A visit to Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia, Johannesburg, ANC headquarters 1961-63

Lilisleaf farm as it is today

The history of Johannesburg is so interwoven with the ANC, Nelson Mandela and the struggle against the apartheid regime that it would be impossible to stay here without visiting some of the iconic sites that punctuated the era, one of these - and the first we visited is Lilisleaf Farm. So, dear reader, this is a history post and we appreciate not everyone will be interested, but the fight against apartheid is so well known the world over that, we hope, it will be interesting enough to read.

The thatched cottage - MK meeting house

Johannesburg is a relatively young city, established in 1886 in what was then the Transvaal by some wandering Boer (farmers of Dutch descent), who settled in the area after being pushed out of the Cape area by the British. Unfortunately for them gold was discovered in the city and thousands descended in search of their fortune, The British moved in and after the second Boer war annexed the area to create the Union of South Africa, Johannesburg becoming the largest city in South Africa. The city is thus a mere 133 years old, not much more than twice my age!

Aerial photo of the farm taken the day after the police raid

Inside the thatched cottage. Think of the meetings that took place in here 

Over the next decades the white minority government gradually tightened its iron grip, segregating white and black citizens, forcing blacks into townships with no facilities while whites lived in comfortable towns. Pass laws were introduced where each black citizen had to carry a pass showing their legitimacy to be in certain areas, these could be requested at any time by the police and failure to show it or being in an unauthorised area could mean a jail term, and jail for a black person was pretty dire.

Photo inside the cottage the day after the police raid 12-07-63

During this time the African National Congress (ANC) was formed in 1912 with its aim to bring together all African people as one and defend rights and freedoms. The movement was initially to bring about equal rights for all by peaceful means but the Sharpville massacre of 21st March 1960 changed all that when police opened fire on black people peacefully protesting outside a police station, killing 69 and injuring 180 more, including children.

The cottage and other outbuildings from the farm house

The government declared a state of emergency, banned the ANC and SACP (South African Communist Party) and world opinion turned against the apartheid regime. Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and others in the ANC decided to part from peaceful resistance and embark on an armed resistance forming a military wing to the ANC which they called Umkhonto we Sizwe (aka: MK), which means Spear of the Nation.

The coal shed at the back of the farm house where the police found Mandelas diary and the papers that incriminated him and led to his incarceration on Robben Island for 27 years

Info panel by the coal shed. Click photo to enlarge

At the same time as the Sharpville Massacre Jo Slovo, Arthur Goldreich and others in the South African Communist Party who, despite being white, were campaigning for an end to the apartheid regime and, after their organisation was banned, were looking for a safe place to buy in order to continue their work covertly were completing the purchase of a smallholding in Rivonia, 10 miles to the north of Johannesburg. The place they bought was Lilisleaf farm, a 37 acre farm with house and outbuildings in the, then, very rural outskirts. Lilisleaf was owned by a Scottish family who wished to sell it and return home, having named the farm after a village in Scotland (it's south of Edinburgh and is in this location: Lillisleaf).

Notice at the entrance to the farm house

Arthur Goldreich, his wife and two children being white, were the front to the purchase in order to give an appearance of respectability. Arthur resigned from the communist party and severed all links to other organisations so no-one could connect him. Shortly after this Nelson Mandela moved into the small thatched workers cottage in the grounds posing as a farmer and using the name David Motsamayi. MK moved their headquarters there and it was here they planned their acts of sabotage as part of their armed resistance. From then on there were a lot of 'comings and goings' at the farm by cars and white and black people, something that was unusual in those days and noted by some locals, including residents of the nearby caravan park. Read more of the history here: https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/liliesleaf-farm

Another aerial view of that farm taken after the police raid

Nelson Mandela had previously left the country for military training in Algeria and Morocco and, on his return in 1962 was picked up by South African police in a roadblock in KwaZulu Natal on a tip-off from the CIA and sent to prison for 5 years on charges of incitement and leaving the country illegally. They were unable to pin any other charges on him due to lack of evidence.

Walter Sisulu's defence statement at his trial

During his days at Lilisleaf farm he had written a diary in which all the MK sabotage plans were detailed. He had given this along with other papers to Arthur Goldreich and told him to destroy them. Arthur couldn't bring himself to destroy them as they were valuable so he hid them. He considered sending them abroad but in the end hid them in a coal shed at the back of the house at Lilisleaf farm.

