Pretoria/Jo'burg

I am finally updating my blog with the first of my vacation stories!

Caroline and I arrived in Pretoria late Monday night on Oct. 22.  My dad’s friend, Beyers, picked us up from the airport. They worked in Nigeria together back when I was in middle school.  I had never met him before, but he was very friendly and allowed us to spend a few nights at his gorgeous house.  Beyers lives with his wife and two kids in a very nice residential neighborhood about half way in between Johannesburg (known in Cape Town as Jo’burg and people from there call it Jozi) and Pretoria.

Tuesday morning Beyers drove us to the Cradle of Humankind which is where some of the oldest human fossils were found dating back to 3.5 million years ago. Our first stop was the Sterkfontein caves. We wandered through the limestone caves with a tour guide explaining where significant archaeological finds had been made.  The caves were found while being mined for limestone that eventually led to all of the impressive finds. Mrs. Ples is between 2.2 and 2 million years old; she was found in the rubble of an excavation site where the cave paths were carved out. She has one of the most complete skulls of an A. africanus specimen. Robert Broom discovered several of the fragments and has a sculpture displayed at the site; if you rub the nose you get good luck and if you rub the hand you get wisdom. Little foot was also found here, estimated between 2.3 and 2.2 million years old. Sterkfontein has produces more than a third of early hominid fossils ever found.

The caves have remains of various animals as well, including extinct animals. The likely reasons for this are that the caves had entrances only in the ceiling, which are random holes in the surface above. Many animals, and humans, accidently fell in and died within the caves leaving these remains behind. The caves also have a vast underground lake that is no longer being explored due to the dangers and deaths that have occurred. The lake is rumored to go back very deep; one time dye was placed in the water and it came out kilometers away in a river. 

Next we went to Maropeng, an interesting museum type area geared toward education. It definitely felt like it was meant for a bit younger crowd, but Caroline and I enjoyed in none the less. The building looks like a hobbit-hole because they covered the outside with grass to hide it from being an obstruction to the view. On the way in you go down a spiral ramp that has the history of time on it putting every discovery into perspective. Next was a raft ride. The ride was very random and bizarre. It supposedly takes you through the big bang and ice age but really it was just us sitting on raft through bizarre rooms with no sound effects.  At the end was a spiral tunnel that rotates while you walk through in order to feel the big bang again before entering a large room full of fun games. The highlights include talking on the phone to an extinct dodo bird, posing as apes to see our similarities, and feeling characteristics of different animals by sticking our hands in weird holes.

On the road, many traffic lights were out because of copper wire theft. It is common to have people steal the wires to sell for money leaving areas without power. We were dropped off at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria. It was built to commemorate the pioneers who participated in a migration between 1835 and 1854 called the Great Trek. Around 15,000 pioneers moved across the Drakensburg into the South African interior founding the Boer Republics Transvaal and the Orange Free State.  I believe the Dutch were fleeing the British who were fighting the Zulus.  Inside the main entrance there are carvings all along the walls depicting this great migration that reminded me of the Oregon Trail. Our guide, Goodwill, explained all of them to us including the importance of the strength of all the women during this time frame. The center of the room has a cenotaph, which is an empty tomb, down in the basement level visible through a circular hole in the middle of the room. At the very top there is a catwalk of sorts that allows you to look down on the room and see it from very far above. The ceiling dome has a tiny window where light only shines through on December 16 at noon directly onto the cenotaph. This is the date of the Battle of Blood River and the light is God’s blessing on the lives and endeavors of the Voortrekkers.  Everyone comes to the monument on Dec. 16 to honor this.

From the monument we could see the University of South Africa.  This is the largest University in Africa, and it has over 300,000 students. It is mainly an online University but its campus and buildings are shaped like a ship when you view them. This is so that they are “sailing to find knowledge in a sea of ignorance.”

Pretoria itself is a beautiful city this time of year because of the Jacaranda trees that are lining almost every street in the city. They are flowering purple in the springtime, which is now, so everything is purple (you would have loved it mom). The city has tried to rename itself Tshwane but it would have been too expensive to do on a global scale so they just renamed the city center Tshwane.  They are actually changing most of the street names now in a big black power movement since most were named during Apartheid. All the street signs have the old name slashed out and the new sign next to it. This reminds me of Omaha changing all of Elkhorn’s street names for no reason whatsoever at an extra expense.

