South Africa

Singapore to Johannesburg

Singapore Airlines again, and again the service was very good.

This was a long flight - over 10 hours in a B777. We left Singapore at 2:00am, arriving in Johannesburg at 7:00AM. The flight was full, so there was no room to stretch out. We didn't get a lot of sleep.

Our hotel

The Protea Parktonian is (so we were told) the only 5 star hotel in Johannesburg. Hmmm... Three stars, maybe. The room was large (a suite, in fact) but looking very tired. One power point didn't work, alights were poor, the aircon particularly noisy, and the woodwork was in need of a good polish. Against all that, the room was clean, and the front desk staff (one guy on particular) were friendly and obliging. To be fair, they did offer us a better room, but as we had already unpacked we decided it wasn't worth moving just for one night.

Dinner...

Johannesburg

It's no doubt most unfair to sum up a city in less than one day, but the contrast between Johannesburg and Singapore was striking. Singapore is modern, bustling, well organised, and spotlessly clean. Johannesburg (the little we have seen of it) is dirty, chaotic, and rather shabby. Nearly every house we drove past had high walls topped with razor wire or electric fences.

Soweto

We booked the half day Soweto tour through Adventure Travel Africa. The principal of the company was Jaco (I never got his surname) who proved very friendly and efficient. I don't recall the name of our driver / guide, but he was excellent. A Soweto local, he knew all the history, and gave us a commentary laced with good humour.

Soweto itself is a huge city of over two million people. It is the largest and best known of the black townships, and is the home of Winnie Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and many of the leading lights of the struggle against apartheid. Nelson Mandela lived here too (a few doors away from Tutu) but now lives somewhere else.

Two aspects of this place stood out, and made a deep impact on us - the grinding poverty of most of the people, and the many reminders of the violent struggle to overturn apartheid.

We were taken to a shanty district of 20,000 people, with an 80% unemployment rate. We had seen this type of place on TV, and knew about the large families living in a one room tin shanty, no electricity, no sanitation, 300 people sharing a single tap. But to actually walk through this place, to go into one of the homes and see the utter sense of hopelessness on the faces of the people took some getting used to. On the other hand, the community spirit is strong. Street committees manage local affairs. Sanitation is organised through large numbers of chemical toilets, and families seem to rally round to help those in real trouble.

Soweto has been the scene of great violence in the past, with riots and shootings. The Hector Peterson museum commemorates the death of a 13 year old student shot by police during a protest march. The museum is very well done, but the subject matter is heavy going. It was rather spoiled for us by the large and noisy school groups moving through.

We saw Nelsom Mandela's house (now a museum) but decided not to go in. (The Hector Peterson museum had taken a lot out of us). We also saw where Winnie Mandela and Desmond Tutu still live - their houses surrounded by high walls and electric fences.

Jet lag

By mid-afternoon the jet lag had set in. Rather than go to a couple of other museums as planned, we crashed in front of the TV and watched the cricket.

Tomorrow

In the morning our car will be delivered to the hotel, and we set off for Hazyview, near the Kruger national park. (Note to Anita - for R75 it is much better value to have the car delivered than go all the way to the airport to pick it up.

Saturday: Johannesburg - Hazyview

We had our car (a Renault Megane) delivered to the hotel, and after a couple of wrong turns and false starts, found ourselves on an excellent motorway heading east out of Johannesburg. There were several lengthy delays for roadworks, but otherwise the trip was smooth and largely uneventful.

Smooth, that is, except for one notable off-road excursion. At a place called Belfast, we followed some signs promising beautiful river views and rapids. Great - let's go and take some pictures! 15 bone-shattering kilometres later, the road deteriorated even further to a pair of wheel ruts between the stones. At this stage we decided to go no further, but the Renault decided it didn't want to go back! It just sat on the track spinning its front wheels as we started going slowly backwards down the hill. Merde! To cut a long story short, we got the thing going the right way and after that never left the blacktop.

There have been a large number of fires in South Africa, and a smoky haze obscured the view most of the way. This is a shame, as some of the scenery would have been spectacular.

Arrived at the Rissington Inn at Hazyview about 17:00, and were made very welcome by Chris Harvie and his wonderful staff. The Rissington came recommended to us, and lived up to its reputation - an excellent hotel, run by people who obviously enjoy their work. The restaurant is excellent - Paul had a ostrich stir fry and Sue had a Blesbok stew - both delicious.

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