Two Interesting Museums in One Day

We left Haven Hotel early on April 30th, and retraced our drive back the 99 km picturesque, pothole-filled road. Everywhere, people were walking.  We gave several people lifts.  Our riders included a teacher, a student, a man with a cane, and a younger man going to a clinic.  Most - except for the teacher - spoke little to us, whether from lack of English, shyness, or some deeper sense of separateness.

Once we reached the N2, we immediately went to the Nelson Mandela Museum.  Mandela grew up in the Qunu area from the time he was two until his father died, when he went to a neighboring village to be raised by the regent there.  During his imprisonment, he often recalled the area's rolling hills.

A mosiac depicts Nelson Mandela
and friends sliding on the rock

Nelson Mandela has built a retirement home in Qunu, which you drive right by.  I thought it was interesting that it has the same floor plan as the last (nicer) place in which he was imprisoned.  He supposedly decided to repeat the floor plan, "so that he could easily find the kitchen when he awoke at night."

Another "Nelson" tries it out...

The museum is small, but nice.  They basically had two large exhibits. I especially enjoyed the one about Nelson Mandela and Albert Luthuli  (both Nobel Peace Prize winners).  I think the curator thought Jim and I were slightly strange when we asked to see Nelson's "sliding stone" - the large rock that he mentioned sliding down as a kid.  She walked us to it, and then her smile widened as we each took a turn sliding down.  There was quite the smooth groove in the rock, from all the butts before us!

...As does a Schnepf.
(Can you see the rolling hills?)

Jim and I both love the writing
of Alan Paton-- Cry, The Beloved Country.
A one-panel exhibit describes his lifelong contributions

After Qunu, we headed toward PE with a stop in King Wm's Town at the Amathole Museum.  This museum has a very large natural history section - with EVERY animal of South Africa on display from big to small.  (Ask me any question about the four kinds of elephant shrews!  Or, the golden mole with no visible eyes nor ears!)  The other really interesting aspect of this museum is its Xhosa gallery - but we arrived too late in the day to see that.

We talked all the way back to PE about our short, but interesting trip to The Wild Coast - and how we would recommend it as a student excursion for subsequent trips abroad here.  (As well as subsequent trips here by us!)