We took the first day in South Africa to just relax like you should on a honeymoon. The Saxon Hotel is in Sandhurst, a very ritzy section of Johannesburg, and is very nice but encompassed with walls like everything else in Joburg. We had scheduled a jr. suite so Jim could get up early to read but got lucky and was assigned the Presidential suite which is +-2000 sq. ft. and more than comfortable! So, Thursday was a good work out on the treadmill and neat Techino weight device, sat by the pool, lunch at the pool, then the full monty at the spa. We were so relaxed after the spa, we did not feel like getting dressed and had dinner in our room.

On Friday we had a guide scheduled to pick us up and take us to explore Joburg. We visited the Origins Center which included the South African Museum of Rock Art (SAMORA), exhibiting the origins of modern humans and th James Kitching Gallery (JKG), exhibiting the broader origins of life on Earth. We then visited the Apartheid Museum and Nelson Mandella Museum. We spent hours here refreshing our memories and learning many things about this period in history we didn't know. Our guide, Wyatt, was well-informed and a Joburg native. He was maybe 50 years old, white and willing to share some of his experiences and views about Apartheid and current social/political/economic conditions. Really interesting.

Wyatt then took us to Soweto. This is the largest black urban residential area within Joburg. Joburg is big - larger than we'd realized with a population somewhere around 9,000,000, and encompassing a large geographic area. Soweto comprises 1/5 the total area of Joburg and 1/2 the population resides here.

Joburg began as a mining town when gold was discovered in the late 1800's in what is now the core of the city. This vein turned out to be 40 miles long! Gold continues to be mined in the area with current mines up to 3 miles deep; however, the gold is not nearly as plentiful as in the past.

Jim is now trying to figure out how to share photos - so maybe tomorrow...