The ANC Freedom Charter presented in Kliptown on 25-26 June 1955

The remaining members of MK and the SACP, Walter Sisulu, Joe Slovo and others continued their sabotage planning but, as time went on, they became concerned their location at Lilisleaf was becoming compromised so prepared to move their headquarters elsewhere. The 11th July 1963 was to be their last meeting at Lilisleaf and Walter Sisulu, then South Africas most wanted man headed a meeting with 15 of both the MK and SACP in the thatched cottage, during which they discussed Operation Mayibuye and had their plans open on the table.

Here's an interesting story: this old Bedford truck was used to bring in arms for the ANC during the 1980's. Its front was a safari vehicle 'Africa Hinterland' and it took real customers on an overland trip across the border into South Africa. Hidden under the seats was 1 tonne of arms on each trip. It made over 40 trips and was never caught. There is a documentary on Youtube about it called The Secret Safari. We have yet to watch it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foqURw31gmc

During the meeting a strange vehicle entered the farm, on investigation they saw it was a dry cleaning van, which didn't concern them much. Suddenly the doors opened and the police charged the cottage with their dog 'Cheetah', capturing all 16 red handed and at a stroke set back the anti-apartheid movement more than 10 years. It was not until the second half of the seventies that the movement recovered. During the search Mandela's diary and notes were uncovered in the coal shed and the incriminating evidence was enough for him to be sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island, of which he served 27 years.

Inside the safari truck. The screen at the end shows interviews from some of the people who went on the safaris and shows their astonishment when they found out the covert use.

Who betrayed them has never been established. Walter Sisulu's dentist Reeve Arenstein is a possibility as he had visited him and left only 30 minutes before the raid, residents in the caravan park are possibles, captured ANC people may heve revealed their location under torture or some other informants, no-one really knows. What is known is that they were all sentenced to life imprisonment after the Rivonia trials in 1964, all that is except 2 of them, Arthur Goldreich and Harold Wolpe, plus 2 others, Abdulhay Jassat and Mosie Moolla. They escaped on 11th August 1963 by bribing their prison guard, Johannes Greef and that is an amazing story in itself and superbly told in the Lilisleaf museum with video interviews with Goldreich and Greef himself. It's too long to tell here but suffice to say that they all got away and Greef, being too honest to lie, told the truth and served 2 years of a 6 year sentence. He was promised £2000 by the ANC to help their release, but they couldn't pay him as he was arrested the following day. The debt was finally settled in 1990.

The onsite cafe sold Lilisleaf bottled water!

All in all, we spent over 4 hours there and still didn't read and see all the information. It is an incredibly interesting place to visit and we enjoyed it tremendously. If you're in Johannesburg don't miss this! It's now a small section inside a housing estate as the farm was sold off into lots sometime ago. The farm house and outbuildings were bought and converted into a guest house, the new owners being unaware of its historical significance, but after Mandela's release he visited the area again, barely recognising it, but it was decided then to rebuild it using as many original bricks as possible and make it into a museum. It opened to the public in 2008 and was paid for mainly by money from the EU.

The 'Rivonia 12'

Johannesburg and housesitting, so far so good

At Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens

We are bonding with Willow, on her terms. She did come in just as Brian was finishing the last blog and we did both get strokes. This may not sound much, but Cat’s dad hasn’t had strokes, and apparently she hates Cat’s boyfriend, so B was doing well. She has a very fixed routine, up at 05.00 (yes, really) wanting breakfast and for her window to be opened. She is then in and out, mostly out till about 20.30 when she comes in and her window is shut. When it’s hot she throws herself onto the cool tiled floor, happy to be stroked. Now it’s a bit cooler she is spending a bit of the day on her blanket under the bed where it’s hard to reach her. Come the evening she’ll spread out on either our bed or the spare bed taking up more space than imaginable for a small cat, before retiring to the spare room for the night. This morning she actually worked out it was raining, so did come onto the bed with us for half an hour before deciding she really needed to get on with her day! She is a cutie though, with the most amazing coloured eyes and we are really enjoying spending time with her.

Willow cat cooling off on the tiled floor

Looking quite cute

We had a visitor on Christmas Eve, Gabby, Cat’s friend who has very kindly said we can spend a couple of nights at her place, while she is in the U.K., between leaving here and heading up to Victoria Falls. She was just dropping a couple of things off but it was really good to meet her. Steak was our first home cooked meal, many things seem to be similar in price to home, but a T bone steak big enough for us both to share was just over £2.00, yum.

