not called buses here - and made way to our first stop, the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. The gardens are over 500 hectares in size but only 30 or so of those are cultivated with indigenous plants and trees. The gardens cover most of the east side of Table Mountain. The smell walking through the gardens was so fragrant and the views were amazing. We did a short walk on a wooden walkway up in the tree canopy, where we had views right to the sea.

    After leaving the botanical garden we then headed to Boulders Beach to see the African penguins. There is quite a large colony of penguins at the beach and they settled there in the 1980s. They were originally called jackass penguins due to the sounds they make. They sound just like braying donkeys and it was hard to believe the big noise coming coming from such a small bird!

    The penguins were so cute waddling in the sand! When they went into the water they instantly became swift graceful swimmers playing in the waves.

    We reluctantly left the penguins to have a nice lunch overlooking the sea and from there we continued in to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. The Cape of Good Hope is historically thought of as the southernmost tip of Africa, buts it's been geographically proven that Cape Point is actually the southernmost point.

    At Cape of Good Hope we took our pictures at the coordinates sign like everyone who travels here does. The waves crashing against the rocks on the beach reminded us of home.

    We drove from there to Cape Point and we walked up the steep path to the original lighthouse that was built on the top of a high hill in 1860. Unfortunately this lighthouse's location was not the best as it couldn't be seen any time the fog rolled in. This caused the sinking of a passenger ship, so in 1919 a new lighthouse was built in a lower location to guide the ships.

    Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point are both in a nature reserve and on our way in we saw an ostrich by the side of the road. On the way out we saw a couple more ostriches and a fairly large troop of baboons.

    The drive back to Cape Town took about an hour and it was very interesting seeing the different types of architecture. There are very nice homes right on the ocean that would sell for about $350,000 and then there are also the corrugated tin shanty towns that are closer to the big cities. There is definitely a Dutch and British influence on much of the architecture.

    The weather started out overcast and a little cold but by mid afternoon had cleared up nicely which made for some spectacular views on our stops. It's fall here going into winter next month, so it can be a bit chilly in the mornings and the rainy season will be starting soon.    Read more

  • Jay RossiterJay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016

    Cape Town Day Two

    May 14, 2016 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    It was another early morning this morning. We had a busy morning scheduled but the weather didn't quite cooperate so our tour guide Jason, adjusted on the fly. We were supposed to leave and head straight to Table Mountain but the mountain right down to the sea was fogged in and visibility was zero.

    Instead we sat on the bus for a while, while Jason gave us a history lesson on apartheid. I love travelling to places where I can learn and understand the history and culture of the place I'm in. The segregation between whites and non-whites (blacks, coloureds and Indians - they're terminology, not mine) was to some degree in place since the Dutch settled here back in the 1600s. They brought in slaves from Northern Africa, Malaysia and the surrounding areas. In 1948 the South African government formally instituted apartheid (literal translation is apart hood)

    From Wikipedia: Apartheid as an officially structured policy was introduced after the general election of 1948. Legislation classified inhabitants into four racial groups – "black", "white", "coloured", and "Indian", the last two of which were divided into several sub-classifications - and residential areas were segregated. From 1960 to 1983, 3.5 million non-white South Africans were removed from their homes, and forced into segregated neighbourhoods, in one of the largest mass removals in modern history.

    Very much simplified, apartheid was instituted because the white population was less than 10% of the total population of South Africa and in order to maintain power, they needed to oppress the non-whites by keeping them uneducated, unemployed and in total fear so that they would not rise up against minority whites.

    I could go into much more on this but while we sat there listening to the history, the weather started clearing so we started out and went first to a local woman's house. Her home was approximately 300 years old and it was originally bought by a Dutch man who then rented it to slaves. He started with one house but made so much money he bought several more on the same block. 300 years later, it was clear that the fact that she and her family owned it and had done significant renovations were a result of them being highly educated and wealthy. The woman was "coloured" - of Malaysian, black and white descent and she had spent the morning making Cape Malay fusion samosas for us so we could see and taste the differences in the foods and spices used throughout the country. They were absolutely delicious and we learned a lot from her as she told us the history of her home and her background. She was a total firebrand and a delight to meet and talk to!

    After we left her house we went straight to the mountain which was now mostly free from the fog. We caught the gondola, which can carry up to 64 people at a time, to the top and enjoyed some of the most spectacular views ever! Table Mountain is 3,500 feet high and while the top was in the beautiful sunshine, there were areas lower that were covered by clouds and it truly felt like you were on top of the world! We walked around the circular path on the top enthralled by the vistas.

