south africa: johannesburg, city of gold

sadly, time slipped through our hands as quick as a wink and it was soon down to our last couple of days in south africa.

we paid a visit to the apartheid museum. lebo highly recommended this and rightly so...this museum was well worth a visit. an overall thoughtful and well-researched approach to its subject, with a special part devoted to nelson mandela, who it must be said almost single handedly kept the country from disintegrating into civil war.

one night we went out with soso and babs (i realise i wrote about them but didnt have a picture of soso) and lebo and had a grand old time at this rustic restaurant. its funny, as it so happens when you are out with a good crowd of people, i remember we had great conversation, many laughs and felt like we had known each other for years. or maybe it was the wine?

speaking of wine, south africa has been producing top class wines since the 1600s. now i cant really claim to be a wine connoisseur. connoisuer? connoiser? i cant even spell the word. but those who seem to know what they are talking about tell me that south african wine is excellent. soso seemed to know what he was doing and he chose a bottle that was excellent. another highlight of this place was the live band - all one family.

not to brag, but i have been trying to learn the guitar, and i have even learned a few of the most common chords. if you need a G, Am, C, D played, i am your man. so needless to say i was watching the guitarists closely. it was pretty depressing to realise that i didnt recognize a single chord that these guys were playing.

so i went up to complain to the guys afterward and i thus heard the inspiring tale of django reinhardt. he was a gypsy born in 1910. he had no formal education in music, but learned to play banjo and guitar. sadly, when he was 18 his caravan burnt down and his fingers on his left hand were badly burned especially the 3rd and 4th fingers. so instead of feeling sorry for himself, he relearned playing guitar, inventing new chords that only used his first 2 fingers. he ended up as one of the greatest, most influential and innovative guitar players of all time. sadly knowing all this has not actually improved my guitar skills....

the next day, we hit johannesburg with our fearless leader, lebo. one of our stops was the carlton center - the tallest building in africa. it has a huge shopping center at the bottom, but we were more interested in the view from the top. so 50 floors and 223 meters later, we hit the viewing room and were treated to an awesome view of johannesburg. we hit it just before the sun set so we were treated to a lovely sunset.

happily they were doing some renovation, so the windows were open for the scaffolding and i could get a clean shot. johannesburg is a city that exists because of gold. it was named after 2 chaps who were conveniently both called johannes who were surveyors (imagine if they were 'xavier' and 'charles' = xaviercharlesburg doesnt have quite the same ring). the mineral wealth has led to the creation of a city, a war and the wealth of the country. it was pretty impressive. you could see hills made up of tailings from the gold mines, as well as soccer city, site of the 2010 world cup final.

after the carlton center, lebo dropped us off at bethel, and came up for supper and then we had an impromptu photo session in our bethel room - she will kill me for posting this here! she really took care of us and we are forever indebted to her.

we spent a peaceful last day wandering around south africa bethel. they are so big that they are counted as a township by themselves, and have wild game wandering around the bethel.

we also found this beautiful and pristine antique audi on the property.

so we said our final goodbyes to south africa....its rich culture, music, diversity and natural beauty making a lasting mark on us. but most of all our new friends that we made on this trip will outlast all our other memories!