Hiding under the spare bed

Christmas day swim

Christmas Day we went for a swim in the pool, just because we could, another first for us. It was actually very pleasant and a great way to keep cool. Then on with the serious business of Christmas lunch. Roast chicken, pigs in blankets - I’d bought a Borewors sausage for another meal which was huge, 500g, in one sausage, so didn’t think we’d miss the end if I chopped it off to wrap in bacon! Roast veggies, no stuffing though, and then someone on the radio mentioned bread sauce, there was a bit of old baguette that had been left on the side, so I whipped some up. It was so good we had it twice, roast veggies, pigs in blankets, rest of the bread sauce with cold chicken, well it’s months since we had a roast!

This was the first attempt. I put the camera on a balcony wall on 10 second timer. I had to run down the stairs, across the lawn, dive into the pool and swim across. I just made the dive before it clicked. I just made it on the one above

Our Christmas dinner

Boxing Day we thought perhaps we’d better go out, so we went to a local view point, at the eco park (location: 26°08'41.8"S 27°58'08.0"E). Not sure why it was an eco park, but it was a great view with a little walk. Cat, Roger and Marion popped in on Friday to swap clothes from their safari/game drive stuff as they had spent Christmas at the Pilanesburg National Park, and are spending the rest of our sit here in a villa they have rented near Cape Town with some other friends. 

View from the Northcliff Ridge Eco Park. The sign said 'Beware, rock climbers below' There were none there and, in any case, it looked pretty easy

Arriving at the Walter Sisulu National Botanic Gardens

We were enjoying just relaxing as it was really very hot, but time will fly by, so Saturday the plan was the open top bus tour of Johannesburg. Except the day dawned much cooler, cloudy, the view was lost in the mist so we decided perhaps not! Instead we went to the Walter Sisulu (an anti-apartheid activist)National botanical gardens (location: 26°05'22.5"S 27°50'32.5"E). It was lovely, lots of families with big picnics, an impressive waterfall and lots of little paths amongst lovely gardens. We just bimbled about, enjoying the walk in a very pleasant 21 degree temperature. 

Interesting bug crawling through the undergrowth

The photogenic Ruimsig waterfall at the end

We finished up at the stalls at the entrance, don’t get the feeling they are there all the time, but there were a couple of food wagons, one of which served bunny chow. Bunny chow is a Durban specialty, it’s curry (mutton in this case, no rabbits in sight) served in the end of a loaf of bread, so the bread is the bowl which you eat. This was originally because Black or Indian people couldn’t eat from the same plates as whites, as explained to us by the white South African. We had a long chat with him, or rather he with us, but he was very interesting. He confessed he’s racist, but it’s very difficult as it’s how he was brought up, so they just need his generation to die, so that their children can move on...!

Some of beautifully kept Botanical gardens

He was however very nice to us, rushing over to where we were sitting on a bench with our curry between us, bringing extra napkins and a second fork. The fork was no use however as by then Brian was so covered in curry from tearing off bits of bread he could touch nothing. Obviously there are no pictures of the state he was in.... Our man then rushed back a second time with two bottles of water, “on the house as you’ll be thirsty after that” as I said, really very kind.

I've got loads of good photos of these Weaver birds (thank you for identification Sarah and Helen) and with this guy weaving his nest I guess that's how they got their name. Interestingly, a man with a group of kids walked by on the bridge we were on and starting telling them all about them, which we thanked him for. Here's a bit of what he said: this is the male, the female has much duller brown feathers. He frantically builds his nest (there were loads of them doing this) to impress the female. If she doesn't like it she pulls it apart. Here they were building over a river and our man said its to stop predators coming up from below. They build the nests on very thin, flimsy branches and apparently its to stop snakes slithering down to capture young 

Here's another one at the very start of his nest building

Rain overnight and overcast again today, but I don’t mind that, we’ll get loads of sunshine I’m sure. We had an amazing thunderstorm on Christmas Eve too, if we can just not get caught out in one of those that would be ideal!