    Unfortunately we had to leave the views and the blowing winds of the top of the mountain and head back down. Our next stop was the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront.

    Claude and I decided to take the afternoon to ourselves and so we had a nice lunch with David and Priscilla while Robb and Linda went on a short tour of a diamond store. After lunch the other two couples went on a tour of a township - an area that is where the poorest non-whites live, usually in corrugated tin shacks. Claude and I stayed at the V&A Waterfront and then made our way back to the hotel on our own.

    Tomorrow is a very early start as Claude and I are going great white shark cage diving in Gaansbai, with a 4:20 am start time!    Read more

  • Jay RossiterJay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016

    Gansbaai, South Africa

    May 15, 2016 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Today was a free day so Claude and I signed up for a day trip to go shark cage diving. We awoke at 3:45 am and were picked up at our hotel at 4:20 for the 2 1/4 hour drive to Gansbaai. The whole drive was in the dark but the sun was rising just as we pulled into town.

    We were served a hot breakfast, given a briefing on the day's itinerary and then got fitted with a life vest and heavy waterproof jacket before heading to the boat. The boat could comfortably hold 40, but we had slightly less than that.

    The skipper fired up the four 250 horsepower engines and we were off for the 15 minute ride out to Shark Alley. The wind was calm, but the sea had some good rollers happening. Once we arrived at Shark Alley the crew put the cage into the water along the starboard side of the boat and we suited up in our 7 mm wetsuits, booties and hoods.
    The cage holds up to eight people and the first group climbed down into it while we stayed up on the top deck for viewing.

    The company we used is a conservation company and they have a marine biologist on board each day. The crew is volunteers from around the world and they record all of the shark sightings to determine the health and the numbers of sharks. They attract the sharks by chumming the waters with a mixture of fish oils and juices and they entice them close to the boat using fish heads tied to a small boy on a rope and they have a flat, brown, seal tail shaped decoy they throw into the water. They don't feed the sharks as they don't want them becoming accustomed to getting food and their goal is to maintain their wild status. There is little known about great whites. They don't know the numbers left of them but they think its around only 3,500 world wide. In fact, they don't even know how they mate, so conservation and preservation are key.

    It was no sooner than they started chumming that the first shark showed up. When you're in the cage you can't see where they are coming from so the crew spots from above and shouts when to dive under the water and which direction to look. The cage is 4.5 meters long and about 1.5 meters in height. The divers float in the cage holding onto railings inside the cage and take a deep breath and push to the bottom of the cage when a shark or sharks approach.

    Sharks are top feeders so they come from below and jump up out of the water when attacking their prey, so the view from the top deck of the boat was excellent as we watched the sharks trying to get the fish heads off the rope. The divers were able to stay in the cage for as long as they wanted within reason and we each had at least half an hour in the water.

    Soon it was our turn to get into the water. It was very cold at first but soon warmed up quite a bit once the water in the wetsuit warmed. The water was a bit murky so you could only see the sharks once they were within about 10-15 feet or so of the cage. Watching that first shark swim by got the adrenaline flowing and we had several sharks get progressively closer. The fish handler would drag the fish heads right near the cage and those sharks would get plenty close! The highlight for me was when one swam right at the cage where I was standing and got within a foot of my face. It was terrifying yet exciting to see this massive open mouth with three rows of razor sharp teeth swimming right for my head! Thankfully I had all of my fingers and toes inside the cage as he brushed into the metal before turning away!

    Eventually we got out and let the next group go while we warmed up with some hot chocolate. The time on the water was about four hours in total and we soon were back on the van for the long drive back to Cape Town. We stopped at a lookout along the way to admire the beautiful views and watch a paraglider walk off the edge of the hilltop into the thermals for a peaceful sail to the flatlands below.

    We got back to Cape Town around 3:00 pm, cleaned up, packed and then met our friends for a delicious farewell to Cape Town dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Beluga and Claude feasted on roast ostrich, while I enjoyed the roast springbok. Both meals were absolutely fantastic and the company was excellent as well. We made it an early night after being up so early in the morning.    Read more

  • Jay RossiterJay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016

    Cape Town to Hluhluwe

    May 16, 2016 in Swaziland ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    It was another early morning today as we had to be up at 5:00 am to get to the airport to fly to Durban. The check in process went smoothly and after we went through security the first thing we saw was Iron Maiden's 747 "Book of Souls Tour" plane parked on the tarmac. Apparently they are playing two dates in Cape Town over the next week.

