Beer, curries, culture and religion

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Back in South Africa, we spent another week catching up with Kam's cousin and her family, who had just returned from Canada. We also did a bit of sightseeing in Johannesburg, of which we had thus far only seen the Apartheid Museum. We went to Melville, which reminded us very much of Sydney's Newtown with its chique restaurants and second-hand bookstores and we also went to Newtown which didn't really remind us of anything. Here we checked out the Museum of Africa, which told us surprisingly little of the history of Africa, but had some great exhibtions about gay and lesbian Johannesburg, Ghandi's stay in South Africa, as well some great art exhibits. We also did a tour of the South African World of Beer museum. With two pints included in the already very reasonable price of admission, Kam really had to drag me there kicking and screaming. If that wasn't enough, we also learned about the history of beer in South Africa, tasted some traditionally brewed sorghum beer (look it up) and were taught all about modern brewing techniques. Let's see if I can put this newfound knowledge to use in my next homebrew. We drove to the Cradle of Humankind, where we learnt all about our past, and finally visited Nelson Mandela's house in Soweto. As you can see, we had a very studious and busy week. And I didn't even mention the final games of the world cup (Damn you Spain, it was Germany's turn!), back-to-back episodes of Bones and plenty of Indian curries. But then it was time to start our African adventure for real, so we hopped on a bus from Joburg to Gabarone, the capital of Botswana. While both the coach ride itself and the border crossing were smooth, the onboard entertainment left something to be desired. Having travelled with the same coach company twice before, the fact that it was run by a Christian organisation had somehow escaped us. And so it was, that for no less than three hours we were bombarded with religious propaganda via the onboard TV screens. We were truly enlightened by the time we arrived in Botswana.

PS: Having trouble uploading photos. So will try to put up more at a later date.

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