February 23, 2019
Our one day stay in Johannesburg South Africa started with an excursion to the Cradle of Humanity, which includes a museum and caves with a history of humankind with fossilized remains of human skeletons found in the nearby caves. It was in the Sterkfontein Caves where the skull an adult humanoid more than 2 million years old was discovered in 1947.
We enjoyed our return to the Clico Boutique Hotel, where we has stayed before our Princeton in Africa auction "won" safari in October 2015, which is a nine room up market boutique hotel in Johannesburg's Central Rosebank district in a renovated Cape Dutch house with. After leaving the Clico, Pinky and I met up with the banjo safari group at a hotel next to the airport, where we joined seven other banjoists, banjo master Tony Trischka, his son Sean, a couple Tony is friends with from New Jersey, and Wiam and Renee, who organized this whole event. We left the next day for the Lesedi Cultural Village, where we enjoyed cultural dance and historical interpretations delivered by talented performers, along with an impromptu jam by the local performers, Wiam, Sean and Tony. It was truly magical!
After spending the night in a thatched roof hut, we left on a 3 hour drive for the Black Rhino Game Lodge in the 150,000 acre Pilandsberg Game Preserve, centered on the caldera of an extinct volcano dating back 1.3 billion years. We settled in and went out on our first of 8 game rides.
Our five day stay included daily game rides and banjo instruction/lessons with the banjo extraordinaire Tony Trischka. Our daily routine included getting up at 4:30 AM for coffee, leaving on the morning safari at 5:30 AM, returning for the morning banjo session at 10:30 AM or so, then lunch, a 2:30 PM banjo session, a 4:30 PM game ride, returning in time for dinner at around 8:00 PM. There are eight banjoists and with guests and family, 18 in all. It’'s been a pretty rigorous schedule, and I have come to realize how little I know about how to properly play bluegrass banjo! But I am learning and will have much to work on when I return home.
Today was a magical birthday for Pinky. During the PM game ride, we stopped in a beautiful secluded spot in the bushveld where Tony and Sean put on an unforgettable outdoor concert and where everyone joined in to sing happy birthday to her with Trischka & Trischka leading the way. 
No comments:
Post a Comment