Johannesburg, South Africa

It was a nice sunny day when we woke up in Maliba Lodge. We had breakfast and were packed up and ready to go by 9am. It's a five hour drive from Maliba to Johannesburg, although we were planning to take our time and not just drive for five hours straight.

The drive from Maliba to Butha Buthe is really scenic. I stopped in a bunch of places to take pics of the villages and rondavels that dot the valley. There were a few groups of people in the fields (couldn't tell if they were harvesting or planting or something else).

In Butha Buthe we tried to find the craft shop. We drove down some really pot-holed side streets looking for it, but had no luck. Gave up before the car got stuck in one of the giant potholes and headed for the border.

The border crossing at Calendspoort was quicker leaving Lesotho than entering. It was also one of the easiest land crossings we had this trip. We parked at the Lesotho exit and walked in to get our exit stamp (which had the wrong date -- Dec 28 instead of Dec 27). Then drove through, where they stamped our passports again. I guess if you leave by car, you don't need to park -- you can get your exit stamp at the drive-through.

So now we had two exit stamps from Lesotho, one for today and one for tomorrow. Hopefully this wouldn't cause problems entering South Africa! They didn't even bother to look at the stamps at the entrance though, just took our passports and gave us a stamp for entering South Africa. They asked us to pop open the trunk at the gate, saw a bunch of backpacks, and sent us on our way. Very easy, and no attempts to bribe unlike most other border crossings we went through this trip.

Our route to Johannesburg was not on the main highways which was good, as they sounded backed up based on the radio traffic reports. Around noon we left the highway in Frankfurt to look for a little cafe or restaurant. The town looked like it had seen better days. Most of the store and restaurants were closed and boarded up. The busiest (and only open) restaurant, based on cars parked outside, had no windows, never a good sign. Instead we went to the grocery store we had seen on the way in. This also had seen better times -- half the shelves were empty. We bought some cheese and crackers to tide us over and left Frankfurt in a hurry.

The GPS was really helpful at getting us to 33 Melville. We drove through downtown Johannesburg along the way, our only view of the downtown core, which looked just as car-centric as the rest of the country. We arrived at the b&b around 3pm, the end of our long road trip. We drove 4,500km over 21 days, covering a good chunk of the eastern half of South Africa.

We had earlier emailed the b&b to arrange to have dinner. We both chose fish options (sea bass for Heather, salmon for me) which were cooked properly. We ate outside because we figured it was one of our last chances to do so before we flew back to Toronto. It was a bit chilly but okay with our jackets.

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The next morning we had a pleasant breakfast, seated in the kitchen. We both asked for french toast to break up the monotony of eggs, eggs, and more eggs that have been on offer the entire trip.

It was drizzling as we drove to the Apartheid Museum. The GPS proved very handy again. We parked and ran over the ticket booth to escape the rain. Then we realized half the museum was outdoors, so Heather ran back to get our umbrellas. The entrance to the museum is separated for blacks and whites, just like during apartheid. The tickets alternate between a "white" and "black" ticket, and depending on which one you get, that's the entrance you use. The first displays are separate -- you only get to see the half you're in. After about 5-10 minutes, they group up again. It really emphasizes partially what it was like during apartheid.

There's lots of details in the museum. We took about 3.5 hours to get through, skipping over the temporary exhibits as they aren't necessarily apartheid related.

We decided to eat at the on-site café because usually cafés at museums and art galleries are pretty good. Except for this one. Both our dishes were bland. Oh well.

On the way back home we called into a couple craft stores for our final look at souvenirs, Art Africa on Tyrone, and Kim Sacks Gallery. In particular we were looking at the african bed that's made from a single piece of wood, and is used by westerners as coffee tables. We took some pics and dimensions and will decide when we get back home. Our favourite was 79" x 29", so I think it might be too big for our house.

We had debated eating out at a restaurant just to check out the scene, but most places were closed over the Christmas holidays. We just ate at the hotel again, we had ordered lamb, which was amazing.

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Our flight departed at 11:59pm so we had the full day in Johannesburg. I had booked 33 Melville for a 1/2 day so that we could shower and relax before we got on the flight.

In the morning we visited Liliesleaf Farm, which is where the underground movement was arrested at the height of apartheid. All the reviews we had read said that it was very underrated. They were right! It was an excellent museum, with lots of interactive displays and explanations. Their café was excellent too. It's a good complement to the Apartheid Museum that we had visited the day before.

After lunch we returned back to the b&b and packed up our bags for the flights home. Surprisingly all of our stuff fit into our two backpacks and one carry-on suitcase. We were planning to check the suitcase because it had the sculptures from Mozambique that were made from old gun parts. We didn't want the hassle of trying to take it as carry-on.

We had a light dinner, a repeat of the fish we had the other night. I still had to drive the rental car back to the airport so didn't have anything to drink. Also didn't want to be dehydrated getting on the flight.

So followed the GPS to the airport. I was a little nervous as the route took us through the city streets at night. At some of the red lights, the other cars used them as stop signs so I followed suit (it's to prevent possible carjackings at red lights while you're stopped). We made it without issue to the airport, dropped off the car, and checked in. We browsed around the souvenir shops while waiting. There's an Art Africa in departures, and the quality and variety was really good. We could have just waited and bought all our souvenirs here!

Our flight left about 30 minutes late, and then we were on our way back home!