Friday, November 29, 2019

Eastern Highlands


It took us over six hours to get up to Barberton, the center of the gold-mining industry for almost 200 years.  The Gold Rush started here and today the town is still deep in the employment of still producing mines.  There are diamonds too, but we'll save that for our next post.

We lucked out and rented an Airbnb house that was an authentic 1850 farmhouse.  It still occupied a nice area of garden.  The rooms were huge, it has a disconnected, yet updated kitchen and there was this unique charm of an African summer house, complete with large verandas and a plunge pool...and all for $125 a night for the five.





Our first full day was visiting Jame Goodall's Chimp Eden.  The gang were in full form and we enjoyed a great guided tour of the facility and viewing of the chimps in their natural refuges.



For our second full day we chartered a day tour, let someone else do the driving, and we entered Swaziland for the day.  Our fellow was quite pleasant and we had a great day visiting a tribal compound and a few gift shops.  We had lunch at a rather nice upscale lodge.  The choir was in full voice and wonderful.






Ironically, with eight major gold mines in operation nearby, there was not a single tour available or even offered.  So. we spent a lazy day enjoying our South Africa piece of history and departed early the next morning for Kruger National Park.
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