Anyway…back to regular programming. The next stop on our road trip was Pretoria. We found the cheapest accommodation was in Centurion which was nice and central to most things. I had promised the kids that we would go to the Race for Space expo but when we got there I had my doubts.
We had been to a few expos in Cape Town and found them distinctly underwhelming and, with money running out fast, I simply couldn’t justify the expense. So we decided to explore using the Gautrain instead. But more about that later.
I am very fortunate to have a few family members who have chosen to make Gauteng their home. Weirdos (just kidding). And my cousin Eloise was incredibly helpful and generous with her time. So, after arriving in Pretoria on a public holiday to find that everything closed at 4pm, we made do with take out and prepped ourselves for a day at SciBono.
Of course, our first full day anywhere starts with us hand washing our clothes so that they can dry over the remaining 2 nights. Yay! *sarcasm* So our morning didn’t start off with us going anywhere very early. Once we had finished our chores while the kids did some school work, we met up at my cousins house and headed off.
Sci Bono is like a super sized version of the Cape Town Science Centre and spans numerous levels linked by ramps. The kids had a blast hanging out with their cousins and thoroughly enjoyed running around like headless chickens. So that was day 2 in Centurion.
The next day we headed out to catch the Gautrain to Sandton. Why Sandton you may ask? Well because it seems to be the town that comes up most often in conversation and I heard there was a Krispy Kreme there. ‘Nough said, right?
So after kitting ourselves out with R15 per person travel cards, we loaded the cards with enough to get us from Centurion to Sandton and back. After nearly collapsing at spending almost R500, we caught the train. The kids got a kick out of the high speed train and the fancy stations. By the way, the escalators are insanely fast in the Sandton station. I mean, good grief you guys! It was like a ride at Ratanga Junction.
So, after the obligatory trip to Krispy Kreme…wait, just look at this. I mean!
We headed up towards a shopping mall to buy some water. Oh, the water quality that we’ve experienced while we were driving around the country for 9 weeks deserves a post of it’s own.
No matter where we seem to go, we can’t seem to avoid wasting a few hours in toy shops. It’s like the only thing the kids are interested in. So far, we have wasted hours in Knysna, Port Elizabeth and now Sandton. Family travel #ftw!?
It was very cool to visit Nelson Mandela Square and the kids enjoyed the water feature.
As we drove to Kimberly the next day, we were tempted to stop off at the Cradle of Humankind but we didn’t want to gloss over it because we didn’t have enough time. So we will need to go back (when we’ve lined up some sponsored accommodation) and explore everything that Gauteng has to offer.
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