That is what 28 hours of traveling from Durban, through Johannesburg and Atlanta, to Chicago will do to a person. Sadly, circumstances prevented consistent access to webbernet facilities, so I had to return before continuing this activity. Apparently some worried that bad things had occurred. Rest assured, no problems, except for my lack of vigilance in note taking for the remainder of the trip. I shall endeavor to recreate the remainder of the trip in its roughly chronological order.
Picking up the story, we left Cape Town having done virtually zero of the important local activities. Our visit to the District Six museum showed a nasty part (one of many) of the Apartheid era. The government declared a large, multi-cultural neighborhood to be Whites-Only, shipped the residents to projects on the other sided of the mountain, and leveled the area except for places of worship. The outrage over this proved immense enough within South Africa to delay any development long enough for the system to change. Today the whole area remains virtually undeveloped, with streets and streets of bare grassland providing mute testament.
We scalped our first Robben Island experience to German journalists willing to pay double, then the winter weather canceled the ferries for our other attempt. Which meant not riding up to the top of Table Mountain on day two proved a mistake as well. Alas, reason to return.
Quick flight over country that looks like southeastern Colorado, lands us in Johannesburg, just in time for a tour to the Cradle of Humankind. The Sterkfontein Caves prove cool, though they were a deadly trap to man’s earliest ancestors, who quite often fell into its crevices to an early death. The center at Maropeng proves just a little too Imaginarium for an adult.
The trip there and back by car shows a couple of less savory aspects of the Joburg area. The hills separate it into many distinct towns rather than neighborhoods, making it spread out in a Houston/LA/Atlanta sort of way. At least that means the constant brush fires usually do little damage to actual structures. Oh, and many of the hills prove to be the dumps from former gold mines in the area. Actually, they are not so “former” as these giant piles apparently contain plenty of gold that companies can access using not-19th Century technology. At least this means future Johannesburg will have fewer waste lumps across the landscape.
Winter followed us as well, though the rain did not, making locals quick to apologize that, “It never gets this cold here. It’s some sort of record.” While probably true, those words do not make one particularly warm. Thankfully the gloves and elephant hat both fit in the luggage.
Tomorrow, our second live match experience, a trip to Soccer City for South Korea v Argentina. The many reports of snarled traffic and with monstrous delays has our B&B leaving to drop us at the Park and Ride facility four hours prior.
