Soweto and Jo'burg

  Pretoria, South Africa
Sunday, July 15, 2007

No more tents, no more air mattress, no more sleeping bags, and no more cold showers! The camping was fun and I am glad I experienced it and would probably do it again, but for now I am glad it is over.
I arrived in Johannesburg and headed straight to Pretoria as I wanted to avoid what is considered one of the most dangerous cities in Africa. During the 45 minute drive to Pretoria from the airport I could finally understand what people had told me about South Africa being more organized and developed. The fact I was on a 6 lane highway pretty much says it all, since throughout East Africa and the rest of Southern Africa we were always on 2 lane roads and mostly filled with potholes.
The next day after waking up in the hotel, ahh it just feels good to type that, I arranged a visit with a local taxi driver (Moses) to drive me around the township of Soweto.

Soweto

The townships are where the Africans had to live during Apartheid and Soweto is the most famous of them. While Moses was driving me around he was giving me a little history of the area and the times of Apartheid. To be honest it didn't look all bad. I guess having traveled through East Africa and seeing the conditions to which they live makes a South African township look like Beverly Hills. Other than some informal settlements that have popped up in the last ten years the houses looked pretty good.

Informal Settlement in Soweto

The interesting thing about Soweto was the street side businesses. I saw a man getting a haircut and a woman getting a weave sitting in a chair just off the sidewalk. If you need a new muffler you can pull your car off to the side of the road and they will crank it up on jacks and change your muffler.
The first stop in Soweto was at the Hector Pietersen Museum, which gave a good history of Apartheid.

Hector Petersen Museum 2

We followed up the museum with stops at Mandela's and Bishop Desmond Tutu's houses.

Mandel House 2

After lunch at some house/restaurant in Soweto I went into downtown Jo'burg to view the skyline of the city at the tallest building in Africa.

Jo'burg from Top of Africa 2

Off to Swaziland and Mozambique next.