    I must add that security when flying domestic in South Africa is very different than what we are used to. There is no liquid limits nor do you have to take your shoes off. The no liquid limit was great as I was able to bring two bottles of wine with me in my carry on bag!

    The flight was a short two hours, which was much nicer than the two ten hour flights to get here! Once we arrived in Durban we boarded the coach and headed for the Hluhluwe Imfolozi area. We drove directly to the St . Lucia estuary where we boarded a flat bottomed boat for a river game cruise. This was our first chance at animal viewing since we landed in South Africa.

    It was about 3:00 pm when we boarded the river boat and we travelled up river in search of hippos and crocodiles. We did not have to go far before we spotted our first hippo. Hippos are nocturnal animals and as it was late afternoon they were just starting to get a bit active. We were able to view several dozen hippos along the river including two young males posturing for attention and several baby hippos playing near the shoreline. We were also able to hear several of the hippos making their distinctive laughing sounds, which always brings a smile to my face. We only saw two crocodiles and even then neither were very clearly visible.

    There are many fires burning in the area as the farmers are burning the remnants after clear cutting areas of eucalyptus trees. They burn the remaining stumps before planting new trees to clear the soil of possible diseases and to ready it for the next planting. Eucalyptus is used for building beams and making paper and their other forestry species is pine which is used for furniture building. This area has thousands of acres of forestry and is very scenic. An offshoot of the burning is that there is a lot of smoke in the sky's which gave way to some stunning backdrops over the river and a spectacular sunset where the sun was burning red.

    We finished the river safari and made our way to the hotel for the evening in the Imfolozi valley. The hotel was pretty much in the middle of nowhere so we had dinner in the dining room and then retired early as we have another early start tomorrow.    Read more

  • Jay RossiterJay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016

    Hluhluwe Imfolozi Game Drive

    May 17, 2016 in Swaziland ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    It was another 5:00 am morning this morning so that we could get to the game reserve early for our first game drive of the trip. The game reserve was about 50 minutes from our hotel and after a short delay waiting for some folks to find their passports we were off.

    On arrival at the game reserve we separated into groups of 9 or so and took our places in the open aired vehicles. I was fortunate enough to get the passenger seat next to the ranger/driver while Claude was a row back on the other side and about a foot higher than my seat. Thus gave us excellent views although I think everyone had very good views. Our driver Jerome, was hilarious and he quickly named me his spotting assistant.

    The very first animal we spotted was a lone female lion, although there were likely others nearby. Next were a herd of elephants drinking and eating vegetation at a watering hole. After that we came upon three young Cape buffalo butting heads and horns on the roadway and then more elephants and more elephants. After tiring of seeing so many elephants we went in search of more lions but we only found a young male that was gaunt and unhealthy looking. He had likely been injured and thus had difficulty catching any prey. We carried on looking for white rhinos and after a bit of time and driving spotted some in the distance and then traveled on a little further to find some a bit closer. And closer we did! We rounded a corner to find two rhinos standing in the middle of the road right in front of us! We stopped the vehicle and turned off the engine and watched as they stared at us and sauntered closer. Before they finally turned off into the brush they had gotten within about twelve feet of the front of the vehicle! We left the rhinos and then drive to the top of a pretty high hill to get a view of the surrounding terrain. The vistas were beautiful and we were able to get out and stretch our legs. After the brief break we continued down the other side of the hill where I spotted a giraffe off in the distance. We drove to get a better vantage point and found a family of four to six giraffes including a baby giraffe.

    By now the time for our Safari has come to and end so we headed back to the entrance to meet up with the others and to share our stories of sightings. We also came back to some bad news and that was that our good friends and travelling companions, David and Priscilla, were leaving the tour to get medical help for David. He had been feeling under the weather since the beginning of the tour and unfortunately instead of getting better, he was getting worse. He did not go on the safari and instead saw a doctor and it was recommended that he be admitted to the local hospital for rest and attention. We are so sad to say goodbye but we know it was the right decision and our hope is that they will be able to rejoin us in a few days time.

    After giving our love and best wishes to David and Priscilla we reboarded the coach to make our way into Swaziland. Crossing the border required us to leave the coach and get an exit stamp on the South African side, walk across the border and then get an entry stamp on the Swaziland side. We then got back on the coach and stayed our journey into Africa's smallest country.    Read more

  • Jay RossiterJay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016

    Back to South Africa

    May 18, 2016 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    After crossing the southern border into Swaziland we drove for a while before stopping at a market place that sold candles, weavings, textiles and carvings all made in Swaziland. It was a chance to stretch our legs, have a snack or drink and do some shopping. We then carried on to our hotel in the Ezulwini Valley. We are in more remote areas now so dinner was eaten at the hotel and we visited with some of the other travellers on our tour before turning on for the night.

