23/07/2025
After a year of planning, excitement & anticipation the day finally came for our Collette tours “ Ultimate South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana “ hosted group tour to depart! 🙌
On Monday we boarded the very long flight via Sydney to Johannesburg and after a late arrival and a good night’s sleep, yesterday we hit the ground running to explore the city and surrounds.
South Africa has had a very sad & complex history and our guide Tshepo did an incredible job of telling its story from prehistory, colonization, apartheid, and the eventual transition to a multi-racial democracy.
After an orientation drive around the city we visited Constitutional Hill, including the old fort prison where Ghandi & Mandela were both once imprisoned and heard about the atrocious treatment and conditions the prisoners endured.
We then crossed Nelson Mandela bridge to make our way towards Soweto an area of Johannesburg where in the 1930’s the government moved people of color out to their own settlements to implement further segregation. It’s a diverse area, some well built albeit small homes to shanty towns, some vibrant and thriving areas and some in immense poverty.
After a delicious, local lunch we visited Mandela House, where Nelson and his family lived for many years prior to his imprisonment in 1962 and again for some time after his release in 1990.
We learned about the Soweto uprising at the Hector Pieterson museum and ended our afternoon with a walk through one of the many informal settlements, a very humbling experience.
It’s one thing to hear about this countries history on TV or read about it in the newspaper, but another to see the devastation that racism, hate and bigotry has inflicted upon its people in our lifetime firsthand.
An emotional and impactful day, one the whole group agreed was very worthwhile.
And now this morning we take a flight to Zimbabwe and this afternoon we visit the magnificent Victoria Falls, excited is an understatement!!