We stopped at Kruger’s house. He was the President of the South African Republic a long time ago. There was not much to see except the old furnishings were mainly preserved in the room. Church Square is in the historic center of Pretoria and has a statue of Kruger. The square was banned to all blacks during Apartheid, with only whites allowed to enter the area. Now it is open to all races.  The Palace of Justice is next door and it is where Mandela was charged with treason and sentenced to incarceration.

The last stop on our tour was the Union Buildings which is the official seat of the South African government and houses the president of South Africa’s offices. These are much more impressive than Parliament in Cape Town.  They are on top of this massive hill with huge gardens going down, lined with flowers and fountains.  This is at the highest point in Pretoria. Back at Beyers, we had a delicious braai during a thunderstorm.

Wednesday Caroline and I were dropped off at Gold Reef City. This is a large amusement park in Jo’burg.  It is located on an old gold mine that we are allowed to tour to learn about the industry since mining is very prominent in South Africa. Unfortunately the tour was closed. Instead we just went on the rides! The park cost less than $15 USD to enter which seems very cheap compared to back home, especially because it is the best amusement park I have ever been to. At least eight different school groups were there with screaming black children so excited. I wish we had that cool of field trips when I was in elementary/middle school.  There were many peacocks just roaming around, even in the restaurants. The staff has to spray them with water to shoo them away. Cool rides:

·        Anaconda: an inverted roller coaster that took us upside down more often than I have on any other roller coaster before. It is the fastest and tallest inverted roller coaster in Africa.

·        Runaway Train: A roller coaster in a train type car. At some points you are at a 90 degree angle sideways from the ground and you are not strapped in very well. I was sliding into Caroline who was hanging on so as not to tumble out. Still fun though.

·        UFO: This is a spinning ride that moves at 50 km an hour and turns in all weird direction and you are just in a cage spinning through the air, sideways, up high, down low, and all over.

·        Pirate Ship: Similar to a pirate ship at home that rocks back and forth but this one goes up and over the regular stopping point until you are dangling upside down since it has a rotation of around 230 degrees instead of the usual 180. Caroline and I got to go on this ride just the two of us once and it was so funny being all the way at opposite ends but literally dangling over each other with just a lap belt pushing us in. One time we went on it with the school children and Caroline’s hair is so long it dangled into the mouth of the girl in the seat behind her. I had to twist while way up in the air to pull it back so the girl could breathe.

·        Tornado: like the G-Force ride at home but much much faster.

·        Tower of Terror: NOT the same as the tower of terror in America. Eight people are harnessed in (with harnesses over the head) onto a roller coaster cart. You are driven around a track and raised up over 47 meters. Then the cart makes a turn so you are at a 90 degree angle directly facing the ground and it shoots down all 47 meters while you scream thinking you are going to face plant into the ground when it doesn’t stop. Then it turns up goes around and is done. There are restrictions on how often you can go on the ride because of the adrenaline it causes.  Definitely the scariest ride I have ever gone on in my life.

I was most caught off guard by the lack of safety regulations. On a majority of the rides, no one checks that I am buckled in safely or properly. If I chose I could just not have had my belt on and the ride would have started with me potentially falling out.  Before the rides are over when they are just slowly moving to a stop, people jump out and head to the exit which is definitely not allowed back home. Then the big one with some of the safety measures definitely not enough to keep you in no matter what; this could be potentially dangerous.

Caroline and I walked next to the Apartheid museum.  It was not what I was expecting, and I think it tried to throw too much information at the visitors. Initially they split you up randomly into whites and non-whites. I was non-white. We have separate entrances so the first bit of museum I had to do with a wall dividing us, which was bizarre. I ended up crawling through the bars to get to Caroline so that we could do that part of the museum together.  Then inside there were walls of text and tons of videos; it would take many hours to read and listen/watch all of it. I felt overwhelmed and kind of irritated by all of this. One wall had just pages and pages out of a book someone wrote about the time. If I wanted all of that I would buy the book.

Afterward I mastered the train system to get myself home. We got on the GauTrain to Sandton, which is a large shopping area in downtown Jo’burg.  We wandered around there, but everything cost a lot so we took the train to Midrand and called Beyers to pick us up.  That night he made delicious shrimp from Mozambique for dinner. We also tasted several desert wines that were quite wonderful.

Then Thursday morning began our trip to Kruger!