A few pictures from the safari

We continue to have slow connections to the internet, so uploading pictures is hard. I've reduced the size of a few here just to give some of the highlights of our three day stay in the Pilanesberg National Game Park. Carolyn was able to get some to load to her Facebook, so check them out there, too, if you're on Facebook with her.
Pilanesberg is one of the smaller game parks in South Africa, but it has a lot of wildlife, including all of the so-called "big five" -- lion, leopard, buffalo, rhinoceros (both white and black), and African elephant. We saw them all (actually saw cheetah, not leopard). Our good friend John de Beer, who is from South Africa, got the recommendation for us from a school friend of his, and it turned out to be a great choice of parks -- neither as big nor as far away as the more famous Kruger. It was only a two hour drive from Johannesburg (driving at 140 km/hr like everyone around here seems to do). We stayed in the park in a small chalet with some mischievous vervet monkeys running around, sitting on our wall, and running across the rooftop at night. We were able to drive through the game park on our own for as much time as we liked during our stay. We did early morning drives, afternoon and evening ones, too. We went on a three-hour night ride with a tour guide to see all the interesting nocturnal activity.
We enjoyed the scenery nearly as much as the wildlife. Pilanesberg sits in the crater of an ancient volcano that formed the geology of this area 1.3 billion years ago. It sits a few hundred feet above the plain surrounding it. It is a mixed environment including desert-like areas similar to the nearby Kalahari Desert, as well as more lush areas. Sitting on this kind of boundary enables the park to be a home to many different species within a relatively small area.
The safari experience was a nice way to round out our South African adventure, and to experience some of the beauty and wonder of creation in this part of the world. We have returned now to Johannesburg for our final two nights. We got up this morning and drove into the center of Johannesburg to attend the 9:30 High Mass at St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Cathedral. It was a wonderful and welcoming experience. We definitely stood out in the crowd, but people could not have been more friendly. All the visitors were asked to introduce themselves during the service, which we did, and lots of people made their way to us to welcome us and speak with us after the service. Several people warned us about the possibility of getting mugged outside the Cathedral, so we were careful leaving and driving through the somewhat chaotic urban neighborhood in which the cathedral sits. We drove from there to the suburban area north and east of downtown, the neighborhood where Nelson Mandela now lives. It's a rather posh area of the city with walls around all the houses. The security business is booming in Johannesburg with alarm company signs at every gated house, and guards
standing at the ends of driveways. We found a shopping mall with a lovely restaurant where Carolyn took me for Father's Day lunch, followed by an Argentinian film, Café de los Maestros, and then a stroll through an open air bazaar with every manner of African handmade crafts. All in all, a good day in Johannesburg.
Tomorrow we leave South Africa. We fly to London together. Carolyn will head home to Boston from there, and I'll continue on to Denmark, where I'll be visiting my Danish exchange brother, Michael Balmer, and his family.