We arrived at their house in Pretoria & straight away we felt at home. Plus Hester spoilt us rotten!! We did have a packed itinerary so after chatting half the night away, we headed for bed.....in preparation for our 5am wakeup call!! So after receiving coffee & bikkies in bed we got up & headed out for the day. First stop, Pilanesburg National Park for a morning game drive. Can you imagine how cool it would be to drive less than 2 hours from home & be able to drive your own car around a park full of wild game?? We were lucky enough to see some elephants & giraffes within the first 15 minutes or so & we were hoping it was a sign of things to come. Unfortunately (according to Pieter & Hester) we didn't see much for the rest of the morning but we did stop off at the visitors centre where there was the oldest, funkiest looking warthog I've ever seen. He not only had the Bon Jovi mullet happening he also had a wicked comb over!
It got to about lunchtime & it was time for our next port of call....Sun City. A casino & water park about 45 minutes from Pilanesburg NP. The casino part looked like any other casino from around the world but on the way to the water park you had to cross a rather theatrical, Indiana Jones style bridge. What I mean is the bridge rumbled, vibrated & rocked while jungle type sound effects played & smoke poured out of the sides. What a freaky feeling....& apparantly one you can experience over & over cos the bridge goes off every hour or so. The water park was cool & I could see that Andrew would have loved to go in but we had another stop to make....the posh hotel up the hill. We walked casually up to the front doors & made to walk in as if we were staying there. Unfortunately the guards spotted our not-so-convincing acting & told us we could pay to look in the hotel or move on! There was no way we were gonna pay but Hester (or paparazzi as she is better know) sweet talked her way in a bit further & took some pics...I wouldn't have been able to say no to her either :)
When we had finished walking around the casino we headed back to Pilanesburg for our afternoon game drive....I did say we were spoilt rotten right?? The afternoon game viewing was even better than the morning & we were lucky enough to see a rhino with the tiniest baby, a huge herd of ellies again with the tiniest baby & lots & lots of zebras, giraffes, antelope, pumba, kudu.....& most excitingly a rabbit! Apparantly very rare!
We were due out of the park at 6pm & it was approximately 5.58pm when we pulled up at the gate to leave...perfect timing. We had both found it confronting how security conscious Peter & his family have to be in their home in Pretoria. Home invasions are a massive problem so bars on windows & high tech security systems are a part of life for them & all their neighbours. So on the way home we drove through some fairly dodgy areas, known to be black communities & it was shocking to see the lack of security along these streets. It reminded us yet again how lucky we are to live in Australia.
Next day wasn't such an early start so after breakfast we headed over to Johanessburg. We drove around & checked out some of the buildings before going to the Hector Pieterson Memorial & to the weirdest disused concrete ex-power station towers ever. They had been painted up beautifully & a bridge had been built in between them to be used as a bungy platform. Now, you'd never get me throwing myself off it but the towers were impressive none the less.
After that we headed to the Hector Pieterson Memorial in Soweto & to another casino, Emporers Palace. Here Andrew got to re-enact his Statue of David pose from Florence...this time with a little help from Pieter!
On the way back to Pretoria we went to the Voortrekker Monument on the hill. The monument contains a memorial to the Boars who came up from Cape Town & various representations of the struggles they faced during that time. If nothing else it had an amazing view across Pretoria plus there were some zebras & antelope in the grounds of the memorial.
Before we knew it, we were at the airport again saying goodbye. Sooooo sad to be saying goodbye to Pieter & Hester....I really felt at home with them & we really were soooo spoilt! BUT, South America awaits......as do many hours of air travel!!
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