by David | September 2nd, 2009
“Let’s go to the leading South Africa history of natural history,” I said to Judith as we were finishing buckwheat pancakes and springbok sausage for breakfast. We’d have to leave Johannesburg and head over to Pretoria. “It’s the Transvaal Museum and it has been around since 1892!” I said, reading a brochure I had picked up at one of the hotels Johannesburg calls its own. “Sounds stuffy,” said Judith, finishing the last of her coffee, “but if you want to, we’ll go.” Well, I had to spend the day shopping in Johannesburg as she tried on about fifty different hats and one hundred pairs of shoes before deciding on a scarf. My reward. And it was nice, we saw the collection of African birds and their migration patterns. Our migration pattern was to go from Johannesburg to Pretoria by the highway , and it is considered dangerous, and we were advised to stop only for the police, the trips being about thirty or forty miles. Then we saw the life development hall, that we are all from single celled animals billions of years old (that made us feel good). Then we saw all the mammals, specializing in African mammals, of course. there were great skeletons and other displays. I reminded us of the deer skeleton we discovered on her father’s farm in Vermont, the antlers chewed away by the field mice for the minerals. They had a mineral display with important facts about mining, distribution and types of gems and minerals found in the region. I think it important to know what’s going on around you when you visit a new country. “Isn’t that right, Judith?” I asked, but Judith was no where to be found. I retraced my footsteps and found her sound asleep under a zebra display. When she woke up, she said, “OK, time to go shop.”
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