Johannesburg, South Africa

Our final week in South Africa.  Another few days were spent in the northern Drakensberg Mountains – the Royal Natal National Park.  This time, we stayed even farther into the mountains spending 3 nights in the park near it’s famous landmark “Amphitheatre.”  Gorgeous – maybe a mix of Yosemite + Switzerland?  We hiked up a trail called “The Gorge” to Tugela Falls.  Ken ventured even farther, encountering an out of commission “ladder” but he decided it worked well enough to venture on.  Then he hit a problematic “crevasse” and continued his solo mission to crystal clear waters and views.  We had a lot of rain and fog, but we enjoyed all that we encountered – well, except the tick that bit Ken when we were an hour from civilization and he had to go on a “doxycycline mission.”  

After multiple days of solitude and nature we were off to Johannesburg, the most populous city in the country.  We spent an awesome afternoon at Gold Reef City, a rollercoaster-trampoline-gold mining theme park.  In search of new sandals (thanks Mom!) we inadvertently found ourselves at the fanciest of fancy malls – never have we seen so many Ferraris, Range Rovers, and BMWs!

We are very sad to leave this exceptional country.  Honestly, we all agree we could easily stay for another month, a year, forever.  The food, the prices, the English, the sincerely friendly locals at every encounter, the landscapes, ok the list is endless.  (We are secretly planning an escape – “if it gets too tough, let’s just go back to Cape Town.”).  

 

We are enjoying the lounge at the airport (OR Tambo), heading to our gate now… Zimbabwe!

 

P.S. Due to popular demand: Everett’s opinion (Thanks for the nudge CK).  Apparently, this blog is too optimistic and I’m not telling you all the bad stuff.  Like arguing, online school sucks, he misses his friends, the WIFI sucks, and he doesn’t like all these nature hikes...  But he likes there are so many black people, he is eating so many steak dinners, he gets to play Roblox, and he agrees he loves South Africa