    This morning was not quite so early thankfully, but we were still up at 6:00 am. We boarded the coach armed with our purchases for the children at the local preschool we were to visit this morning.

    As soon as I stepped off the bus I was abducted by a three year old who grabbed my hand and led me into the classroom. The class has cement floors and three or four benches aligned along a couple of walls. There is no blackboard nor desks and no decorations or pictures on the walls other and a few handwritten signs on construction paper labelling a reading area (except there were no books) and a fantasy area. Gate 1, our tour provider has a foundation and they support non government run schools in many countries they travel to. While we were safariing yesterday Jason went grocery shopping for the village the school is in and they loaded all of the supplies into the bus for today's visit. We brought clothing, school supplies and toys for the kids from home so we packed these up as did many others.

    The older 4-5 year old kids helped unload the provisions from under the bus, each carrying a gallon jug of water or a 10 pound sack of rice or oats into the building. Once the provisions were unloaded and we settled into the classroom we were greeted by a couple of dozen 3-5 year olds singing for us in English and Siswati, the language of the Swazi people. Meanwhile my captor had taken up residence on my lap and settled in for the long haul.

    We spent about an hour at the school and my time was taken up by now two children on my lap, playing with my rings and my phone's camera. Even with no words spoken we shared some mischief and some laughter. We left the school with a stack of food, clothing, school supplies and toiletries and reboarded the bus for the next stop at a glass making factory.

    The glass factory was started a few decades ago by some Swedes who taught some locals how to blow glass. It started with only a few people and now employs 70 including three of the original locals. It was actually pretty fascinating to watch them creating beautiful glasses and figurines all made from recycled glass bottles brought in and sold to the factory from all over Swaziland.

    We left the glass factory and made our way north to a border crossing back into South Africa. Upon crossing we had driven across the entire country from south to north in about five hours total driving time!

    Right at the border crossing we stopped for lunch and a show at a Swazi cultural centre. We ate and then were herded into a Swazi house where we learned that Swazi men always go first "to ensure there's no danger", Swazi men have multiple wives and the first wife gets "promoted" and gets to pick the second wife and so on, that Swazi men expect to be completely taken care of so the women do all the cooking and cleaning and looking after the children and finally Swazi men do not spend the night with their wives, they decide which wife gets the "privilege" of him visiting and they knock on a pole in the wive's hut indicating they are there so the wife should pretty up and crawl on her hands and knees to service the husband! If he is satisfied he will leave for his own hut, if not he heads to another wife's hut for more. I can say this did not go over too well with any of the women in our group!!

    After the lifestyle lesson we watched a choir and dance group perform Swazi songs and dances and they were absolutely amazing! The harmonies and the dynamics of the voices was incredible and I've never heard 30 voices achieve the level of volume these people did. It was very impressive!

    We left the cultural centre back on the coach for the 90 minute drive back into South Africa where we are staying in Nelspruit near Kruger National Park as that is our next safari bright (or should I say dark) and early tomorrow morning.    Read more

  • Jay RossiterJay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016

    Safari in Kruger National Park

    May 19, 2016 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    We were up at 4:15 this morning in order to get ready and be on the bus by 5:15 so we could get into Kruger for the sunrise. The only problem with this was that it was raining and quite chilly so unfortunately there was no stunning sunrise for us!

    Once we got to the park we transferred into our safari vehicles and entered through Numbi gate for an all day game drive. As it was still drizzling out we were given rain ponchos to put on so that we could keep dry as we zoomed along in the open sided vehicle.

    It took us about a half hour before we came across our first animal sighting, wild (or painted) dogs lying beside the edge of the road. Kruger Park is huge - about two thirds the size of Vancouver Island or about the size of the state of Connecticut.
    Because of this animal sightings can be quite spaced apart versus some of the smaller parks or private game reserves. This resulted in a lot of driving when there was a sighting reported over the radio.

    We drove for almost three hours before stopping at Skukuza Gate to have a bite to eat and a bathroom break and then we were off in search of game once again. We made a second stop back at Skukuza gate another couple of hours later before our final drive of the day and before heading back to the hotel.

