Days 64 thru 66

(Rhia’s comments are italicized)

Leaving Botswana, we boarded a bus, and traveled back to where we started, O.B. Tambo airport. Not to fly in an airplane, but to rent a car and tour South Africa!!! 😃 But even before boarding the bus, we were talking with a fellow passenger and discovered she was an artist whose work we had admired at the National Museum in Gaborone!

After we picked up the car, we high-tailed it east out of Johannesburg, toward Kruger National Park, with a few pitstops along the way.

What has struck me while driving in South Africa is that there is far more infrastructure than any of the countries we have visited so far. The cities are also much grander. But the destitution is also seems much greater. Cloverdene is one example of this disparity.

After leaving Johannesburg, though, the countryside turned into stunning vistas, rolling hills, large forests, running rivers, and large lakes. S. Africa is certainly more industrialized than Botswana and Namibia and the amount of agriculture we’ve passed is impressive!

One of our stays was alongside the Crocodile River (sadly no crocodiles).

I took a solo journey from there to the oldest known cave in the world, Sudwala Caves. The caves formed 240 million years ago and were home to prehistoric people as far back as 2.5 million years ago. More recently, the caves were used as a fortress by the Swazi heir apparent in the 19th century. Many battles were fought at the mouth of the cave, but none succeeded in killing him. They even tried building a huge bonfire at the entrance to smoke him out (evidenced by the huge smoke marks there), but the natural air flow of the cave pushed the smoke out. An amphitheatre was constructed in the largest chamber of the cave, about 70 meters in diameter and 37 meters high, and can seat 500 people. The acoustics of the chamber prevent echoing, and many high profile performers have played there. I visited on a very slow day so I was given a solo tour. We walked in about 600 meters to the beginning of the cave where the water originally penetrated the earth. There is an optional 5 hour tour that lets people crawl about in the mud for an additional 2000 meters, but I chose to stay clean.

After touring the cave, I stopped at a butterfly garden. Being that it is winter here, there were no butterflies, but the nature walk did have some unnaturally sized exhibits.

I didn’t go to the cave because, the day after the conference, I came down with flu/Covid/?? Because I’ve had pleurisy and pneumonia, flu-type illnesses go straight to my chest! Thankfully, our dentist friend sends us on our travels with antibiotics (which I started taking immediately) so, although I currently feel horrible, I hope to be better soon!

While Dan was gone, I walked around the property and took photos of cacti that could have been growing in our yard at home!

Continuing east from there we drove through millions of acres of orchards of various fruits and nuts. True to Africa, there were many stands alongside the roads selling bags of citrus fruits, bananas, or nuts. I now understand why every store that I have visited in Africa has bananas. We stopped at an actual store that sold all of this produce, as well as displaying these magnificent solid wood sculptures.

Quick aside, the malls here are actually busy. We happened across two gentlemen engaged in a rather large game of chess

Our destination was always the gateway city to Kruger National Park, Hazyview. However, we had to rearrange our travel plans a bit (as much as we have travel plans 😂) as the bug Rhia picked up leaves her a bit winded. That’s an understatement…it’s hard to breathe! We were going to take a scenic route today along a beautiful road; Dan was excited as we could go tobogganing somewhere along the way. I gently reminded him that all I wanted to do was lie in bed to get better! At least, I think the reminder was gentle 😁 We’ll do that scenic route another day (when the thought of tobogganing doesn’t make my aching body weep at the thought of adding more pain to my day!)

Our room in Hazyview isn’t beautiful but it’s functional and has a little kitchen…and at $28 per night, we can’t complain!