Groups of people staking out their picnic spots in the park

Nice flora too

This was taken from a bird hide in a secluded bit of the park. Other than loads of Weaver birds we only saw some largish fish swimming about

Unusual (to us) tree blossom with a bee collecting pollen

And in a part of the park restaurant we could see a wedding going on. What a great setting

Jackie with Bunny Chow lunch in hand being talked to by our very friendly South African chef

'You have to try one while in South Africa' he told us. It was really nice (and very filling), but incredibly messy to eat. There are just over 18 Rand to our £, so 80 Rand is about £4.50. It's really hard getting to grips with the exchange, 18 is not an easy number to divide by, but we're getting there. It's the second time we've been enthusiastically introduced to local foods, the first time was when we were walking out of the Super Spar supermarket with bags of stuff past a small Biltong shop packed with people. A guy inside excitedly waved us in and when he found out we were from the UK, only just arrived and knew nothing about these foods he went round grabbing samples for us to try. It turned out he was only a customer but he got the woman owner involved who carried on with the enthusiastic explanations. We bought a bag of cured beef which we thought we could munch with a G&T in the evening. 'How much would R50 (about £3) buy?' we asked. She piled loads into a bag for us. Well, that'll last us a while! The first man was delighted we bought something and carried on enthusing about other things, wishing us well as we left. How nice people are that we've met so far.

This was a quite impressive thunderstorm that we caught the edge of one day. Lots of flashes and bangs, but it passed quickly and then the sun came out and dried everything up again 

This little chap was watching us from the rocks on our Christmas day swim. I'm putting all these on now as (we hope ) they will fade into un-importance once we leave here and start to see exciting big animals. Willow brought us one the other day, to get a closer look at. she's also bought us a huge moth and some big bug! Homeowner Cat and her mum and dad Roger and Marion, when they briefly called in on their way to Cape Town were so excited over all they'd seen on their game drives in Pilanesburg Game Reserve. Lions, elephants, giraffes - so looking forward to it. Our man at the Bunny Chow stand told us we should see at least 4 of the big 5, the leopard is very elusive and we'd be very lucky to see one of those. The African big 5 are: lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and Cape buffalo. Why isn't a giraffe or a hippo part of the big 5? They are just as big. Apparently, so I read, the Big 5 name was given by big game hunters who found the 5 the hardest to kill and the most ferocious when cornered. Tour operators picked up the phrase and used it for marketing and it has stuck. We're so looking forward to getting out on our safaris, it's exciting!

From the shortest day to the longest day in two days

Looking out from the balcony of our Christmas & New Year housesit

We had a lovely, if short, visit to Charles, Caroline and Lucy. Lots of chat before we made an early getaway to avoid what we expected would be horrible traffic. Actually it was fine, but that was probably because we were early.

More packing faff on Saturday, splitting our clothes, just in case, secreting money in various places about our clothes and bags, dithering about what we’ve got, what we need, what would be nice. I hate packing, it expands to fill all the time available but you never think you’ve got it right! Anyway, we’ve got what we’ve got, and I’m sure it’ll be fine.

We had a 2.5 hour wait in Istanbul. What else were we going to do?

Sunday, finally off to the airport for our next big adventure, a whole new Continent! Flying with Turkish Air we had to change at Istanbul, which felt a long way out of our way, looking at their inflight map, it actually wasn’t as bad as we thought. Both flights were very good and we did manage to get some sleep on the second one. 

Monday still felt like a long day though, landed at 11.30 (09.30 UK time) collected our luggage. (Isn’t it horrible when one bag comes through really quickly and one takes forever?) Straight through security, stamped in for three months, local SIM card for a spare phone and off to queue for the hire car. We rejected the first car as the cigarette lighter socket didn’t work, not that we’ve taken up smoking, but we did buy a sat nav with South Africa on which isn’t much use if you can’t charge it! 

The swimming pool at Totos B&B. Sadly we didn't have time to try it

Having waited 20 minutes for that one they did manage to find us a replacement quite quickly and finally we were off. The driving lived up to its reputation. Where was the car reversing on the hard shoulder of the motorway going? Minibuses seem to just stop, wherever they want to, and there are some very beat up vehicles out there. The B&B was fine, though not as plush as it had looked on the web, though absolutely nothing wrong with it, and a lovely welcome from the hostess.

Don’t stop, don’t sit down, off to the supermarket, along with the crowds. Woolworths had been recommended, like M&S though sadly with M&S prices. We bought

Our first night stop, Totos B&B

breakfast stuff and a chicken and vegetables and a couple of bottles of wine, we won’t starve but it was all I could cope with. Straight up the hill to meet Cat, her parents and Willow cat our charge. One and two were successful but meeting Willow wasn’t. When we took on the Housesit Willow was a house cat, since then she has broken out, and is loving her outside life.

