Blogs from Gauteng, South Africa, Africa - page 4

I apologize for how long it has taken me to get back to work on this blog. My time in Johannesburg was filled with long days and sleep was necessary. Emotionally, the days were also difficult to process, and my heart was often not willing to reexamine all that I saw each day. I hope I will be able to now share my experiences with you in an authentic way. On the morning of July 23rd, we left Cape Town and caught a flight to Johannesburg, since it’s over 850 miles between the two cities. The first few pictures were taken from the plane. When we landed in Johannesburg, we stopped for lunch in a downtown area that is trying to reinvent itself as an artistic and eclectic area, and we had a few places to ... read more

Arrived safely after long flight via Qutar. Tight transfer at 1am but just made the connection and arrived in JoBerg and settled into digs by 11am. Too tired to do much today so carry out chook and early bed ready for Soweto visit tomorrow, then meet rest of travel companions for dinner. Someone shut the curtains at 5.30 and got suddenly dark. No messing about with twilight in these parts! Met guesthouse Pomeranian 'Twinkletoes'. ?!? Is that an actual name? Dougal would have her for breakfast. Suki and Ben, our hosts, are lovely and can't do enough to make sure we're happy. Spotted six of the big five already! 3 chooks and 3 springbok. Whatever are we going to do for the next 3 weeks?... read more

We arrived in Johannesburg on 30th December and stayed at in Maponeng in the CBD in the apartments belonging to Curiocity Backpackers. The Backpackers is great, staff really friendly and it’s got a nice bar where it’s really easy to meet other travellers. The apartments are down the street and give you more space and more privacy than a dorm and they have a cool rooftop space where you can see the whole city. The apartments are in an old factory which is now a fully functioning art gallery and apartment building with each room designed in the style of a particular year or era in history. Maboneng itself is a street or two in size and the focus of a regeneration project. There are lots of hipster bars, restaurants (get the ribs at Pata Pata), ... read more

Since moving to South Africa back in February this year, I have to admit, I've been indulging a little bit golf wise! Why not?!? I can easily say today that South Africa is currently the best country when it comes to quality/price ratio for golfing. And there must be well over 500 golf courses to play all over the country! Maybe one day I'll be lucky to be able to declare that I have play all the courses the country has to offer. For the moment, I'm happy to play as many of the best 100 golf courses the country has to offer! This week, my girls not being at home, I drove all the way to Pretoria for some serious golf. I stay for few nights at the Sheraton in Pretoria. The hotel is an ... read more

Geo: -26.1951, 28.0339 I have no sense of what time it is, although my adjusted clock says it's 8:10PM, South African time. After spending the last few days travelling halfway around the world, the better part of today and yesterday in planes, I am again on the ground, almost ready for sleep, and most definitely ready to begin a real African adventure. I've been to this continent before, my youngest daughter and my exploring Egypt and Morocco on our own, but this adventure will be seeing some of the real Africa, with safaris into the wild national parks and private wild expanses in the bush in Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. I almost didn't make it here to Johannesburg today. A massive snowstorm sprung itself on Boston early Thursday morning, the morning of my departure. Bill and ... read more