LucyEthel Takes a Trip “Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” Miriam Beard

Day 11

We left Kruger National Park around 7:30 a.m. and began our trip to J'burg.  It's only 320 miles but we had many stops.  Unfortunately, it was too cloudy/foggy to see God's Window, which is a rock formation that frames a canyon.  We were able to spend time at Blydn River, which is really fantastic.  The swirling water has formed 'potholes.'  Since this has been going on for hundreds of years, there are holes high above the water and it's just cool looking.  I have a lot of pictures, which I hope I can get uploaded at some point.  Leaving the potholes behind, we went to a place called 'Pilgrim's Rest'.  This is a very nice little town where gold was discovered and of course brought many settlers.  Two women, dressed in the traditional garb of the married, were 'beading' in front of a store.  This is the first time I saw anything that fit in to my mindset of Africa.  The terrain changed from mountainous to practically prairie along the route.  Seriously, it looks just like Kansas, with corn and soybeans stretching for miles.  One area looked just like the Flint Hills.

Johannesburg is a cosmopolitan city of 8 million.  They speak all 11 languages here, unlike Capetown, which only speaks 4 of the official 11. Our hotel is very nice and is in a new suburb with two major shopping centers.  We walked next door to a bistro and each of us had different but very tasty dinners.  The twelve hour day was long but we saw so many interesting places.  

Tomorrow we are touring Soweto, which was a central player in the end of apartheid.  We are also visiting a 'curio' warehouse so the serious shoppers in the group will be excited (I'm not so much into the shopping this time).