Back to the B&B via a chain seafood restaurant for a quick but yummy meal, for an early night.

Back to Cat by 09.00, a quick drive around to the local supermarkets, before the family left to Drive to the Pilanesburg nature reserve where they are spending Christmas. Back to the Spar supermarket to buy the bits we hadn’t got yesterday, bacon for the chicken, gin and tonic, crisps and cake. All the important things.... 

Our first South African wildlife sighting. No idea what it is

Willow was in when we arrived back, she didn’t run off but she didn’t want to be touched, and didn’t hang around for long enough to shut the window to keep her in for a few hours. Oh well, I’m sure she’ll be back. In the meantime we are loving the balcony and the view and just chilling.

We hope everyone has a lovely Christmas, I’m sure we will xx.

A panorama of the view from our housesit balcony. Johannesburg is down on the right, mostly obscured by the hill. There are safe walking paths up on that hill that give splendid views of the city apparently, we must try them out.   

Our first photo of Willow cat, just entering the garden in the bottom of the photo. She's certainly got a large playground, she appeared from someway off behind the fence

But she doesn't know who these strange people are in her house! Stop press: she's just walked in through the window and Jackies gone to try to win her round. I'm sure it won't take her long. More on that in the next blog....

Back to the UK for 10 days and to prepare for our South Africa trip

Proper beer in The Village with Ian, Helen and Monty dog

Its Brian's turn to write, Jackies out doing 'home' things: dentist, opticians, catching up with Alex (girls only apparently) and buying a few things for our forthcoming South African trip and I'm home alone sorting out photos, banks and now, the blog.

We arrived safely back on Wednesday last after a very smooth ferry crossing from Calais to Dover under bright blue skies (didn't see any blue birds over the white cliffs of Dover though, maybe they were camouflaged against the blue sky). Our earlier 11:05 crossing, after our booked 12:35 crossing was cancelled (and then reinstated later after we'd changed!) actually worked out better. We got up at the same time

Distant white cliffs of Dover from Calais 

(7:00am) and set straight off (after servicing Big Ted in the Aire), arriving just over an hour before our sailing, so able to make coffee and sandwiches in the ferry port car park waiting area (the advantages of being in a motorhome rather than others sitting in their cars). Got a bit of a hurumph from the French lady at check in when she asked for our booking form and I handed her my mobile phone with the booking showing on the screen. It did say when we booked to print out the document, but we don't have a printer, so the phone had to do despite her protests. She managed and waved us through.

England and the cliffs much closer as we approached the port with Dover Castle on the hill

'Puffing Billy' Jackie clears the air lock in BT's water system

The earlier crossing meant we left the port of Dover at about 11:30 after getting off the ferry (drive on the left!) and the journey back to the Midlands round the M25 was OK, but quite long, so we didn't get back to Paulines (Jackies mum) until about 17:00, feeling a bit tired. Jackie wanted to drain off the hot water tank in Big Ted first as it was forecast to be at freezing point that night and we wanted to turn off his heating, I wanted fish and chips first! Jackie won, rightly really as it was already dark and very cold. We've done it twice before, the first time it wouldn't drain when we opened the dump valve and needed the pump on for a bit to get it flowing, but the second time we opened the valve and it flowed out nicely. What would

The water damage (bottom right) from the window leak

happen this time? We wanted it done quickly as it was cold and we wanted dinner, but no, a dribble came out, nothing more. Maybe its because its on a slope on the drive, so we backed out onto the road and still only a dribble. After messing about for more than half an hour we opted to leave it and put the heating back on to prevent any freezing. The fish and chips afterwards were fabulous!

Next day we tried again with little success so Jackie, armed with helpful advice from people on the Facebook Motorhome Adventures group, succeeded by blowing into the kitchen tap. First couple of hefty blows produced a trickle but on the third blow from a very red faced Jackie the trickle turned into a steady flow and the tank fully drained! Air lock we think, but it was good for her lungs!

Big Ted all cleaned inside and out, his window sealed to stop the leak and back in his storage awaiting his next adventure with us in March/April 2020

Back to our evening with I&H - a few drinks later and there's dancing going on!

