Blogs from Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, Africa - page 52

Hello! Let's talk about two things: 1.) The Storms - Holy Crap! I'd forgotten how amazing and intense the South African storms are. It's the middle of summer and the other night we had a storm come through that was over our heads for literally an hour and a half! Lightening was flashing every minute and then you'd hear the loudest thunder of your life rip through the sky. I'm not being dramatic either...it was nuts!! I'm used to the lightening/thunder storms in the US which you hear coming and then they're overhead for maybe 10-30 minutes and then you hear them move along and get quieter. It's so crazy here that when it storms they say it's actually too dangerous to shower. Don't get me wrong, I love a good storm, but all I kept ... read more

The Suikerbosrand Nature Preserve, which includes the Diepkloof Farm Museum, is southeast of Jo’burg and has the highest point in Gauteng Province. You can see Jo’burg from the distance when taking the preserve’s driving tour. We spent the day there and toured the museum, drove the 60-km driving tour, and hiked a 4.5-km trail. The Diepkloof (“deep canyon”) Farm was first established in the 1850s by the Marais family, who were Boers. Later, one of the 9 children built his own brick house on the same property. The farm was one of the few not completely destroyed during the Anglo-Boer War, and what remained has been rebuilt to original standards as much as possible. The buildings are made from stuccoed locally-made half-baked brick. The farm buildings include the original home, the machine/wagon barn, the school (classroom, ... read more

We were looking for something local and out-of-doors to do that we hadn’t done before, so we made a trip to the Jo’burg Zoo. It is a lovely zoo; to me very similar to some other big-city zoos I had been to before, with many of the same animals, some very nice newly renovated facilities, and some old facilities in need of replacement. The day we were there, a radio station was hosting a concert of local artists, and we heard some beautiful voices, including that of a young woman named Siphokazi who had recently released a new CD. The zoo is large, and often people come early to walk the trails, which are nicely laid out. Some of the structures are quite beautiful, with painting and inlaid mosaic. An animal we hadn’t seen before: the ... read more

Bob says: Many people have asked me what I enjoy the most about living in South Africa, and so I have decided, in the Dave Letterman tradition, to create Bob's Top Ten List for 2007 of What I Like About Living In South Africa. Number 10 - The hot and cold water controls are up by your head and not by your feet when you lay down in the tub. Number 9 - Gas prices are fixed by the government, so they are the same all over the country. Number 8 - You have to pay for plastic bags in most stores. The result is that there are not as many of them littering the ground, and Africans also use them as rain hats when it begins to shower. Number 7 - Police in South Africa ... read more

Having finished my volunteering work and organised various food parcels to be sent out, I decided it was time for a holiday, believe it or not! I went with two friends at Mozambique for a week and boy, was it an adventure! We decided to go for the full experience so as opposed to taking up the offer of a lift, we opted for the challenge of public transport - it truly was a 'full experience'! First we caught a kombi to Manzini and from there another to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. We were squashed into teeny tiny spaces, next to a smelly man or two with the odd chicken scuttling around the floor while listening to the sound of goat hooves tap dancing on the roof! We had to laugh, it was our only ... read more