Blogs from South Africa, Africa - page 678

Even though it does say South Africa on this entry most of you will know that I'm actually in my dining room in Watford writing this.... Yes, after all the planning, shopping, fretting and excitement its all over! But I thought I'd stick my pics of South Africa up as it really was one of the highlights of the whole 5 months and I wish I'd had more time to explore but there's always next time.... Think my last entry was from Wanaka in the south island of NZ. It was a very picturesque place. I climbed Mount Iron and got some cool views of Lake Wanaka. Next was down to Queenstown. This is known for the adrenalin activities and the partying - of which I did neither! More hill climbing though and a day trip ... read more

June 16 is the anniversary of the 1976 student uprising in Soweto (South Western Township) that ushered in a new era of opposition to the Apartheid regime. That day started with a march and protest of school kids, frustrated with a new education law that required that core high school subjects be taught in Afrikaans -- a language that few of the students spoke (much less their teachers) and that would leave them hopelessly ill-prepared for potential university math and science classes that would be taught in English. That day ended with panic, police brutality, several dead children, and a catalyst to focus the enormous outrage and protest over Apartheid policies. June 16 is marked every year as Youth Day and we chose this day to visit Soweto. It is a black township, a city really, ... read more

Adventures in Transport #1 --Point Down So far Joburg has been rather challenging to navigate. Everything is really spread out and car-dependent. We had a fun experience with local collective taxis today, though. There is a stand of collective taxis near our hostel, which we thought would take us to our destination. Turns out they did not go there, but one driver said that if we just walk over there (through a parking lot and across three streets to a huge six lane road on a hill) and stand on the side of the road and point down then we will get the right taxi. Hmm. Sounded implausible so we wandered around the corner to the store and asked another couple of guys. Walk to there (through a parking lot and across three streets to a ... read more

Hi Guys Firstly, thanks to everyone who has mailed since our last blog. Sorry we haven't had a chance to reply individually, hopefully we'll get more opportunity when we get to Oz. Quick update on the KPI's!!! Finances = Green (ish) Fitness = Amber (still) Relationship = Green Arguments = Zero We left Cape Town last Thursday. Unfortunately we didn't make it up the mountain as there was just too much cloud. So we now have a reason to return at a later date! And since we have been travelling around we have both decided we want to come back to South Africa. It is a beautiful country, people are so friendly and the scenery is stunning. And they have a very large wine region! We discovered this when we stayed in Franschhoek and went wine ... read more

First, I apologize for the length of time since the last blog. As a result this will be a long blog, with 41 photos. In the last couple of weeks I've flown from Cameroun, stayed in J'burg (Josie), Tshwane (Pretoria), the Kruger National Park, the Drakensburg and other places. I also rented a car for 10 days which managed to break down twice. More of that later. And, yes I've enjoyed myself. Getting off the plane in J'burg (Josie) was a shock after months in West Africa. The roads were tarred. The electric doesn't cut out without warning, and all the rooms in cheap hotels and guest houses have flush toilets and proper showers. In fact, it felt like I had left Africa! The city has all the first world comforts you could desire including flash ... read more