Johannesburg and Soweto

Yes, I managed to get robbed in Johannesburg. Lost a camera and a cell phone, after being robbed by 5-6 blacks with knives. Even though I was told it was relatively safe to see the area next to the Carlton Center at daytime. It turned out not to be safe, because I was mugged at 11 AM, in the middle of a crowded street. And nobody lifted a finger to help. Joburg, as they call it, is a very dangerous city. Stay away, don't visit downtown of this city, it is as simple as that. It is nothing to see there, anyway.

I stayed in a guesthouse next to the airport during these days, but wanted to see the city and also the famous township of Soweto. The best and safest way to do this is to hire a local guide. I bought a Johannesburg/Soweto half day trip from a company called Take a break Tours, and was very happy with the guiding. The guide Ken (76 years old!) showed me one of Witwatersrand's first gold mines, the Ferreira mine, today situated below the Standard Bank on Simmonds Street. He then took me to Soweto, the black township just outside of Joburg with approximately 3.5 million citizens. The shacks make up only about 15% of Soweto, to my surprise. The rest of the city consists of small brick buildings, not looking too bad. We visited a local market, and went inside a shack full of smoke housing a local "bar", or something. I had to taste a local brew, served in a carton (see the picture above). To put it simple, it didn't taste good. Of course, we also passed the house where Winnie Mandela lives today (with a lot of security measures), and the street where both Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu used to live (two Nobel laureates in one street), and the Walter Sisulu Museum.

At Sterkfontein Caves, where the Australopithecus africanus was discovered, north of Joburg

Sterkfontein and the Old Kromdraai Gold Mine

On Saturday, I ordered a new trip from the same guide who took me to Soweto. This time to see the Sterkfontein Caves, a familiar name for most biologists. This is the place where the first specimen of Australopithecus africanus was found:

"Sterkfontein is one of the world's most productive and important palaeoanthropological sites. It is the place where the very first adult ape-man was found by Dr. Robert Broom in 1936. This ancient cave system has over the years revealed a sequence of deposits with fossils dating from about 3.5 to 1.5 million years ago, a period of time which spans the early development of the family of man - the hominids. In addition to almost 500 skull, jaw, teeth and skeletal fossils of these early hominids, there are many thousands of other animal fossils, over 300 fragments of fossils wood, and over 9,000 stone tools which include some of the earliest manifestations of human culture on earth. Some of the youngest deposits in the cave also contain fossils and tools from the period just prior to the emergence of modern humans, the period ca. 100.000 to 250,000 years ago, most widespread of which are the dolomites of the Transvaal Supergroup. Dolomite, as well as limestone, is slightly soluble in acidic groundwater (groundwater that contains carbon dioxide in solution) and readily forms caves and sinkholes".

The caves were not that impressive, as we were not allowed to see the area where they still are digging. And the museum at Sterkfontein could have been more extensive. The next stop was at the Old Kromdraai Gold Mine, where the Black Reef was mined, before the Witwatersrand was discovered. The owner took me into the mine, and showed me how hard it must have been to work in a gold mine late in the 19th century. The mine was occupied by bats, and an underground lake runs all the way to the Sterkfontein Caves, some 6 km away.

Pretoria

Returning from the safari, I spent three days in a guesthouse just north of Pretoria. Instead of spending even more time in Johannesburg, I preferred to see a new city. Pretoria is the administrative capital of South Africa, and the crime level is supposed to be lower here compared to that of Joburg. The government is situated in the Union Building, overlooking the city, and with a view towards the tower of the Voortrekker Monument. During my stay in Pretoria, I visited the Pilanesberg National Park one of the days. Here I saw white rhinos and a lot of other species, but due to a recent wildfire, this park was a disappointment. My last day in South Africa, I went to a private game reserve outside Pretoria. My purpose with this trip, was to try to get some nice photos of lions. Although private game reserves are much smaller than the national parks, you are much more likely to see predators and other rare animals here. Private game reserves are nothing like zoos, because the animals are free to roam large areas.