Eggbert's Travels

Wednesday 4th April

SHE SAID:

We took ourselves off to Pretoria for the day. I wanted to show Geoff the difference between Pretoria and Cape Town; l think he got the message!

Budget Hire cars managed to rip us off by saying the person whose credit card was used to hire the car was the designated driver...but Geoff was going to drive (I had used my card though). SO we had to pay almost the same price as to hire the car to put Geoff on as a 2nd driver....I'm smelling a huge scam here....and told them so.

Anyhow the drive to Pretoria, & the places we visited were in the main places I knew from before. But the traffic was 100 times more, the fencing around the Voortrekker Monument, the gardens of the Union Buildings, and the busy-ness in the CBD of Pretoria were all new.

We also checked out the fairly new Freedom Park, which sits on a hill close to the Voortrekker Monument. I think we saw 20+ security guards around the place, all with nothing to do, as we, along with one other guy, the only people in the huge museum...It seemed rather like a ghost museum with videos showing to empty rooms. Above the main building on the hill was The Wall of Names, where all the names of people that died in the struggle for freedom are written, when they died, and how. Though talking with Ramzie, our Cape Town friend who helped instigate the building of this museum, he said there are still many more names to be added.

The Union Building (Parliament) was much the same as before, though way more security. Then, before we left Pretoria, we drove past the British High Commission office and residence, because I wanted to be nosy.

Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria

Close up of the laager wall around the monument

Wall carving around the inside of the monument

From the top down

Engagement/Wedding guest at the Schankop Fort

Into the fort

Flag signed by Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeka & FW de Klerk

Freedom Park - Wall of Names

Views across the city of Pretoria across to the Union Building

HE SAID:

Driving around Johannesburg was something I was not keen on, having seen from my Uber trips how some of the locals drive. But we had no problems, once we'd been fleeced by Budget. 

Pretoria didn't seem to be an attractive place. The monuments are generally worth a visit, but my brief time there has not led me to think about returning.

Freedom Park is a place I will especially give a wide berth to. From start to finish the whole place seems to want to repel visitors. It seemed clinical, over-engineered, was certainly over-priced, and has no real attraction. There were boom gates for cars, names, phone numbers, and addresses recorded, fees paid, and then we were handed along from one staff member to another just to get in the front door. The contents of the museum were more focused on how they were presented, rather than what they were presenting, so left me a bit devoid of interest. All the other museums were far better.