Lesedi Cultural Village

Just outside of Johannesburg is the Lesedi Cultural Village. We went there our first morning after getting some rest. It made for a great introduction to the main tribes of Africa. It was like the South African version of the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii. The center was a music, dancing, and village lifestyle tour through the main tribes of South Africa.

 All the guys that worked here were so charismatic and loved taking pictures with everyone ha.

 Some of the ladies that made so many beautiful beaded pieces.

This was the welcome song we were greeted with as we got off the bus. I just love their singing and harmonies. It's so beautiful!

We then started our journey to the northern part of the country towards Kruger National Park, but first we drove through Pretoria which was my dad's first area. This is the Union Building--like their national Capitol. This is where Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as president, and if you look in the center of the photo, you can see the massive statue of him. This definitely was the prettiest part of the city. The rest of it is kind of run down now unfortunately. My dad said it used to be very clean and beautiful. But this was during apartheid, so that's not really ideal either.

It took about 5 hours to get up to the Kruger area. We got to our beautiful hotel and got ready to have our first half day safari!