3/7 thru 3/8

Today, Wednesday, we drove to Kimberly and visited the "Big Hole," where diamond mining started in SA in the 1870's. The original diamond pit and mines have been turned into a tourist site where you view a movie, walk through a simulated underground mine and view lots of real diamonds under heavy security. De Beers was started in Kimberly by Cecil Rhodes, the same person who originated the Rhodes Scholarship for deserving students to attend Oxford University in England. A few days before, we visited the Rhodes Memorial in Capetown, a beautiful park dedicated to Cecil Rhodes. He lived in Capetown during part of his life. We had lunch in Kimberly at the "Star of the West," a pub and hotel that dates from the late 1800's that served the miners. We enjoyed "pub grub" and beer.

We then drove to Bloemfontein, the city that is considered to be the capital for Afrikaners. The Anglo-Boer Wars occurred in this area in 1899-1900. We then drove on to Ficksburg, a beautiful drive through fields of wheat and sandstone mountains in the distance. We stayed at the Green Accorn B&B in small studio cottages. We had two cottages for only R380 ($55), including a full English breakfast. Since we arrived in Ficksburg late and we were tired and not very too hungry, we went to the local Wimpy's and had a hamburger. The restaurant closed at 8:00 p.m. It is so amazing that business establishments like restaurants, grocery stores, and department stores close between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. We are truly spoiled in the USA with our 24 hour shopping options. We ate very little fast food only US-McDonald's and 4or 5 SA firms.

We had decided to try and fly back home early. We had driven 7,000 miles and visited all the provinces in South Africa. Once we headed back to Johannesburg, we were ready to head home as we had already spent a week there. We had tried for a couple of days to change our airline tickets over the phone. They would tell us to call back as they had to check with Washington, DC (where we had flown out of) to make any changes. We finally received confirmation late on Wednesday that we could fly back the next day. So, we got up early in Ficksburg and headed toward Jo-burg. We drove through the Maloti Mountains, another gorgeous mountain route that took us to a beautiful small town called Clarens. We had read in Lonely Planet that Prince Harry and Brad Pitt liked to visit this town. It was full of art galleries, up-scale restaurants and gift shops. We asked the clerk in one of the stores where Brad Pitt had stayed and she directed us to the fancy resort just outside of town. We could see why the rich and famous liked this place as it was so beautiful. We also drove through Golden Gate National Park with big sandstone mountains and steep grassy slopes-spectacular! We drove into Jo-burg on the N3 Toll Road and had lunch at our favorite Portuguese restaurant that we had eaten at when in Jo-burg a month earlier. We almost missed our plane as we had not anticipated the traffic jams around the city. But, Doug with his fantastic sense of direction and navigational skills found some alternate routes and got us to the airport on time. We had driven 7,000 miles and our little Renault Clio was ready to go home too.

The plane headed home was not full and we booked seats at the back of the plane. We were able to lay down and actually sleep part of the way. It was a welcome contrast to the full flight we had experienced on the way over. South African Airways is a wonderful airline and the staff and services are excellent. Would highly recommend them. We stopped for gas in Dakar, Senegal on the way home. The total time spent on the plane was 19 hours, 18 of which we were in the air.

We loved South Africa, but would recommend flying to London and spending a week or so and then continuing on from there. It is an 8 hour flight to London and a 10 hour flight from London to Jo-burg or Capetown. Would love to visit South Africa in 50 years to see the progress I know they will make, but I am afraid we won't be able to make that trip! Unless, we can live to 110!