The Michelangelo Hotel Johannesburg

... Mankind – the area where the oldest human fossils have been found. The tour takes you deep into the cave where the remains were discovered. The exploration and findings were very interesting to learn about, but I have to say the most memorable part of the trip down under was the other people in our group. It was this couple from the UK that were probably in their 70s. I really thought we might have to evac them out. Once they finally made it down into the ...

... an “African massage”... speed bumps. The Black Taxi service is everywhere in Soweto and the VW taxis come in every color except black. One highlight of the day was when we drove to the street where Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu lived. It is the only street in the world that has claim to two Nobel Peace Prize winners. Tonight we got to swim in our freezing hotel pool and ate at McDonalds. I was able to order corn as a substitute to fries in my happy meal! 

... was getting completely out of control. Yeah its cool when you first see it and yeah he's a man cause he can grow a big beard, whatever! At the end of the day he grew the beard for three months before I said anything about shaving it off and he grew it for a further month after I objected to it. There's your compromise! Anyway we found a guy in the hostel who had an electric razor and asked him if he'd shave Alan's head too as he wanted a haircut. Christian shaved Alan's ...

... likely be dropped as most black on white crimes are. It's sad but true. The seminar started once again at 09:00 with a presentation by Jim, followed by a tea break (a very pleasant custom) and then we started again. We had 7 hours of seminars in all. Andre made a presentation, then it was my turn, and then we broke for lunch. It was a very full day, but a very enjoyable as well as useful one. These were the same seminars that we gave ...

... in the African churches-in Malawi, in particular. Morgen Kriedemann is the pastor of Malawi and travels there regularly. It was good to see Winnie Ross who moved here from Zimbabwe after the death of her husband. We had visited with them several times in Zim before 2003. She looked really well. This is our last night in Africa before flying home tomorrow.

... xxxxxxx). Flew to Cape Town on May 8, greeted by Heather's family, and had another beautiful spoilt week with my Aunt and cousins in Fish Hoek. Lots of time spent getting to know everyone again 11 years older, and all the new additions to the family. And Cape Town has shown us her best and worst weather so hopefully no more surprises :). We bought a VW van, so now blend in well to African culture, although ...

Johannesburg wasn't quite as scary as I expected it to be, I was affraid of coming here by myself because I had heard so many stories about how dangerous it is, and yes it is very dangerous in some areas, the crime rate is really high, but most hostels pick you up from the aiport and arrage transportation for you if you need to go anywhere. So that's why i say hostel hostage because i couldn't actually walk anywhere or go anywhere on my own. I got a ...

... to spot more animals. I'm gonna ****ing love this trip! Saturday 3rd February Quad biking for big Game. Today Started early - 7 am or 4am UK time, not that time matters anymore - a welcome luxury! Had breakfast with Ryan and Hen then Ryan and I headed off in his pick up truck (bucky) for bush river lodge. Another Lodge just up the road. This Lodge was huge - 5000 Hectares. We were to go Quad biking for 2 hours amongst the animals and seriously testing the ...

SOUTH AFRICA 2 WEEKS IN (CAPE TOWN TO THE WILD COAST) Had my fill of Cape Town and headed on up the coast with the baz Bus (a transit van which picks up backpackers from lodges and ferries them about the place). I had heard that the Garden Route was beautiful but a little over-hyped and over-developed and that i should head up to the wild coast which is more rugged and beautiful and considerably less developed. Suitably advised i drove through the ...

... Medical patients who don't have HIV/AIDS are being severely compromised because we have to discharge them prematurely - everybody is being compromised - the system just can't cope". "Basically we're running to keep up and falling behind". "If we worked 24 hours we'd still make no impact because it's nothing compared to the need." "One of the nursing sisters came to us in tears the other day, saying she couldn't go on like this. A patient had knocked on her door saying the ...