South Africa pt 3

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Day 88 Royal Natal Park 3.9.09
Today we did the only thing you can do on a mountain range, our laundry. After the laundry we went on a 2 hour hike. It was hard work but a nice way to waste some time and take in the scenery. Later, Benny, our driver cooked everyone a roast beef dinner, it was burned to a crisp but a nice thought.

Day 89 Royal Natal Park - Johannesburg 4.9.09
Today we drove to the big bad city famous for a number of things including Nelson Mandela, Apartheid and the highest gun crime figures in the world, that said you shouldn't believe everything you hear. When we arrived in joburg my initial impression was "wow they have some big security fences on these buildings" when we got to the hostel we were pissed off to find that our tour leader hadn't bothered booking us a room despite us asking days earlier and we were again forced to share a dorm thankfully this would be the last time. In the evening we scrapped the idea of a group meal in favour of a take away from this guy that would go to various restaurants before dropping it to our door for a small fee, needless to say our nandos order of a whole chicken and chips and peri peri dip to share was actually delivered as a quarter chicken, spicy rice and a whole JAR of peri peri sauce! We just laughed as we knew that the simplest tasks tend to be an exasperating experience in Africa!

Day 90 Johannesburg 5.9.09
Officially our lasy day of the tour and we wasted no time in moving hostels across town for some privacy. We would see the people we wanted to see at the airport or on facebook. Our new hostel was called In Africa Lodge and in the suburbs belonging to a guy called Bruce and his wife, they were a lovely couple and really accommodating (highly recommend them it you go to the world cup). Our double, ensuit room actually had two double beds, although Michelle wasn't so sick of me to sleep in seperate beds it made our packing a little easier. After dinner we vegged out in front of the TV and fell asleep.

Day 91 Johannesburg 6.9.09
Today we slept in until 10am (latest since arriving in Africa) and did sod all except go to the post office and discover it would cost hundreds to deliver our souvenirs home, our last hope was a chap called Will who offered to take the bag of stuff back with him to London where Chelles Mum could collect it. We sent him a message but wouldn't hear back until the next day. After not doing very much at all we watched Demolition Man and went to bed.

Day 92 Johannesburg - Perth; Australia 7.9.09
Today is our last in Africa, we've had some good times and we've had some bad but the main thing is we haven't been shot in Joburg!!! Will got in touch with us and agreed to meet us at the airport, as he was leaving about an hour before us, and he'd take the souvenirs back, which was a massive relief! Our plane was due to leave at 22.15 so we arrived at 15.20! It was great fun hanging around the airport although by the time we worked out where to meet Will it was getting on. We bumped into a few people from our trip and had a chat and then it was onto the departure lounge for another nervous wait for a nine hour flight to Perth.

And that was Africa.

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