We cleared out food and clothes from Big Ted, clogging up Paulines house and I took off the blind from the kitchen window in BT to find out from where the water was getting in. It was clear the water was entering round the window frame on the outside and there was a little water damage on the internal panel by the kitchen sink where it had leaked for a while before we noticed it. Planning to seal it myself I ordered some Silkaflex sealant on the internet, which arrived, but wasn't used. After taking Big Ted back to his storage area we washed the outside and cleaned the inside and, during this we met Dan the Van Repair Man, who is taking over at the storage area as the man to go to for motorhome problems. He would seal it for a nominal sum and indeed he did. At least we're leaving BT in storage properly sealed and the internal panel has already dried out and, once the blind is back on the water damage will hardly notice.

A cold Jackie and Rob prepare the chimney flue for installation

No sooner have we finished one trip are we about to start another. We're off on Sunday to South Africa, flying out from Birmingham Airport to spend Christmas and New Year housesitting in Johannesburg, a brief trip to Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls, a three week organised tour through Kruger NP, Rorkes Drift, Lesotho, Drakensburg and to Cape Town. Pauline then joins us in Cape Town for a three week roadtrip through the wine region, mountains and Garden Route to Port Elizabeth. We'll be gone for two months in total. You can view our full plan by clicking this link: https://brianandjackiecross.blogspot.com/p/trip-10-south-africa-zimbabwe.html

And there's a H&S conscious Rob balancing on a chimney pot!

The week and a half we've had in between trips has been fairly action packed as usual, not only with putting Big Ted into storage and organising and packing for South Africa, but also for catching up with friends and family. We had Friday night out with Ian, Helen and Monty dog with proper beer in the Village and the Old Moseley Arms followed by a proper Indian curry in Diwans - its good to be back! Saturday was spent at Rob and Alex's to help Rob install a flue liner down his chimney while the scaffolding was still up. Miraculously the sun shone after an appalling night and morning of heavy rain. It cleared to blue sky but it was very cold!

It actually went in a lot easier than I thought - and no-one fell off!

Sunday was Brians family pre Christmas lunch at daughter Fions. Sadly Denise and Paul didn't go as Denise had one of her regular test done that morning so felt tired (although all clear). Granddaughter Abbie wasn't there either as she's still in Manchester at university term time, but Becky and Harry were there as was Jenny, Steph and Sam with Rory and Ivy. As usual James cooked and he did a mammoth amount of food that, after we'd eaten looked as though we hadn't had anything. It was lovely and, obviously to help them out, took a fair amount away with us that we've enjoyed this week!

Monday we were back to the Old Moseley Arms and Diwans again, this time with the Monday Night club, Bill, Martina, Tim, Jill, Mark and Fiona (not my daughter!), so another fabulous night out. Last night (Wednesday) with met up with our Tea Club friends in Birminghams Chinese Quarter for more fabulous food all ordered by Crystal. There were seven of us, Manu and Crystal, Pete and Hilary, us and Reuben. Drinks, great food and fabulous company, great night, thanks guys.

Oscar cat at Fionas. There's a lot of food all around him, is he just waiting for backs to be turned?!

Tomorrow we're down to Hertfordshire to visit Jackies brother, wife and Charles and Caroline, Saturday we're doing a final pack and on Sunday we're off. All a bit of a panic really!

The packing for South Africa is underway!

Anyway, back to the trip we've just finished and I have to say how much we enjoyed it, Germany is a fabulous country (if the bit we saw is anything to go by). Everyone was really friendly and they seemed to really like the British which is really quite refreshing. Most people spoke English but even on the odd occasion we met someone who didn't we managed friendly banter and got ourselves understood. Its clean, safe, the roads are good and there's lots of provisions for motorhome touring. We thought it was good value for money, things costing probably a bit less than in the UK. The one surprise we had was not many places allowed payment by card, they preferred cash, which struck us as odd given their high technology. The places we visited along the Rhine and Bavaria were picturesque, lots of medieval walled towns, forests and mountains often with marked walking trails.

Awww, look what Manu and Crys gave Jackie

The timing of our trip wasn't the best, October was still relatively warm and things were still open, but after the first weekend in November things really closed down so finding any museums and tourist attractions open became increasing difficult. The Christmas markets didn't open until December, so we had between two and three weeks of it being really quiet. That's good for being able to go wherever we want without crowds (or often anyone!), but not so good for doing things. It also got very cold, although not too wet. We did have rain, but not that much, it was mainly dry, often sunny but generally cold.

We will be back, not in the summer when it will be hot, but Spring or Autumn when it'll be warm and not too crowded. That's plans for after South Africa.

Well, that's it for now, next stop Johannesburg!