On the way to Johannesburg we had a layover in Amsterdam.  It was quite a nice airport, fortunately, since we were there for 4 hours.  They have this very cool clock that we sat and watched for a while with what looked like a man inside it painting, erasing, and repainting the time every minute.

After another 11 hours from Amsterdam we finally arrived in Joburg where we were met by our driver to take us to the Sunrock Lodge just outside of town where we will stay for 3 nights.  It was about 10:30 pm so we pretty much just crashed.

We awoke to find a lovely garden and pool and lots of singing birds which we have never seen before.  It’s almost overwhelming to take it all in.  Our tour doesn’t officially start until this evening but another couple from Great Britain who are on the tour with us had also arrived early and we decided to visit the Apartheid Museum.

 

This was a very inspiring museum despite being a bit depressing– Lots of pictures and movies and even the car that BMW gave to Mandela when he was released from prison.  We also discovered some interesting birds on the grounds like this Wattled Lapwing:

We came back from the museum and just relaxed around the lodge and watched the many birds there.  Here are a couple:

Village Weaver on his nest

Southern Red Bishops and Pintailed Whyda

 

Cape Wagtail

Pintailed Whyda

Weaver nests

That’s all for tonight.  More later