Today landed up being a full day of sightseeing instead of just a morning like we'd originally planned. Myself, dad and Una left home and headed off to Gold Reef City to join up with the Soweto Tour which is part of the Sightseeing City Bus tour. We weren't able to just book the Soweto tour, we had to buy the full hop-on hop-off ticket which was fine. Since the 10am tour was fully booked, we decided on the next one at 12pm and instead of waiting around, we decided to join the bus around Joburg which would get back at midday, in time for our tour. There was a bit of running and dodging traffic in order to catch the bus, but we got on and enjoyed the sightseeing trip around the city.

Once back at Gold Reef City, we joined the taxi and made our way south west towards Soweto. Our first stop was outside the FNB Stadium, aka Soccer City or The Calabash. It was just a brief photo stop really and chance to see the stadium from the road. From there we continued towards Soweto and stopped outside the 'Entrance to Soweto' sign for a quick photo shot and from there we headed up to the base of the cooling towers of the old Orlando Power Station.

From the cooling towers we made our way further into the township and over to the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum where we left the taxi and met up with a guide on a walking tour from the museum down to Vilakazi Street. Hector Pieterson became the subject of an iconic image of the 1976 Soweto uprising in South Africa when a news photograph by Sam Nzima of the dying Hector being carried by another student while his sister ran next to them, was published around the world. He was killed at the age of 13 when the police opened fire on protesting students. The museum stands two blocks away from where he was actually shot and killed.

Vilakazi Street is perhaps the most famous street in Soweto. The street claims a rather unique distinction, being the only street in the world to have once had two Nobel Prize winners as it's residents - Nelson Mandela and Reverend Desmond Tutu. Our first stop down Vilakazi Street was at Mandela's house, which he and his family called home from 1946 to the 1990s. After some time around the house, we continued down the street and stopped in at Sakhumzi Restaurant for our buffet lunch. We were joined by the guide who sat with us for lunch, so landed up chatting to him a fair bit about the area and him as a tour guide. After lunch and quick glimpse of Tutu's house on the corner (which isn't open to the public), we hopped back in the taxi and drove over to Walter Sisulu Square which is in the heart of Kliptown, Soweto. The two most dominant buildings in the square were the Soweto Hotel on one side and the Freedom Charter Monument on the other. The area was certainly buzzing with pedestrians, taxis and street vendors selling everything from fruits and vegetables to live chickens and even haircuts.

After a bit of time inside the monument looking at the 10 clauses of the Freedom Charter, we were once again back in the taxi and made our way back to Gold Reef City, to end our tour of Soweto. It turned out really well in the end, considering we had just thought it would be a couple of hours in the morning, but actually turned out to be a rather full on day around Joburg in the morning and Soweto the rest of the afternoon. Glad I've eventually gotten around to seeing parts of Soweto, been wanting to do that for ages. After Gold Reef, we headed home and stopped in at Greg briefly for a visit and to see the two little ones, before making our way home and chilling out here for the evening.