Got up around 9:30am and had breakfast outside on the patio cooked on the braai by Bill, Anthony, Gail and Christopher had joined us. In keeping with the Johannesburg tradition of drinking whenever possible we had champagne with breakfast which was novel but also very satisfying. Anne had offered to do some washing for us so we sorted out a bunch of clothes to be cleaned.
For the afternoon Bill drove us all in Anne's Jaguar, we went to Hartbeestport Dam ('The Dam') where there is an enormous curio market full of traders from the whole of Southern Africa hawking their wares. We then went to De Wildt Cheetah Sanctuary only to find that appointments are mandatory and the next tour was on Tuesday, we did however get to see one Cheetah in an isolated pen, along with a large bird of prey in the neighbouring pen. Whilst we were standing around in the car park working out what to do a guy turned up with a half-dead cow on the back of a trailer, went to talk to the gatekeeper's office and then left (with the cow). We could only guess that the guy was trying to sell his half-dead cow as food to the Cheetah Sanctuary as food, a grim business indeed. After the sanctuary we went to a the Hoogenot restaurant near The Dam and had a nice lunch. On the way back home James and I both fell asleep, the trip was beginning to catch up with us.
By the time we got back
home a thunderstorm was brewing, we had drinks and then I went swimming, with
the dogs jumping in and out all the time. After realising that a thunder &
lightning storm is probably not the best time to go swimming I went in, swimming
in the rain was a very refreshing experience though. In the evening we had drinks
and food in the lounge and were joined by Anthony, Gail and Christopher as well
as Michael, Jurgen and Henry. We went on the Internet to check our email and
then went to bed about midnight.