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First stop was Johannesburg where we spent our first full day with a Soweto guy called Booysie who showed us around Joburg and his hometown of Soweto complete with stories about his family living through apartheid and all the subsequent changes. Fascinating day - learned heaps.
We started in the northern suburbs where the houses are pretty opulent and all surrounded with electric security fencing and contrasted this with Soweto where there are still shanty town areas, but there are also some lovely areas within Soweto. After lunch we wandered the streets and felt quite safe. It seemed as if Booysie knew everyone! Bill even joined in to help a young local push start his car (well, hopefully it was his!)
We were told that Joberg has the biggest man-made forest in the world - and hadn't appreciated just how big J'berg is - about 8million people and over 4m in Soweto, right next door.
The Apartheid museum was fascinating. To enter Lauren and Kirsten were selected as 'white' and Samuel and Bill were given 'non white' passes. Whites and non whites went in through separate gates which gave you a sense of the separation that was experienced through Apartheid.
Our airb&b accom in Joburg was primo and we felt pretty safe - grabbed an uber taxi both evenings to head to Melville for dinner - which is a dining/drinking area with a great atmosphere. Uber is in full swing here and our cabs generally arrived at our doorstep within a minute or two of "ubering" them up on the iphone. Too easy.
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