    Throughout the day in addition to the wild dogs, we saw a couple of lions, a couple of cheetahs, several elephants, some baboons, some kudus, a couple of crocodiles, a vervet monkey, a few hyenas, lots of elephants, some water buffalo, a couple of hippos, some giraffes, a warthog family and dozens and dozens of Impala. All in all a pretty amazing day!!

    Thankfully the weather cleared up shortly after we started our first game drive and got progressively warmer throughout the day. As we're heading into winter here, the mornings have been cool and hazy before clearing mid morning and becoming sunny and warm in the afternoons. The temperature range has been about 50 degrees in the morning and up to about 75 degrees some afternoons. The rain this morning was the only rain we've seen so far.

    We had dinner and drinks with some of our travelling companions and turned in for the night after showering all of the day's grit off. Tomorrow we take a panoramic drive to Johannesburg.    Read more

  • Jay RossiterJay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016

    Panoramic Drive to Johannesburg

    May 20, 2016 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    The coach left this morning at 7:15 so we had the opportunity to actually sleep in a little compared to other mornings. Of course I woke up at 4:22 and finally got out of bed at 5:15. We had about a six hour drive to Jo'burg but the plan was to stop along the way to see various scenic areas. Once again the weather was against us as our first stop was to be at a place called God's Window.

    God's Window is a scenic view point 1730 meters high up on Drakensberg escarpment in Mpumalonga province that gives breathtaking views of the lowvelds and Kruger National Park. Unfortunately it was high enough today to be completely socked in with fog so as our tour guide put it, the curtains to God's Window were closed today.

    We skipped the stop and carried on to Blyde River Canyon, which is the third largest canyon in the world behind the Grand Canyon and Fish Canyon, also in South Africa. We stopped at a place called Bourke's Luck Potholes where we had a great view of the sandstone potholes that were carved by the river flowing through over time.

    Our next stop was in a small town called Dullstroom where we had lunch at a place called Harrie's Pancakes. I wasn't sure about a pancake place for lunch but this was not was I expected! You could order sweet or savoury and we ordered a chicken and mushroom pancake and it was delicious!! It was more like a chicken pot pie in flavour but definitely was chicken and mushrooms wrapped in a pancake. I haven't mentioned yet that the food and drinks all over South Africa have been quite cheap! A glass of wine is about $2.50 Cdn, a beer $1.70 and most meals have been under $10. The only meal that was more expensive was the meal in Cape Town where we went out for a really nice dinner. Even then, the bill was about $160 Cdn for six people including drinks!

    After lunch we had about 2.5 hours more driving on the motorway to get into Jo'burg.    Read more

  • Jay RossiterJay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016

    Johannesburg

    May 21, 2016 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    We arrived in Jo'burg and checked into our hotel in the Melrose Arch area. The rest of the afternoon was free so we ventured out and did a bit of browsing in the neighbourhood stores. Melrose Arch is clearly a high end district as evidenced by the Porsches, Audis, Mercedes and the occasional Ferrari. Several of us got together and went out for dinner at a place called Pizza and Vino. The food was delicious and we had a great time!

    The next morning was a bit of a sleep in as we didn't leave until 8:00 am. Our itinerary for the day consisted of driving by Nelson Mandela's last residence followed by a drive through Soweto. After that we stopped outside of Desmond Tutu's home followed by a walk through of Nelson and Winnie Mandela's home. This is where he lived prior to his arrest and where Winnie continued to live and be harassed by the police while he was in jail. After that we went to the Hector Pieterson museum and then went to the apartheid museum.

    It was a pretty somber day as South Africa has only started to spread her freedom wings in the last 25-30 years.

    Hector Pieterson was one of the first casualties of the youth protest against apartheid on June 16, 1976. He was 13 years old. The protest was organized by students and was meant to be peaceful but the police opened fire with tear gas and bullets.

    Afterwards we went through the Apartheid Museum where we were randomly segregated so that we could see what it felt like to be in that position. Claude was classed as non white and I white, so we had the enter throughly separate entrance lines. It's hard to believe that only 25 years or so ago, this was how things were here. During apartheid 3.5 million blacks and coloureds were forcibly removed from their homes and resettled in the townships on the outskirts of towns. They lost everything and were persecuted and oppressed beyond belief. They were issued pass cards and had to present them whenever asked. If they didn't have it with them, they were arrested and beaten.

    We finished with a stop at an artisan market and then had dinner back at the hotel and said goodbye to several of our group as they were not continuing on to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe with us the next day.    Read more

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