Blogs from Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, Africa
Arrival: Johannesburg and Kruger Park
Published: April 29th 2012Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Johannesburg
April 26th 2012
Well, after about 30 hours of travelling, I've finally arrived. It was probably the most difficult journey that I've experienced in my travel career. A 4 hour drive to Seattle, 5 hour flight to JFK, 5 hour layover and the remaining time via South African Airways to Johannesburg. But, after only about 6 hours of sleep in 36 hours, I was met with some of the most amazing hospitality at my friend Jan's parent's house. Because it was about 9:30am when we got to the house, I was treated to coffee, "rusks" (which are like a dry fiber bar that you dip in your coffee) pamplemousse, which is like grapfruit, but bigger and sweeter, and some nice conversation with Jan's parents, sister and brother in law. After settling in, I was driven to the Apartheid Museum, ... read more
March 21st 2012
The last week or so on the farm we spent at the schools. Teaching at St Basil's everything from English and Maths to HIV awareness; a real eye opener. We played football with the kids in the afternoons, naturally we were made to look terrible by the 9-14 year olds both because of the heat and the fact that we are generally rubbish. We also visited another school on a neighboring farm, much newer than St Basil's, and spent the day there teaching and talking to the headmistress about her plans for the school which currently operates out of her front room. It has been overcast but warm for the last few days of my time in Zim. Since returning to Harare we managed to pack a lot into a few days before I headed back ... read more
March 16th 2012
March 16, 2012 (Johannesburg) After a bumpy but otherwise uneventful Delta Flight 200, a full wide body 777 landed in Johannesburg after 14 hours and 27 minutes of flying. As typical, it was cramped and a fully booked flight, but overall quite smooth. A meal and two snacks ate up some of the time and I watched a movie (J Edgar Hoover) and a few reruns of The Big Bang, snoozed a bit and wandered around where I could every couple of hours. Ore-efe Adesina got the luck of the draw - bulkhead row seat so he was stretching out! Glad he could make it. Ron Hobbs spent most of his time watching chick flicks best I could tell. We've checked into the City Lodge hotel which is attached to the airport so was very handy. ... read more
March 8th 2012
Today was my third day of taking antibiotics, and I could tell that something was wrong. I was getting worse, not better. I had gone fifty-five hours without food, and I was starting to get dehydrated; it was getting to the point that I could barely swallow small sips of water. I couldn't talk without wanting to cry, and even breathing without pain was starting to become an issue. I felt genuinely frightened by this razorblade-like agony. I had never experienced anything like it in my life, and I hope I never do again. The owner of the lodge where I was staying in Johannesburg (yes, we're back in the city now) was a star, and he drove me straight to the Arwyp Hospital in Kempton Park. Some of that visit is a blur, covered by ... read more
March 4th 2012
Well, here I am in one of the crime capitals of the world, and I brought with me from Zambia a new stamp in my passport, souvenirs that I didn't really want but felt obliged to buy, and a course of antibiotics for the gastric infection that somewhere, somehow, I managed to pick up. Luckily you can buy antibiotics over the counter here, without a prescription, which saved me a lot of time and hassle. At this point I'd like to backtrack a little, and apologise to Johannesburg for calling it a crime capital. Because although that's the reputation that it's ended up with, the reality doesn't quite live up to the hype. I was expecting to have to lock the car door whenever we stopped at traffic lights, or be on constant high alert for ... read more
February 27th 2012
Went to the game reserve today.. about an hours drive out of JB on some amazing roads and perfect weather. Chased by lions, twice. See pics for more...... read more
February 25th 2012
Having spent a few days here it is hard to see why JB has the reputation it does. Clearly there are areas to avoid, but even walking in unlit streets after dark the vast majority of areas Ive seen feel safer than most parts of london... an people are nicer too. weather ultinates from hot to thunder every few hours... although thusday was just scroching all day. Last night we went out for some JB nightlife with Nelson Mandelas grandson who picked us up in his brand nw golf gti blaring american rap... which was odd. Umbuso is such a nice guy and being with him got us everywhere for free, hes also on first name terms with half the city which helps.... read more
February 21st 2012
FYI- I've heard that the captions I carefully spend time on for the pictures loaded onto the blog, then become all jumbled up when everything is actually posted. Sorry about that! No idea why. But rest assured, the water taxi from Botswana to Zambia was not an ultralight!!!!! As for our next adventure- check out the pics of our new home! It's amazing and we love it. We have 30 days to drive in this caravan from Johannesburg to Capetown, a trip of approximately 3000 km. Altho the bed is a bit small, we have to play the 1-2-3 roll over game. We can leave the bed made up permanently, and still have a small dining table for two. The drivers captain chair swivels around so that both of us can sit having dinner quite comfortably- ... read more
February 21st 2012
After thunder storms from the sahara to zim and zero sleep, touched down in JB in decent weather early morning. customs was easy and met seb and katherine for a nandos breakfast. went and met seb's friends at witz uni...awsome campus. came back for a swim. Driving in JB is no different to home, apart from the beggars and fruit sellers.... read more
February 3rd 2012
We have now spent and are finishing our 5 month spell in Africa with a couple of days in South Africa before making our way to the land of Oz. I have realised that I havnt written a blog for a while and the last time I wrote we were in Mozambique. We had a really nice time in Mozambique and I will try to summarise the month in a short paragragh. We arrived on the 4th of Jan at Iris Ministries, Pemba, where the 'Colliers' had already been for a week, so it was real nice to have friends that we new to help settle us in. Even though it was the quite season on the base, there were still plenty visitor helpers (like us) for us to chat too and spend time with over ... read more
