South Africa Sojourn before Kruger Park.

After checking in we headed out to visit Pretoria High School for Boys where Cameron was moulded into the man he is now. It is a prestigious building sitting in several acres of manicured parkland which is dedicated to providing the best sporting facilities that you can imagine. As it was a Friday afternoon the campus was well stocked with students. Whenever we passed any, there was an immediate "Sir, Ma'am". This is clearly the expectation and the greetings seemed to be genuine enough, but to be honest it came over to us as being a bit obsequious. There was both a pervading sense of discipline but equally a huge feeling of pride in the institution.

Any institution with ambition, values past achievements and the museum on the premises illustrates this fact well. We were shown round by the curator Keith Gibbs who gave us a comprehensive history of the school since its foundation in the very early 20 century. Sadly we heard that Keith Gibbs died from cancer almost exactly a year after our visit. The statue of the (naked)  pupil Danny Swart was originally carved in wood by a former Art teacher. A bronze copy now stands above the cupola.

The next day was Cameron's cricket match. A 40 over affair starting at 9-00 am, allowing the facilities to be used again in the afternoon. Cameron's game was one of eight matches involving old boys being played simultaneously. How many other schools around the world could muster 96 old boys to turn up on a Saturday morning from all over the world to play cricket? The standard was consistently high. In case you are wondering, our hero was only 99 off his century, undefeated. Sadly the overs ran out before his fireworks really got lit. His team got the silver. Meanwhile Cameron's brother Mike arrived to join our party. 

After the match Cameron and Mike headed off to collect the fifth member of our group, James. We decided to head into Pretoria to see the Union Buildings and the famous statue of Nelson Mandela. The statue was certainly impressive.