Garden Court Eastgate Johannesburg

... Nelson Mandela's house (which is now a museum) was emptied of it's furniture and not very picture worthy from the outside. But of course I took a few photos simply because it is where he laid his head if only briefly after his release from prison. Bishop Tutu's house is down the street but it like many homes had a very high wall surrounding it which made viewing it from the street a bit difficult. As he still lives there it was not possible ...

We were understandably a little nervous about driving into Johannesburg, so we left Underberg early in the morning to make sure that 8 hours later it was still light out. Tim, our Zimbabwean friend from Coffee Bay, had offered to let us stay at his house with him and his two roommates. We had heard horror stories about personal security in Jo'burg, so his offer of high gates, barbed wire and guard dogs was very appealing.<br><br>Sarah had sent ...

... for the hostel to pick us up but there was no sign of them when we came through customs. We gave them a ring and after a bit of confusion they found us and we made the short drive to the hostel about 15 minutes away. The driving is pretty crazy in Jo'Burg as we discovered quickly enough when we were doing about 140km/h down a busy dual carriage way on the way to the hostel. There are other reasons too which I'll get into later.<br>When we got to the hostel we got our room ...

... that it is a credit to human kind, and to some individuals in particular that they can recover at all from something as tragic and disgusting as the apartheid. I'm not a Sociologist, nor am I pretending to be, but I think it is surely naive to think that after years of segregation and vitriol a nation can just suddenly get along and everything be forgotton. J'berg is trying to mend from it's recent past, and relationships and new communities are forging and coming ...

... and wandered around again. The boss arrived after this had taken them ten minutes and the plane had parked, screaming his lungs off. Once inside, that circus of a ground staff took about 45 minutes to get my bag to me, but not before I had the pleasure of moving a new airport to the top of my World's Worst Arrival Halls list. Heathrow terminal 1 has held the coveted title, and overall Worlds Worst Airport, continuously for about ...

... glass and 2 kids were walking up behind us and they tried to grab Meegans bag and she's yelling 'F*** off !1! and I'm saying "go away get away from me" and they kept coming toward us and saying something like "just let me explain.." and we are like no no get away and im trying to get my bag open and i stuff my money and my memory card into my bra and im walking in another direction and megan has her flip flops in her hand and hits one of them over the head with it , they ...

... Joburg for another couple of days and went to Soweto Township too. There are various pictures up on ringo, I'll try and write what most of them are of if I have time. It was all very interesting and a bit of an insight into how people around there live.<br><br><br><br> On Monday I went on my safari and had a really good four days. There was a nice group of people and the place where we camped ...

... get things and what not to do. Basically, we spent the next day or 2 lazing on the beach during the day, and practicing our sport of excellence - Hacky-sack - at which we got steadily worse. I think it had something to do with the amount of alcohol consumed... On, I think, our 3rd night there, we met up with 2 girls who were staying at Paje aswell, and became mates with them. Now i must say, they were pretty cool, and put up with 10 savages pretty well. Mind you ...

... and fought them all off (I know, be proud!)! All the houses have barbed wire or electric fences around them with instant access to armed security should anything happen... and this is apparently in the rich area and we are to see the poorer parts on the way to our projects tomorrow. I guess I had been pre-warned of this so knew what to expect but it's definitely an eye opener to actually see it. There is so much land and it's ...

... mothers. This place had the most amazing tents for accommodations as well. Large safari tents with full beds, tables and chairs inside. Awesome! The park also came with a pair of "tame" giraffes that walk around freely and also manage to visit the kitchen/communal eating area when food was being made. :)