I did find Bill at PE airport eventually and we flew to Johannesburg where we were met by folks from Afton Guesthouse again. apparently most of SA hunters stay at this place. Everyone we talked to had used Afton.
We had a whole day to kill until our 8pm flight so I thought we’d go on a tour. We picked a tour to the Cradle of Mankind which visited some caves where the oldest archeological finds of humans were found that date back to 2.5 million years ago. The sites were on the northwest side of town. Winter is very dry and brown, lots of traffic, lots of unemployed men looking for work and standing at intersections, everything is gated with electrical fences. And thick smog over the city in the morning.
It was an interesting tour to learn about formation of earth, evolution of species and about the earliest humans which had both ape and human characteristics. I really didn’t understand the actual theory behind the whole evolution subject. And this tour helped. The caves were cool. Down about 100 steps and in some places you had to squat or crawl. Guide for this part was excellent. He knew his history and geology and his English was excellent. The photo of him in front of a bronze statue was of Dr. Broom, the archeologist who discovered Mrs Ples, one of the famous finds from this cave. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Ples
You couldn’t say the same for our driver. We booked this trip through Lords Tours at the last minute. He was a decent driver but not a guide and he was in a hurry to get the tour done and drop us off early. I argued that for $300 we at least wanted to spend more than four hours. So we drove through Rosebank which is the exclusive downtown residential and business area of JB and spent a little time at the African Market.
Overall Johannesburg is not a pretty place, everyone is very paranoid about crime and now I know why it is best avoided. Next trip well do the obligatory one night stay because US flights all arrive in the evening. And then fly in to airport the day of our return flight.
Trip home was uneventful, 16 hours to Atlanta. us customs was slow as usual. We only had about one hour to make our next flight and didn’t. Don’t say you’ve been on a farm because you spend another ten minutes getting your boots sprayed (just do it at home).
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We are home and glad to be here! Beach looks good.
South Africa is a great place to visit. It’s clean, easy to travel around, so much to do especially if you love the outdoors, good value for Americans.
