1st week in South Africa, Joberg - Durban

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So it’s been a whole week already into my trip to South Africa, and its been a barely sober one t that!

I landed last Saturday (25th April) at around 1630hours, cleared customs and met up with Andi (Gove) on the other side. He flew in from Durban ahead of me and was waiting with Cameron and Kyle to take me back to Cam’s house where we all stayed for the next four days in Joberg.

All I can say is I’m glad I slept on my flights from the UK to Dubai and from Dubai to Joberg!! We arrived and Cam’s and Hayleys place around 1700hrs and pretty much started drinking right away, not that I can complain as I was in dire need of alcohol by that time.

To give you an idea I left the ship on the 23rd just before lunch, had an overnighter at home, then left home on the 24th at around 0700hrs, and as I said earlier arrived into joberg late Saturday afternoon.

So yeah I needed a beer, not so sure about the shots of jack and Jose that we did later that night but I guess you don’t come to the party if you don’t wanna play the games so party on Wayne!!

Anyways we headed out around midnight and headed to some bar called billys which was cool, can’t say I remember much but it was still a awesome night, and finished off with the customary junk food we all know and love as the 3am munchies, in this case mcdonalds. I do have to say though I think I may hve to speak to some of my asian friends on Bradford Rd as there is a definite gap in the market for some stirling kebab houses over here!

So on we pushed to the second day which again was a bit of a blur but involved more drinkage - in fact the entre stay in joberg was a bit of a warm up for mavisfest 2009…..

I played golf with Andi, Kyle and Cam, we went to joberg zoo which was pretty impressive and I will (when I get home) add some images of the meerkats, lemurs, bucks, snakes and god knows what else we saw down there.

So that was joberg, the zoo, golf course, Irish bars, SA bars, regular bars, Cuban bars and some of the best hangover munchie cures ever!!

So we left Hayley and Natasha behind, and the four off us set off from Joberg sometime midmorning and headed for Durban which was around 6 hours away.

The every changing South African landscape which was mainly flatlands in and around joburg, changed into plains and farmland along the way before we could finally see the mountains of the Drakensburg National park before we reached Durban.

Something else which was really noticeable was how the scenery changed from dry brown in Joberg to lush green surroundings as we passed the mountains and entered into Natal or more specifically Durban.

I’ve also noticed some big differences in the “styles” of living if you can call it styles, perhaps ways of living would be a better way of terming it.

In the Cities of Durban and Joberg it’s the first time I’ve really ever seen the shanty towns, even having been to South America previously. Most of the housing here is either in secure complexes or single properties which are definitely more rural but still secure, it’s down to the crime but its also very surprising to see.

Anyways onto Durban, which yes as you guessed it involved more Drinkage!!

The thing I should point out is that the weekend I arrived and the time we arrived into Durban were both holiday weekends, which meant we partied like it was 1999!! And beyond!!

So we went out the first night which was a guy called Drunk Andrew’s (Sorry not his real name but ah well) birthday who was hilaaaaaaaarious, one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met, I also met a guy called Wayne Crisp who when we’d been talking for a whilst I found out used to live in Edinburgh so we were talking about soccer and stuff and his dad used to play for Brentford and Watford.

So during my time in Durban I’m staying with my buddy Andi Gove and his family and I’ve been invited to go on a hunting trip, deep sea fishing and a bunch of other stuff, hell things carry on in this manner I’ll be coming home a real man!!

Anyways that’s pretty much the trip so far a lot of drinking, a little bit of sightseeing, and some planning ahead for the rest of the trip….

So I’ll be leaving Durban around the 15th with my destination ultimately Cape Town where I’m planning a short stay of a couple of days to see Robbin island and Table Mountain before flying back to Joberg for my return flight on the 20th

I’m also going to call into George (to see Elaine, Scott and Dallas), East London (to see Liezel), probably I’ll be passing through PE, and then hopefully I’ll have chance to catch up with Em in Cape Town and anyone else who is around…..

Anyways I’ll be posting again soon, hope your all well and if your along the route get in touch and I’ll try and squeeze you into my plans!! Make a plan people, make a plan!!

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